Flywheel Fest 35 Years Strong

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HOUSTON, Miss. (WCBI) — It appears to be the biggest Flywheel Festival ever in Houston.

The flywheel has been synonymous with Houston for 35 years when several fly wheel enthusiasts came up the idea for a festival. Fly wheels can be used to pump water. For cooking lard. And Harry Collins is uses his to demonstrate how to bale hay.

Collins is vice president of the Mississippi Valley Fly Wheelers which sponsors the event. He says while the Flywheel Festival happens twice a year, in the Spring and in the fall, the spring event is much bigger.

“Fall is sort of a relaxed and slow down,” he explains. ” And in spring everybody’s been inside all winter and they want to get outside and enjoy the sun shine and and today’s just been a perfect day, the weather, you couldn’t ask for anything better.”

And Collins says it draws a lot of out of town visitors which of course is great for the Houston economy.

“We’ve to two gentlemen here from Pennsylvania. We’ve got another guy here from Colorado, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, ” Collins says. “just all places around. And they spend the night spend two or three nights and of course they eat supper so it’s a big impact. The park is full today,” Collins acknowledges proudly.

And whenever the Flywheel Festival is rolling visitors also flock to the Chickasaw County Heritage Museum, which is also located at Joe Brigance Memorial Park.

Lamar Beaty is president of the Chickasaw County Historical and Geneological Society, and was part of a committee tasked at finding a location for the museum.

“And after looking at about fifty different places in and around Houston, He explains, “we settled on this particular spot because number one we’re in proximity to most of the schools and number two the Flywheel Festival.”
And the history in the museum ties into the history of the flywheel.

“it really does because we’re trying to preserve history and that’s basically what the guys are doing out here with the steam engines and all that preserving a piece of history,” Beaty says.