Jim Butler Days returns to Tonopah with full weekend

As is the case most every year, Jim Butler Days organizers this week have been scratching their heads and casting their eyes upward, wondering what Mother Nature has in store for the 2015 celebration.

Monday dawned with clouds and rain. But Butler aficionados saw a glimpse of hope in scattered clouds and partly sunny conditions later in the day with forecasters unsure of a mixed bag of predictions for week’s end.

Weather Underground saw mostly cloudy conditions for Friday when the four-day celebration officially kicks off. Temperatures from 41-to-61 degrees were expected.

Clearing and partly cloudy is expected for Saturday and Butler Days big events like the parade and state mining championships. Sunday and Monday should be mostly sunny with the week’s highest temperatures nudging into the low 70s on Memorial Day.

The 45th annual Jim Butler Days program listed several preliminary activities early in the week.

A talent show was held Monday at the convention center, the Little Miss and Junior Queen pageants were Tuesday and the coronation of senior king and queen Joe and Nancy Maslach took place Wednesday night at the Mizpah Hotel.

A scavenger hunt started Monday and runs through Sunday with registration at Safe TEE connection, 140 S. Main St.

A Butler Days breather occured Thursday with emphasis focusing on the Tonopah High School graduation ceremonies.

On Friday through Sunday, an exhibit entitled “Always Lost: A Meditation on War” will be on display at the convention center, author Jackie Boor will sign her biography of a former Nye County sheriff killed in the line of duty in 1906, “LOGAN: The Honorable Life and Scandalous Death of a Western Lawman,” Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Central Nevada Museum, and Saturday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Tonopah Mining Park.

Vendors will be available along Main Street.

Lady and the Tramps will provide lively music for the street dance Friday beginning at 7 p.m. and the bartenders and waitress races will be staged beginning at 8 p.m., both at the Main Street parking lot near Main and Brougher.

Boy Scouts will meet your hunger needs with a pancake breakfast at the Elks Lodge from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Saturday, and 8 to 11 a.m. on Sunday.

Parade signups begin at 9 a.m. at the VFW Post and the march will head north on Main Street at 10 a.m. Winners will be announced a half hour after the parade at the Mizpah.

Longtime Tonopah champion and Butler Days organizer Robert “Bob” Perchetti will be honored as the Grand Marshal of the parade which, like all Butler Days activities, take place under the banner of “Tonopah – Darkest Skies and Brightest Stars.”

Extended Saturday events include “Pinwheels for Prevention” hosted by Nevada Outreach Training Organization/No to Abuse from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the gazebo; a craft bazaar from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the convention center; wine tasting at the Mizpah Hotel from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; and gold panning from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Tonopah Mining Park.

The annual Nevada State Mining Championships will follow the parade beginning at noon at the mining park. Single and double jack drilling as well as mucking competition will test professionals and amateurs.

Signups begin at 11 a.m. for a “cancer walk” to be staged at 1 p.m. Meet at the Mizpah.

A watermelon eating contest is set for 1 p.m. at the gazebo.

You can test your luck at bingo games sponsored by the Tonopah Rotary Club from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the convention center.

Stock car races at the Tonopah Speedway on Highway 6 east of Tonopah will have gates open at 6 p.m. and racing at 7 p.m. by the Central Nevada Racing Association.

Lady and the Tramps will be back at it beginning at 7 p.m. at the Mizpah.

Junior mining events will be contested on Sunday beginning at 10 a.m. at the mining park.

Arm-wrestling competition, always popular and growing under national sponsorship, and stein-holding competition will be Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the convention center. Butler Days raffle winners will be announced during the competition for a wealth of prizes including 20 one ounce “Silver Town Prospector” silver bars.

Comedian Rich Aronovitch will perform at 7 p.m. at the convention center to conclude festivities on Sunday hosted by the Tonopah Rotary Club. An admission fee will be charged.

Memorial Day services will be at 10 a.m. in Tonopah and noon in Goldfield at the communities’ cemeteries.

VFW Post 1103 will hold a luncheon and raffle beginning at 1 p.m. at its Main Street post home.