Winter Festival

The Winter Festival was the primary winter event in Spearfish Lake, comparable to the summertime "Lumberman's Festival", the "Chili Festival" (which only lasted two years) and the Lakefront Festival.

Ryan Clark gets Mike McMahon and Mark Gravengood to do an exhibition dog sled race out to Warsaw and back (it's promoted as the Little Iditarod dog sled race and later on as the Warsaw Run).^AF31 During the race first Mike and then Mark come down with influenza, so it's completed by Josh & Tiffany, who are obviously hooked on dog racing (see the Busted Axle Road and Runner's Moon).

Later, Mike floats the possibility of having the state dog sled championships as part of the Winter Festival.^BAR7127

The 14th Warsaw Run in 2001 has over 50 entries.^SQ24 The race is started at midnight on the Friday so that the finish is on the Saturday afternoon in front of the Winter Festival peak crowds, although there is still the mandatory four hour stopover at the Warsaw fire station to feed, water and rest the dogs (and the musher).