Bonners Ferry Rotary Club Presents The Culpepper and Merriweather Circus

I remember going to the Los Angeles Coliseum to see the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in, I think it was 1963. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. And today even though I’ve seen more amazing things, it still stands out as the MOST!

The Culpepper & Merriweather Circus gives a free tour the morning of the two shows, while they are setting up and getting ready for the “Big Top” show. They let anyone and everyone come watch all the doin’s. Leo was the tour guide. He was very entertaining and gave us all kinds of info about circus’ in general and how they do their circus. I think he is also a clown!

So, me, Pop and Matthew got up early and went and checked it out! It was a bit cold and blustery, but they were still out there putting up the Big Top. There aren’t as many Big Top circus’ anymore, at least that’s what I think Leo said. It was windy, but he said that the wind actually helps them put up the tent. He said they can put it up with 20-30mph wind! It takes them about 3 hours to put up the tent and about an hour to take it down. They do this everyday, except Sundays, for 8 months, then they take 4 months off during the winter. While they’re traveling from town to town they have they’re big motor homes that they live in, some of them are full-time RVers, even during the time they’re off. He had a great sense of humor with lots of jokes for the kids and the grown-ups too.

 

Francis the Lion

Francis the Lion slept the whole time we were there, except for the few minutes he got up, stretched a bit and then barked at all of us for rousing him from his favorite pastime–sleeping. One of the kids in the crowd pointed excitedly and said, “he’s roaring”, but Leo said that was not a roar. He said, that his roar is much louder, throaty and longer, they roar as a warning to other rival cats. The short “barking” sound he was doing was just to let us know that this was his kingdom! He weighs 500 pounds and eats 10-15 lbs of raw meat 6 days a week. They give all the big cats one fast day a week. In the wild they don’t eat everyday, but when they do eat they gorge themselves and because their digestive metabolism is slower, they’re not hungry in between feastings, so by giving them a day off of eating they simulate the way they eat in the wild.

The tigers are a cross between a Siberian Tiger and a Bengal Tiger. So they’re stripes are brownish not black. They are named Sampson and Delilah. Sampson weighs 450 pounds and Delilah just 354. They also eat 10-15 lbs of raw meat. They supplement all the meat with vitamins and minerals. They also get beef and chickens, locally, with the bones in to keep their teeth and digestive tracks healthy.

All in all, we three had a good time! I love our small town and just going down to the fair grounds and seeing what’s happening, seems like there’s always something.

It was pretty amazing how they get the Big Top up. When we got there they had already been working on it for a couple hours. Then all of a sudden, they just start lifting up one side and putting poles up under neath it, and we could see that the wind was really helping. They do have blowers all around the edges to help. They used to have elephants to help pull/push up the tent, but now they use a Bobcat. Leo said that it’s a lot less messy! There were 15 or so guys lifting, pulling, tying, stretching and then, ta-da, it was up. Leo told us to watch for the flag to come up and then give all the tent putter-uppers a big round of applause, even though we had a small crowd we did a good job of showing our appreciation for all they’re hard work

I had to get all these pictures from the circus’ website, except for the two of Matthew and Randy, I took those! I’m getting terrible about taking pictures, I’m so engrossed in what I’m doing I forget to capture all the “Kodak moments”.