McCleary Bear Festival

Bear Festival Stew

Community bear stew vegetable preparation is Friday,at the park kitchen area.  All are welcome to join, just bring a cutting board and peeler!
The McCleary Bear Festival was dreamed up in 1959 by Norman Porter, then editor of the hometown newspaper. It wasn’t that he disliked bears, but he and other residents of this area knew that bears, prior to hibernation when they need extra calories or after hibernation when their preferred food sources are still unavailable, crave the soft layer of sapwood that’s underneath the bark. In order to satisfy their craving, they would often strip a tree of all its bark. They may also damage trees when rubbing vigorously against them to leave their scent. Some bears can cause extensive damage to trees which will result in the tree getting ill and eventually dying.
It started with a remark by a friend of Porter’s, who claimed that Skamania bears, if properly cooked, were the world’s most delicious. The two agreed to meet head-on in a bear-tasting contest in McCleary. Now the civic-minded McClearians became interested, began forming committees and decided to stage something more than just a bear-eating contest. Working with Porter, they created the Second Growth and Bear Festival.