Yerington Mondays: Yerington Monday: The Great Yerington Sack Race Part I

Friday, January 8, 2016

Yerington Monday: The Great Yerington Sack Race Part I

Yerington Monday: The Great Yerington Sack Race Part I

Yerington intermittently hosts what must be the most grueling single competition staged anywhere in the west. It doesn't appear in the list of annual events because it isn't held every year -- contestants can't be found that often. It's the World Championship Sack Race, and it dates back more than 80 years when a young farm hand named Harry Warren made local history.

Harry was working as a ranch hand near Wabuska. He and some other men were loading a wagon with 120-lb. grain sacks, and in the process they got to talking about how far a man could carry one of the sacks without having to put it down and rest. Harry made the outrageous claim that he could carry one all the way to Yerington, about ten miles away.

When his fellow workers challenged his wild statement, Harry said, "Oh, I can do it all right. But you'll have to make it worth my while."

So some of the biggest and strongest men in the valley experimented with carrying the heavy sacks, and none of them made it more than a quarter mile. Harry's challenge spread around the valleys, and a fund of $1,500 was accumulated to call Harry's bluff.

On the day of the great event Harry heaved the sack up onto his shoulders and started off rapidly toward Yerington at a rapid walk. To the utter astonishment of every witness, Harry made the ten miles to Yerington in about two hours, stopping to rest only once, and never slowing his relentless pace. One of the amazed backers of the bet was a local beekeeper. "The bees never stung me," he said ruefully, "but Harry Warren sure did.”