Folklore project collects fiddle contest stories to document, preserve history

By: 
Steve Lyon

A graduate student is in Weiser this week collecting stories about the early days of the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest from those who lived them in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
 This is the second year a student at Utah State University, which has a renown folklore archive, has visited Weiser to conduct interviews during fiddle week.
 The oral history project started last year under the direction of Gary Eller, an Idaho musician, Idaho Humanities Council speaker, author, songwriter, nuclear chemist, West Virginia native, and former board member of the National Oldtime Fiddlers Inc.
 Eller started collecting the oral histories on his own but has since been able to secure assistance from a graduate student in the effort.
 A total of 15 people were interviewed during the first year. More than a dozen people are scheduled to be interviewed this week by student Emma George, who is pursuing a master’s degree in American Studies with an emphasis in folklore.
 To provide a well-rounded historical context, the oral histories and stories of not only fiddlers but also people in the community who grew up around the contest and remember its early days have been included in the project.  
 The goal is to get a variety of people to share their stories, including longtime Weiser residents and fiddle week visitors.
 “From a folklore perspective, I think this is an interesting place,” he said of Weiser.
 As part of the oral history project, there were panel discussions this week with Weiser fiddle contest participants and Weiser residents. The sessions will be taped and later transcribed to be included in the archive.
 On Monday, three people offered their memories of the fiddle contest during a roundtable discussion, including one participant with an amazing attendance streak. Duane Boyer, of Haines, Ore., said he hasn’t missed a fiddle contest in Weiser since his first one in 1965.
 There also was the reflections from local resident Alex Chavarria, who was born and raised in Weiser. The third panelist in the discussion was Seattle resident Vivian Williams, who first visited in 1965 as well. She has missed only two or three years.
 A dozen people are scheduled to be interviewed this week at the Weiser Senior and Community Center about their fiddle contest memories. The interviews, along with photos, will be cataloged and preserved in digital format in the folklore archives at USU.
 The plan is to put all of the oral histories online.The university hopes to get the fiddle contest material  archived and available next year. When completed, it will be possible to search the archive from a computer anywhere, Eller said.
 The immediate objective is to collect oral histories on the fiddle contest, an institution in Weiser since 1953, before the sources are gone forever.
 “When they die the stories die with them and there is value in preserving them,” Eller said. “Some of the old-timers are really great, colorful. They get to relive some of their youth while they are telling their stories.”
 He also has been collecting Idaho folksongs for a decade with the intent of preserving them for posterity and the history they represent. The Idaho Humanities Council has helped fund the work.
 Eller has collaborated with other musicians and the Humanities Council to release CDs and booklets of early Idaho music.

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18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
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