Cassville’s fifth edition of TroutFest has concluded.

After all of the dust has settled, or mud, in the case of Bill Hailey Arena, home of the Rotary/FFA Booster Club Rodeo, TroutFest was another resounding success for our incredible community.

TroutFest was created in 2020 by the Cassville City Council and Rachael Freeman for the express and simple purpose of celebrating our heritage as home of Roaring River State Park while bringing people to our wonderful town for a weekend of fun for all ages.

As in past years, Rachael served as the overall coordinator again for TroutFest. She, along with City Administrator Richard Asbill, did an amazing job organizing the promotion of all of the activities while making sure the city facilities were in first class condition to handle the various events. Without a big committee, they seamlessly put the city’s events together without a hitch.

In addition to the city’s planned concert and free swimming day this was a collective effort for our community. The Cassville Rotary Club/ FFA Booster Club put on a rodeo that had some of the best crowds in recent memory.

In spite of the rainy conditions, Roaring River State Park hosted large crowds during their free fishing weekend. The only event that fell victim to the rainy weather was the YMCA Pickleball Tournament.

The TroutFest weekend brought out many aspects and attributes of what I love about our community and make this a special place to live, work, and vacation. We saw various community leaders pulling together when faced with all types of challenges.

For example, Friday morning brought a monsoon rain storm, which saw the City of Seven Valleys welcome over 2 inches of rain in less than 30 minutes. Needless to say, the Bill Hailey Rodeo Arena was a disaster after the storm. The rodeo contractor wanted to head out of Cassville as soon as possible and cancel the rodeo. That’s when the contractor saw the Cassville spirit and resiliency in action.

The Cassville Rotary and FFA Boosters wouldn’t take no for an answer. For the next six hours they worked and put the Bill Hailey Arena in its best condition in recent memory.

Seeing the looks on the faces of the rodeo queens and princesses, along with the kids and families at the event, made all of the work worthwhile. Months later, when students at CHS are receiving scholarships, which were funded by these events, it will definitely give even greater meaning to the work that took place to host the thousands of people who attended the events.

The city’s public works department had similar challenges after the Friday morning monsoon. They worked diligently to get the Aquatic Park cleaned up and hosted a packed house the following day for the traditional free swimming day as a part of TroutFest. And, Rachael spent Sunday navigating flight delays for the Cochren & Co band, which headlined the concert that night.

Those are just a few of the many examples of the Cassville spirit that made TroutFest a success and so much fun for families from Cassville and surrounding areas. And, speaking of surrounding areas, one of the original goals of TroutFest was to attract people to Cassville.

At the concert on Sunday night, I had the opportunity to meet people for Monett, Joplin, Springfield, Kansas City and from the state of Indiana. It’s in these interactions that you have the opportunity to hear affirmation from others that echo what we believe to be true about our town.

Our town’s beauty, hospitality and friendliness continue to shine through and give real meaning to our motto that we are “America’s Real Hometown.”

Bravo, Cassville, for another TroutFest that definitely fulfilled our goal to showcase the Home of Roaring River State Park in a fun family-oriented weekend.

Jon Horner is a local community bank president, published author, newspaper columnist, motivational speaker, and mayor of “America’s Real Hometown.”

He can be reached at jonhorner77@gmail.com.