Vigilante Parade

The kids had the day off for Vigilant Day. Don't worry if you don't know what that is- it's a Helena thing!

A little history:

The Vigilante Parade

THE FAMOUS MONTANA HISTORY PAGEANT
BEGAN IN 1924 TO PREVENT SCHOOL VIOLENCE

Around the turn of the 20th Century, Helena High School had a tradition called "The Senior-Junior Fight". It was a bloody and destructive springtime affair, the object of which was for the juniors to take down and desecrate a senior-class flag, which seniors would run up a flagpole located between the High School and adjacent Central School.

The fighting got so bad that the School Board eventually had the flagpole removed from the grounds. The problem was that seniors in subsequent years simply ran their flag up the pole located atop the High School building, and the fight continued on the roof.

A crackdown came, and all aspects of the event were banned from the school grounds. This had the effect of spreading the conflict all over town, with a further escalation in violence and property damage.

Authorities tried organizing alternative senior-junior competitions over the years, including a baseball game, a tug-of-war and a wrestling match. These events were seen by students as being too tame and controlled.

There were other unauthorized student actrivities during those years, including "Sneak Day" in which truancy was widespread, and "Old Clothes Day", when students would wear ragged clothes stuffed with hay and straw. There was also "Costume Day", which was held only once, but likely furnished the basic idea for the Vigilante Parade.

In 1924, meetings between students and administrators set into motion a plan for the parade: a grand pageant of historical floats, involving almost every student in a creative competition, and having at its heart the theme of the tough pioneer spirit.

As former (1907-1933) HHS Principal Albert J. Roberts said in a 1939 Helena Independent story about the origins of the parade:

"This parade, so little thought of at the time, and then only as a splendid substitute for several lawless activities, has more than any other Institution distinguished the city of Helena and its high school. From It also thousands of our citizens have obtained a knowledge of the life and customs, of the thrilling story of the early days in the Treasure state."

Kind of a bummer reason for a parade but it looks like it helped and now it's quite the event. We met the Paynes up on Last Chance Gulch to watch the Parade. There were tons of floats! Even though we don't know all the stories, it was pretty impressive to see all of the history represented. It will definitely have to be a yearly tradition of ours.

Some of our favorite floats were the Buffalo Jump, the Flower girls (they passed out flowers), the Drive-ins, the dog sled, the Bullriders, the Boxing, the KingKong Cathedral, the Special Forces, the Bands and the Bakery ones throwing flour at each other.

The Floats we understood were ones portraying the Man Gulch Fire, the Mayor's Mansion, the shooting range, the Hospital, the Mining, the Tour Train, the Great Divide Skiing, the Women's Commemorative Painting, the Northwestern Energy, the Parrot Candy Shop and the Bands.

Afterwards, we watched them make Kettle corn and got a couple big bags. The kids LOVE kettle corn!!

Great day for a Parade!!!