The first of the Old Miners’ Days activities in this, the celebration’s 60th year, took place this weekend. Saturday’s Chili Cook-Off in the Village drew visitors and chili cooks from off the mountain, including Gene Bellar of Bakersfield who took the top cash prize of $500 for his first place batch of red chili; Jim LaTendresse and Mart Leitner took second and third places in the red category. Top green chili was cooked up by Steve Crawford (in first), Allene Macklin and Paul LaRoche. Steve Crawford also took first in the salsa category, making him eligible to compete in the Red, Green & Salsa at the International Chili Society’s world competition in West Virginia in October, according to Old Miners’ Mark “Chili” Gaines. Michelle McCoy of Michelle’s Café and Deli also took a number of top prizes, including the Perpetual Merchants’ Trophy (won in years past by the Collins’s Western Devil Barn Burners Chili), and Best First-Time Cook and Best Local Cook. Last year’s Best Local winners, the team of Sam’s Pirate Chili created by Van Sorrel of Sugarloaf, took home another win in the Best Booth category; second place booth honors went to both Bruce Pion’s Killer Chili and Kathy Hayes on behalf of First Mountain Bank. John Gorzik of B’s Backyard BarBQ beat out Greg Watkins of San Diego for this year’s People’s Choice honor; Watkins’s Watty’s Famous Ass Explosion Chili had won last year’s first place prize for red chili. The Old Miners’ Association also hosted the annual Miss Clementine contest this weekend, though the Sunday event did not draw the contestants as the Chili Cook-Off did. This year’s pageant was moved from the lakeside B’s Backyard BarBQ location to the Visitors Center parking lot in what was to be an eight-hour program. However, as Old Miners’ President Tony Sundvall tells KBHR, “There were no contestants for the Miss Clementine contest this year, so by default Keli Homan will be Miss Clementine again this year. She was there in costume to hand out the awards, but since there were no contestants, she gets to keep the sash.” Homan, now 18, was delighted to have been named Miss Clementine in 2008, telling KBHR, “I’ve been wanting to do this since I was 8!”
