Mohave Daily News: Top Story

The Daily News

OATMAN - Teams of people in bathrobes and shower caps, red hats and superhero costumes raced down the main street of a small historic mining town on Saturday during the 17th Annual Great Oatman Bed Race.

With a first-place prize of $100, nine teams competed for fastest time by wheeling a team member in a rolling bed across a short track, making the bed and racing back toward the finish line.

A team of hospital employees took first place in 40 seconds, while an off-road tour company came in last in 103 seconds.

Team captain Jeff St. John of the Extreme Mini Tours team said the scars on his leg are from last year's race - when he rolled off the bed after a sharp turn and had to get stitches. And although it appeared the team had no better luck this year when they finished last, team members joked they weren't really defeated. They were stepping aside - out of modesty - to give others a chance to excel.

The winning team - made up of employees from Valley View Medical Center - said they owed their success to “hours of dedication at the gym,” said captain Jim Wells.

Wells said he was also initially worried about competition from the Red Hat Society, but joked that a “steroid scandal” took them out of the running.

The Mad Hatters of Mohave, a local chapter of the Red Hats, took the prize for showmanship when they walked through the track, showing off their colorful clothes and waving to the audience.

“There's so many people here not from Arizona and we enjoy interacting with the tourists,” said Queen Mum Lydia. “It's public relations for Oatman because we love Oatman.”

The ladies also held a bake sale, offering homemade breads and cookies, and donated the proceeds to the Chamber of Commerce for building public restrooms.

A team of friends and family dressed as superheroes didn't place in the top three, but said that having fun is more important. The group - which included Superman and Captain America - came from Phoenix to compete in the race.

“Maybe next year we'll be more competitive,” said Doug Miles, dressed as Spiderman. “If I can find someway to see.”

Another team was more determined to win, and studied other racers' mistakes while watching from the sidelines. The Topock Finally Friday Club - a social club whose slogan is “where beer and fun collide” - strategically decided they'd each take one mattress corner when making the bed.

Team member Scott Browne said the team was fueled by “some kind of hops product,” and finished in fourth place in 47 seconds.

How will they train for next year's race?

“We're going to drink heavily and talk about it,” Browne said.

BED RACE BEGINNINGS

The Great Oatman Bed Race began as more of an obstacle course that ran the length of Main Street, said Jackie Rowland, author of Oatman: History, Recipes and Ghost Stories. Competitors of yore built their own beds and maneuvered them past barrels, tires and a fishing net that hung between two polls.

Because the first beds were homemade, they were harder to steer. And because Main Street was often lined with tourists, onlookers, cars and burros, races could sometimes get dangerous.

“It was kind of wild,” Rowland said. “You can't control it. That's why they have the hay on the side of the road.”

Several years after the first bed race, things became “more official,” and organizers used one uniform bed for all the competitors and shortened the course, Rowland said.

The bed race turned into an all-day family event with the addition of the Chamber Pot Parade, Rowland said, which originally gave racers a chance to show off their costumes.

Queen Mum Lydia said the Chamber Pot Parade recalls earlier history when Oatman was a mining town. Back then, she claimed, people would walk down Main Street banging on chamber pots to rouse miners out of bed for another day of work.

But whatever the origins, the bed races continue to pull in tourists from Oregon to Wisconsin with unique events that the town is known for.

This year the race included a toilet seat toss - another event to raise money for public restrooms - and a burro braying contest, where competitors imitate the animal that often wanders the town's streets.

In the summer, when temperatures soar above 120 degrees, Oatman also hosts an event where participants use nothing but the sun's rays to fry eggs on the town's sidewalk.