Wallace ready for Gyro Days

WALLACE — There’s just something different about Wallace when Gyro week comes around.

The Wallace Flower Project makes sure the flowers are blooming, businesses get their storefronts decorated and the entire city seems to do everything in its power to make every person that comes to the Gyro Days festival feel welcome.

This year marks the 81st Lead Creek Derby — the hallmark attraction of a festival that was founded in 1942 — with the only lost event coming in 2020 during the pandemic.

Club members Chase Sanborn and Greg Bosen will be live in Downtown Wallace on Wednesday afternoon generating excitement for the official commencement of the festival Thursday. During the live event, viewers will get a chance to preview some of the attractions of the days ahead, including food, beverages, a few jokes and games, and even be a few Lead Creek Derby tickets will be available.

Once Thursday hits, Downtown Wallace goes into full-tilt party mode.

A massive carnival takes over the streets, vendors set up shop on the sidewalks and the smell of delicious food fills the streets.

While Thursday and Friday are exclusively Wallace-centric, Saturday is where the event moves upstream for a few hours (you never really know how long) for the Lead Creek Derby.

To understand it, you almost have to experience it for yourself, but whenever you bring up the derby to a person from Wallace, the excitement in their voice is hard to miss.

“My favorite festival is Lead Creek Derby,” Wallace resident Courtney Frieh said. “I’ve lived all over the place and traveled the world and there is just nothing quite like it. Going strong after 80 years, the whole town of Wallace gathers in the town 6 miles uphill, drops a massive beach ball in the river, then follows and races the ball down the river on bikes, skateboards and parade floats with plenty of adult beverages on hand. Whoever guesses the time it takes for the ball to get downriver to Wallace, wins. It’s a fun time for both adults and families and the ever-changing mountain weather always makes for an unpredictable and adventurous time.”

When Frieh says, “Whoever guesses the time it takes for the ball to get downriver to Wallace, wins,” it doesn’t paint an entirely accurate picture.

Businesses are still selling tickets that are each assigned a hypothetical computer-generated time that it will take for the ball to reach Wallace. The buyer of the ticket with the assigned time that is closest to the actual time wins the first-place prize.

The time it takes for the ball to get from Mullan to the finish line of Wallace’s Sixth Street Bridge can be anywhere from just a couple of hours, up to five hours and 36 minutes (the longest time in event history was 2015, when the final time was 5:36.54).

Each year, a special person is chosen to drop the ball from Mullan’s Last Chance Bridge. This year they got themselves a local legend.

“The honor of dropping the ball in the creek this year is being awarded to Mike Alldredge, longtime educator and booster in Wallace, as well as holding positions on the City Council and mayor,” Gyro Club member Mike Dexter said. “We are proud to boast of him being a longtime member of the Gyro Club.”

Time has a funny way of changing things. During the original Lead Creek Derby, the funds raised from ticket sales and other parts of the event were used to buy cigarettes for the troops fighting in World War II. Now, the money raised from Gyro Days is used to fund college scholarships, youth activities and civic endeavors.

Lead Creek Derby tickets are still available for purchase at local businesses and restaurants in Wallace.

The first prize in the derby is 50 one-ounce silver rounds. After that, there are 13 other cash prizes, so locals are encouraged to purchase as many tickets as they can.

Gyro Days begins Wednesday and the 81st annual Lead Creek Derby begins Saturday at noon in Mullan.