Hogskin Holidays

Many Hampton residents will tell you straight forward that there isn’t much reason to visit their community if you don’t have friends or loved ones there. The town, population 1,529, only has one stoplight, and short of a few mom and pop stores downtown there aren’t many shopping opportunities. The Calhoun County seat doesn’t even have a Wal-Mart — a staple for just about any small Southern town.

The lack of amenities doesn’t seem to bother Hampton residents, though, and you won’t find these proud people dwelling on things they don’t have. That’s because they don’t need them. Not when they have Hogskin Holidays, a festival that celebrates all things swine and brings in thousands of people each year, boosting community pride far higher than any chain store could.

This year marks the 15 th annual Hogskin Holidays, which will be held April 1-8 at the Calhoun County Fairgrounds and on the courthouse square downtown. Last week, in a sure sign Hogskin Holidays is coming soon, dozens of wooden pig silhouettes were placed on the courthouse lawn advertising businesses that support the festival.

Many of Hampton’s downtown businesses are also in festival mode, with store fronts decorated in an assortment of cartoon pigs and messages welcoming visitors to town. Alma Davis, who co-chairs the Hogskin Holidays committee with James Rawls, said that the entire city transforms in anticipation of the festival.

"As you can see, we have pigs everywhere," said Davis, pointing to the white lawn pigs at the courthouse. "Everyone gets into the spirit of it. It’s an event for the entire county." Keeping with tradition, and showing their civic pride, several Hampton businesses have permanently incorporated the name "Hogskin" into their titles.

Drew Duncan, co-founder of Hogskin Graphics, helped design many of this year’s festival banners and is proud to be associated with the name Hogskin. "We named our business because of Hogskin Holidays, because it’s such a big event here," said Duncan. "We made the signs (promoting) this year’s festival, and we enjoy supporting it anyway we can."

Bobby Wolf and his wife, JoAnn, operate the Hogskin Truck Stop on U.S. 167, which has become a popular spot for travelers and locals since opening more than three years ago. Bobby Wolf said that naming his truck stop after the festival was an easy decision. "I wanted people to feel like they are part of (the festival)," he said. "Calhoun County is Hogskin County, and the festival helps businesses out around here. It’s the biggest event of the year."

But what exactly is Hogskin Holidays? And why is Calhoun County’s nickname Hogskin County? For that, one must delve deep into the area’s history for a story that comes straight out of the rich, fertile soil of the Champagnolle Creek bottomland.
It began during the Great Depression, which dealt such a severe blow to places like Calhoun County that some swear they can still feel it. Times were hard, and what little food there was – most of it livestock – was marked to ensure the rightful owners kept track of their livelihood.

Calhoun County residents let their marked hogs run though the bottomland of Champagnolle Creek so they could feed and stay healthy until time for slaughter. When they needed to round them up, all they had to do was find the hogs with the correct markings and take them back home for their families to eat.

But some residents outside the county had other plans. They often stole the pigs and skinned them in Calhoun County to avoid being caught with marked animals. They loaded the pigs onto boats and crossed the Ouachita River, leaving the skins to hang like translucent, macabre decorations on trees all along the bottomland of Calhoun County.

When they got back home, the pig thieves taunted Calhoun County residents by calling their home "Hogskin" County. This practice went on for several years, according to dozens of accounts, most of which differ in small detail.

Today, though, the name Hogskin County is said with great pride, as Rawls, who was one of the founders of the festival, explained. "When we got together in 1992 in the jury room of the courthouse to plan a festival, we wanted to give it a name that everyone knew," he said. "We wanted to turn that name (Hogskin County) into something positive. And now, it’s the most positive thing that happens here."

It’s common for class reunions to coincide with the festival, and old friends who haven’t seen each other since last year will reunite and share stories about their lives. Out-of-town family members even plan to be home just so they can attend the festival, because if they didn’t, the year just wouldn’t be the same.

"My grandchildren live in Dallas and Little Rock, and they would rather come here that weekend than anything all year long," Davis said. "That’s just the way it is."

And that’s exactly how Hampton residents want to keep it.