The Happy Apple Scarecrow Festival will celebrate fall in DeTour Village Saturday, September 19. Event organizers have planned a day that includes a farmers market, antique and collectible sales, a craft and vendors’ show, antique appraisals by the Auction Barn Appraisers from Manistique, contests, games, scarecrow building, food, entertainment, demonstrations of lost crafts, a horseshoe tournament, a poker walk/ride, and an auction. Activities are in downtown DeTour and at the high school. There will also be specials at area shops and restaurants throughout the day.

Residents and businesses have begun building scarecrows to line the streets and businesses. In addition to the antique appraisal fair, and the auction and plant sale sponsored by the DeTour Museum and Botanical Garden, the DeTour Area Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a Scarecrow Building Contest with a trophy for the best business scarecrow and cash prizes for the best individual and group entry.

The DeTour Homemakers are sponsoring an apple pie and dessert contest and selling food at the appraisal fair and the auction. Union Presbyterian Church will offer caramel apples in return for donations and the DeTour Friends of the Library will have a used book sale.

Free activities include scarecrow building, making a luminary and an origami apple basket, face painting, a story and activity time, an apple basket toss, a sawdust surprise pile, and an apple pie eating contest.

Adults can also enjoy the horseshoe tournament and the poker walk/ride to area businesses. The registration fee is $5 per person for horseshoes competition; prizes will be awarded. Throwing begins at 1 p.m. at the pits next to the Chamber of Commerce Pavilion. Horseshoes will be provided for those who do not bring their own.

Before the auction, the days contests will conclude with the awarding of contest prizes and raffle items.

Antique Appraisal Fair

Offered for Second Year Area residents will have an opportunity to learn the value of antiques during the second annual Antique Appraisal Fair. The appraisal team from the Auction Barn in Manistique will be in town to appraise items at DeTour High School from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Registration for appraisals begins at 9:30 a.m. and continues until 3 p.m. with up to three items entered on each registration. Multiple registrations are permitted.

Ruth Ann Hudack, treasurer of the DeTour Passage Historical Society, the sponsor of the event, said the appraisals are back by popular demand.

“The appraisals were so popular last year we thought we should sponsor them again this year,” Ms. Hudack said. “Several people discovered they had treasures they didn’t know existed. One couple brought in a lamp that had been in their family for many years and discovered it was valued at more than $2,000. The husband said he carried it out far more carefully than he carried it in.”

Schedule of Events

• On St. Mary’s Street

Farmers Market, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

• At the School

From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Apple pie and dessert contest with coffee and cinnamon rolls; antique appraisals; “lost arts” craft demonstrations; apple art and logo winners on display; Friends of the Library book sale

• At the Pavilion, Tennis Court, and Playground

Information, raffles, scarecrow judging; register for poker walk from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; crafts, vendors, and food booths; cutest cat and dog photograph contest; build a scarecrow or apple basket to take home; face painting and sawdust pile coin search; story time and craft at 11 a.m.; apple pie eating contest at 12:30 p.m.; horseshoes tournament at 1 p.m.

• At the Village Hall

Homemakers Sloppy Joe Dinner at 4:30 p.m.; awards and raffle drawings at 4:30 p.m.; DeTour Museum Fresnel Lens Repair Fundraiser Auction at 5:30 p.m.