The 10th annual Hillbilly Days in Bennett Springs State Park offered entertainment for all ages.
“Arts and crafts booths offered everything from pheasant skins to gingham dolls,” News-Leader reporter Louise Whall noted in a story about the 1983 festival. Other events included a Little Mr. and Miss Dogpatch contest, a Fiddlin’ Contest, and a Lil’ Abner and Daisy Mae Contest on Friday. The next day featured primitive weapons shooting, log splitting events, fire building with flint steel, and hawk-knife throwing.
Canoe teams participated in 200-yard sprints and an eight-mile race down the Niangua River. Lowell and Leo Morgan, teammates and twin brothers, won the eight-mile race three years in a row from 1979-1982. They found the 200-yard sprint harder than the race…