Editorial of June 5, 2025
The Paul Bunyans are Coming Back
Next weekend, June 13-15, in Cherry Valley, the Cherry Valley Outdoor Games returns for its eighth season of mind-boggling lumberjack and lumberjill competitions, festive music, tempting gastronomical delicacies, non-timber sports battles and some added Father’s Day entertainment as well. This packed three-day event has become, in less than a decade, a go-to festival for our entire upstate community, something on a par with the traditional state fair.
The Cherry Valley Outdoor Games features one of America’s best timber sports competitions, drawing top-ranked athletes from many states across the country, as well as from nearby Canada and far-away Australia, to test their mighty skills and, if all goes well, rake in a national title.
The Cherry Valley games are recognized nationally, right up there with industry leader STIHL’s Lumberjack World Championship in Wisconsin, with attendance here reaching a record 8,000+ in 2019, just before the rise of the pandemic. The village ran out of parking spaces. The event has been the largest held in northern Otsego County and one of the largest in the county, drawing attendees primarily from the tri-county area, but also attracting a significant number of people from other areas and states. In those early years, CVOG ran on a budget of $10,000.00; now that budget is $45,000, enough to meet the fast-rising popularity of timber games.
The mission and focus of these games is to bring people and attention to Cherry Valley and the bucolic area of northern Otsego County that surrounds the village; to promote and support youth sports in a place that has limited organized sports programs; to provide the juniors and seniors of the Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School as well as other worthy local organizations with on-site fundraising opportunities, with banners, banter and displays; and to bring the community together to voluntarily plan and voluntarily produce a top-notch event that maintains a free admission for all.
The first day of the games is for the local schoolchildren, who are introduced to the extreme timber sports that will take place on the other two days, with an afternoon of demonstrations, discussions and activities.
On Saturday (Flag Day) and Sunday (Father’s Day) the real battles take place, with prize money and national titles on the line. There are competitions in Hot Saw, Speed Carving, Axe Throwing, Speed Climbing, Single Buck, Logrolling, Underhand Chop, Springboard Chop, and an Obstacle Pole Relay Race. Further, as in past years, the Outdoor Games will continue to feature a two-day cornhole tournament, a bandstand that will host a multitude of musicians, a car show, an archery shoot and, on Sunday, the Diamond Dash “Run to the Bases,” a 5K jaunt that supports the Cherry Valley Youth Baseball/T-Ball program.
There’s a lot going on. Let’s go to Cherry Valley. Maybe Babe will be there, too.