The Collegian

Issue date: 10/23/08 Section: Beyond

Media Credit: Sean McDermott Gary Schumate stands before cages of carrier pigeons that will race across the Atlantic.

The elephant ears are eaten and vendors have packed up their brightly lit stands, but the Hillsdale County Fairgrounds are far from quiet. Instead, the weekly auction resumes.

Every Saturday starting at 8 a.m. auctioneers mumble into their microphones, selling every piece of junk imaginable.

Country records, used mops, boxes of tea, crossbows, old U.S. coins, plastic skulls and an innumerable amount of moldy teddy bears are all part of the auction.

Along one of the dirt roads where private vendors sell from purebred dogs to heads of cabbage stands an old white-washed building: the speed stalls.

Despite dilapidation, the building still stands and people gather to participate in the auctions inside: rabbits, waterfowl, chickens and pigeons.

Stuffed into the small cages the animals squeak and squawk, peck at each other and huddle frightened in the corners.

The auctioneer comes to each cage while the buyers huddle around, eyeing each other with hostility. The bidding can be fierce, with some game birds selling for over $50.

Locals come each Saturday just to buy these small animals.

Linda Fry, owner of Dragonland Farm, bought several waterfowl to add to her large collection of birds.

She and her niece, Brady, investigated each cage of birds, writing down the numbers of the ones they wished to buy.

Fry raises chickens, waterfowl and would raise dragons if they existed, she said. Fry also sells eggs and farm products through her eBay store.

Another relation of Fry's, Gary Schumate, helps them scope out the birds. He used to raise pigeons and auction them off at the fairgrounds.

He said many people buy pigeons in order to race them in worldwide competitions. Pigeon clubs send 25 to 50 birds per individual to places like Germany, Korea and Hawaii.

Each bird wears tracking tags the owner identifies when the birds return. The first person to receive the most pigeons in the shortest period of time wins.

Pigeons have an incredible sense of direction and have been used to send messages for hundreds of years, Shumate said.

Once they have an established home, they can get back there from anywhere else.

"From Germany, our first bird came back in a week," Schumate said.

While some races are overseas, many are within the U.S. and also include an incentive: betting. There are over a dozen pigeon clubs in Michigan alone, some nearby. Grand Rapids, Britton, St. Joseph, Grand Haven and Kalamazoo all have official American Racing Pigeon Union Clubs.

Go to pigeon.org for more information. And take look at the world of pigeon racing at www.caseytempleton.com

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