The Wings Over the Prairie Festival in Stuttgart will hit a major milestone – 90 years since the first event drew a few local waterfowlers who wanted to prove which among the group was the best caller. Now, more than 60 expert duck callers will be competing in the World’s Championship Duck Calling Contest on Saturday, Nov. 29, on a stage on Stuttgart’s Main Street. All ages of competitors, boys and girls, men and women, will compete in other duck calling contests on Friday and Saturday of that weekend. Just a couple of miles away and earlier that Saturday, starting at 11 a.m., more than 50 cooking teams will set up under a “Big Top” tent for the 44th Worlds Championship Duck Gumbo Cook-Off, another major draw for the annual festival.
And yet there is more at the free festival (there is admission charge for the gumbo cookoff and you must be 21 and older to attend): Being that this is a year ending in either 0 or 5, that means that the best in the duck calling world, those champions of previous World’s Championship Duck Calling contests of yore, will compete to become a Champion of Champions, which will culminate the event on Saturday evening. The first Champion of Champions contest was held in 1955 and was won by the late Art Beauchamp of Flint, Michigan. Michael Steinmeyer of Jackson, Missouri, won the event in 2021 (held a year later than planned because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which canceled the 2020 festival).
The festival kicks off this Saturday, Nov. 22, with the Queen Mallard Contest, which began in 1956 with the naming of the late Pat Peacock as the first Queen Mallard. Peacock, a member of the Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame, was the first female named to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
Information on all the events and a schedule can be found at stuttgartduckfest.com.
