Community Corner

Woodbury Days Origins

Looking back at the beginnings of the annual festival.

When Patch did a last week, we were a little hazy about the annual festival’s origins.

So we put the word out to city staff and local historians, and received a few interesting responses, including some old newsletters from Emergency Services Commander Mike Richardson.

The July 10, 1967, edition of The Woodbury Spark—a publication of the Woodbury Volunteer Fire Department—reported that the Women’s Auxiliary would soon meet to wrap up its plans for the inaugural .

Find out what's happening in Woodburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Another old Woodbury newsletter—the Aug. 1, 1967, edition of Woodbury News Chips, a Woodbury Jaycees publication—said the first annual Woodbury Days was scheduled for Aug. 4-6 of that year.

News Chips reported that the festivities would be held at Century Hardware, Angie’s Pizza, Woodbury Community Club and Woodbury Fire Department. There was a teenage dance that Friday night. Tickets cost 50 cents.

Find out what's happening in Woodburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Other events for that first Woodbury Days listed in the newsletter include an open house at the fire hall, “White Elephant” auction, children’s play by the Caravan Players of , fire department rescue demonstration, street dance, softball games, kiddie parade and rides.

Kathryn Ho, a member of the Woodbury Heritage Society, provided Patch with an undated article from the Washington County Bulletin. The story details many of the events and organizers, but doesn’t give any locations for where Woodbury Days was held beyond 1967. (It seems as though the story was written in 1971. The article is part of a scrapbook put together by the Woodbury Women's Club.)

Another newspaper article says the 1971 events were held at Park Hills Park.

At some point, the festival moved to and Park, according to Bob Klatt, the city’s Parks and Recreation director. It was around the time that opened, 1976, that the events were moved to .

Many of the things listed in the Bulletin article are still happening at Woodbury Days, including the parade, events for kids and food booths. There were, however, some activities that have since gone by the wayside—a 1968 fashion show of clothes from 50 years before and a “wig demonstration.”

A couple other notes from the Bulletin story: in 1969 it was reduced to “Woodbury’s Day” and in 1970 the date was changed to Sept. 19, after the start of the school year because there were so many schedule conflicts during summer.

Gene Johnson, a former Woodbury Days planner who is still involved with the festival, said the Woodbury Interclub Council used to run the event. The group was comprised of members from about nine area groups, including the Lions Club, Woodbury Athletic Association, fire department, Jaycees and others.

Johnson, a former Woodbury fire chief, was president of the council in 1984 and recalled that there was a time during the 1980s that it was a one-day event.

While Johnson said he has an aerial photo of Ojibway Park from 1984 in which the park was "packed" with people, there was a time around 1997 that Woodbury Days nearly died for lack of volunteers. They were down to 4-5 people, said Johnson, who was the head planner at that time.

"I left and they had all kinds of people come forward," he said with a laugh.

He said have done a great job since they've taken over.

"They're still doing a tremendous job," Johnson said.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here