Durham's Beaver Queen Pageant a Wild West hoot

The Beaver Queen Pageant is a hoot, one of those below-the-radar, only in Durham, events.

The family-friendly "beaver drag" show Saturday in Duke Park raised $9,000. That included a $2,500 grant from laid-back surf-singer Jack Johnson's All at Once Foundation. Johnson makes grants in cities where he performs. He plays Alltel Pavilion August 21.     

I ran into Ernie Dollar, director of the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill, in the crowd. Ernie is another cool dude. To help save an old house near UNC a few years ago he held an outdoor screening of the '60s college sex romp "Three in the Attic," (tame by today's standards) which was filmed at the house. We asked each other if the Beaver Queen Pageant, with its Wild West theme, complete with whip-snapping cowboys and, uh, "hospitality workers," could take place in Chapel Hill and agreed, sadly, probably not.   

This years proceeds go to the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association, which has saved 150 acres along the creek that runs west to east across Durham County. $1,000 will also go to the Duke Park Preservation Initiative to save the historic bathhouse that served as the dressing rooms for pageant participants. "There's a lot of history behind that park," says Katherine O'Brien, still hoarse this week after the weekend's festivities and after-party.

The pool is gone, and the bathhouse locked most of the year. O'Brien says they found an old list of rules on the wall. In fitting with this year's theme, the prohibitions included "No horseplaying or cussing."      

See more photos from Saturday's Beaver Queen Pageant in today's Durham News.