The village of Plymouth will celebrate its 38th annual Silver King Festival alongside the Fireman’s Chicken Barbecue this week, featuring the well-known Silver King tractors, a parade, mud volleyball, and other family activities.
Thursday will feature the carnival and food vendors in the downtown area, as well as the Kiddie Pedal Tractor Pull for ages 3 through 10. Registration for the tractor pull will be held at 6 p.m. at the city building, and the event will begin at 7 p.m.
Friday’s events will feature children’s activities, the Fireman’s Chicken Barbecue, live music, as well as the famous mud volleyball tournament. The double elimination tournament draws about 80 teams per year from all over the state. The tournament will last two days and is played into the early hours of the morning on Friday and Saturday.
A beer garden will be open Friday and Saturday at noon and live entertainment will begin at 8 p.m. each night. Volleyball and beer garden are both located directly behind the firehouse on Portner Street.
A 5K walk/run will be held on Saturday morning, giving runners a beautiful morning view of rural Plymouth. Bingo will be held in the upper level of the firehouse on Friday and Saturday nights and will pause for the parade at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
At the parade, villagers and guests will see the famous Silver Kings in action as they headline the lineup.
Built in Plymouth by the Fate-Root-Heath Company in the early 1900s, the tractors hold tremendous history for the town. Originally known as the Plymouth tractor, the name was changed to Silver King due to copyright issues.
“These tractors are all over Indiana, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, and the majority are still around Ohio,” Silver Kings of Yesteryear member Larry Laser said. “In the ’50s, the company moved to West Virginia to continue production.”
“It’s funny though,” he continued, “you can listen in on some of the conversations these guys are having and they will argue over the paint and some of the parts that were used because they were the ones who built these machines. Some tractors could be the same model but have different parts because they would use whatever they had to get it out the door.”
Last year saw 25 tractors in the Saturday parade.
Next year, Plymouth’s bicentennial, is expected to be a big turnout, noted Laser.
“Our bicentennial is going to be fun. We are going to try to get more tractors here as well as other things that were built in Plymouth, like blade sharpeners, locomotives, and anything else the Fate-Root-Heath Company manufactured,” he added.
A quilt show at the Plymouth Museum and art show at the Plymouth Branch Library will run throughout the event. The complete schedule may be found at the website.
