For a small town, Orr does a great job with their 4th of July Celebration, which is held on July 3rd. Being close to so many other lakes(Crane Lake, Lake Vermillion, Rainy Lake, and Kabetogama Lake) and not wanting to compete, it was decided many years ago to have Orr’s Celebration the day before the actual holiday. Our small town boasts many events and activities for all to enjoy, and join in the celebration of the independence of our great country.
Since we have children, I decided to leave Adam to tend to the resort. And after finishing my morning resort duties we headed into Orr. The three kids and I started our day well after the morning 5k with the noon Parade, which consisted of the Flag Bearer followed by a team of bagpipe players. After that about 20 kids and parents or groups of kids came down the street in their hand decorated, festive wagons and bicycles. Quite a turnout!
After the parade, we tasted some of the food attractions including T. Patten Cafe Donuts and Cotton Candy from the Orr Lions Club Booth, while wandering the booths both inside the VFW and along the closed road that usually is open giving access to the public landing. (People were asked to use the Saunders Bay public access off Nett Lake Rd. for the day if they needed to access Pelican Lake.)
We enjoyed perusing the Joker and Antique tractor show that fills the public landing area. If you don’t know what a joker is, it is a tractor made out of an old car or vehicle. You can even vote for your favorite on the ballot for the crowd picked winner.
There were miniature pony rides, a petting farm area, a bounce house, and many more activities. My kids decided to participate in the dress your Teddy Bear Contest. They each got a dollar coin for their participation. We didn’t win this year, but now we know for next year we will have to get a few more sparkly red white and blue things to dress up the bears with! I think the probable favorite activity was the sawdust dig. There are 3 piles of sawdust and there are 100 dollar coins put into each pile for each age group. It only takes about 5 minutes for 90% of the coins to be found, but they have a good time trying to find the treasure and keep at it digging through the sawdust until every inch has been searched at least 15 times over.
At night the blankets go out around the park and public landing as well as boats start filling in the Orr Bay for the Fireworks Show. They have quite a show for such a small town. They light the Fireworks off from a Barge out on the lake over Orr Bay. We enjoyed the show out on one of our new Crestliner Fish Hawks and then got a nice fast boat ride home. When we got home we all had an easy time falling asleep after a fun-filled day!