How a family competition catching gophers formed into 150 years of community celebrations (2024)

VIOLA TOWNSHIP, Minn. — There’s one trap the community hopes people get stuck in: the Viola Gopher Count is about family.

The community celebration centers on family, including baseball and a competition between local boys to catch the most gophers, picnics at the town hall, royalty crownings in the park, dances in the street and a beard judging contest. People greet their neighbors in the parade and pause under the trees or around the tables to chat with friends and family members. Viola Gopher Count Association board president Mindy Shea said the “joy of keeping the tradition alive” is for families today and generations to come.

“It’s a small town, very small, but we have a lot of large families that are from the area and so one of the neat things about Viola Gopher Count, yes, we draw a large crowd for the parade and there’s tons of people but there’s just a real sense of community with people coming back and attending the event,” Shea said.

On Thursday, June 20, hundreds of people lined the road for the parade, which was once known for turning through the town twice. This year marked 150 years of heritage and families rooted in Viola. Families even plan reunions around the two-day celebration.

The activities set in the middle of town tie to the history of Gopher Count, whether the gopher bounty, doll buggy parade, nail driving contest, foot races, talent show or pie-eating contest. People catch gophers year-round and then turn in the feet for a bounty paid by the township.

Rural Stewartville resident Mark Goldberg said there are many good aspects attached to community celebrations. Goldberg and his grandson, Winston, decided “everything” is the best part of Gopher Count.

Goldberg said a special aspect is the people coming together. People searched through newspapers and cleaned out their scrapbooks to highlight the history in a town hall museum. Anniversary shirts commemorate years past, with phrases such as “126 years and still digging” and the “Viola wise guys.”

At his table, Gary Heyn focused on the Vine and Woolley families, including Wandell Vine who hosted the first Gopher Count on his property with his son Elbert participating in the competition. Wandell Vine was Heyn’s great-great-great grandfather.

The celebration "synonymous” with Viola started after two teams of boys from the Viola School and United Brethren Church competed in baseball and gopher tail counts in 1874. A picnic, funded by the losing team, started the activities simply. The men joined in 1875 competing again in two teams for the most gopher tails as the celebration grew from groups to hundreds and then thousands.

“It is evident that the fathers of those boys of 1874 lent a hand in helping to make the event a success, little knowing that seventy-five years hence we would be paying homage to them and the ideals they inculcated in the minds of those boys — an attribute of comradeship, which has been handed down through the ages, and which permeates the minds of all, even those who have temporarily become a part of Viola,” according to the “History of the Gopher Count” book. “We see them join, year after year, shoulder to shoulder, with permanent residents, as enthusiastic as those whose ancestors originated a day, such as does not exist elsewhere in the whole U.S.A.”

Joe Ahlquist / Post Bulletin

Six of the boys included the Mulhollands, and 150 years later six brothers and a sister still enjoy the festivities with their extended family, as Laurie Mulholland Meyer said. On the Mulhollands’ 2024 parade float their poster said, “The Mulhollands will gopher for another 150 years, you can count on it!”

“We are all proud of this little birthplace of ours, believe me, and proud of the fact that the annual Gopher Count has grown to be such a significant event in the life of this community,” Elbert H. Vine shared with the Daily Post and Record in 1924.

A host of state leaders have attended the celebration, including Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale, the Los Angeles Times noted in 1990.

“As Governor, it makes me proud to witness Minnesotans preserve the traditions that begin in our communities and foster the growth of those festivities as they have evolved over the last 150 years,” Gov. Tim Walz said in a statement shared with the Gopher Count Association.

Today, the gopher bounty is mostly just a reason to have the celebration and gather together, though it’s “fun to see who’s had a successful year of trapping,” Shea said. Even the 1909 recounting of the celebration notes “the gopher end of the affair is the least of importance in the day’s pleasures.”

“We always went to the Gopher Count. My mother ... taught us how to catch gophers, actually. And I still have a scar on my finger from when a gopher bit me,” Heyn said. His father was also a farmer who shared what trouble they could have with gophers on their land.

The Gopher Count history books note Lyle Splittstoesser as a perennial area veteran trapper.

“His efforts have helped to keep the rodents from further damaging crops,” the book said. Area towns also collect gopher tails.

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With a “long connection to Gopher Count,” Heyn is grateful to share about the families involved in the first Gopher Count and to hear people’s memories and oral histories. Like the 100th celebration when hail broke the town hall windows and Jerome Shea and Pat Delaney cleaned up the glass to continue the activities. The Gopher Count claims to be one of the longest-continuous celebrations in the United States.

“I think it’s the family connections, that was very important to my mother, (including in her last years) taking her lawn chair and parking herself under a tree and having people come to her, which I kind of remember as a kid that there was elderly people that everyone went over and greeted,” Heyn said.

His mom, the last descendant of the Vine family to live in Viola, moved in 1994.

“I think that family connection just stays strong. It’s a different kind of celebration than what you’ll find in other small towns because it is really almost a family reunion.”

As one of many families gatherings, the Smiths “came back to be here for Gopher Count,” Allen Smith said. He noted hosting clydesdales and walking in the parade with his cousin and a raccoon on his shoulder as some of his favorite memories in his 61 Gopher Count experiences. Shea said the family reunions or friend gatherings might not regularly happen without the Gopher Count.

She’s watched her children grow through the activities: performing their first song in the talent show and turning in more gopher tails. And after 15 years on the board, she’s glad to cheer on her nieces and nephews in the kiddie and doll buggy parades.

With her bonnet and dress on display in the museum, Meyer said the doll buggy parade is a proud family moment with “generations all in the same little dress and bonnet.” She first wore the outfit in 1949 with nieces, daughters and grandchildren continuing the tradition.

For many years, the nail driving contest stood as Meyer’s favorite activity. She won her golden hammer and will now cheer for her daughter.

“Now I’m retiring this is my official trophy,” Meyer said. “At some point in your life, you have to say, ‘I did. I’m proud of it but it’s time to hang it up and let the next generation take over.’”

In the town of 548 people, the Gopher Rag song still rings true: “Every June all the folks come ‘round, it’s Gopher Count time here, in Viola town.”

“May you still be observing this annual celebration of Viola Gopher Count,” shared Clarence and Rose Kuhlmann, who were crowned King and Queen in 1976, in a time capsule message. “May the Royalty of 2076, in this your Tricentennial, be as proud and happy as we are to wear the crown and represent the dear hearts and gentle people of this Village nestled out of sight in this peaceful valley.”

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Joe Ahlquist / Post Bulletin

Joe Ahlquist / Post Bulletin

Contributed

Contributed

Joe Ahlquist / Post Bulletin