2017 Tombstone Trail

The 2017 Tombstone Trail returned to Fillmore County, MN, the site of the first event in 1978. We sold out this year with 40 entries, but after a couple of last-minute cancellations and a couple of no-shows, 36 cars started the event.

This year was to be my last as rallymaster. I was joined by Liz Westberg, who takes over the duties for 2018. I enjoyed working on the event with Liz, and know that she'll be a fantastic rallymaster going forward.

The event started in Chatfield, MN, the starting point for a couple of the earliest Tomstone Trails. Starting in Chatield allows us to get to some of the cemeteries that are too far to reach when we start in Rochester. There were several crazy old tombstones I remember from the late 70's, and I was anxious to find them again. Back then I didn't keep records of everything, so I wasn't sure where to look, but I recalled them being close to the Iowa border, and farther east than we have been in years. Liz, my wife Vicki, and I checked every cemetery in the target area and never found them. I suspect that those old eyesores have been replaced in the cleanup and modernization that a couple of the area cemeteries have undergone.

However, there's lots of interesting stuff in the area cemeteries. We found some people born in the 1700's, a soldier who survived the battle of Gettysburg, numerous crazy inscriptions, lots of typographical errors, and even a cemetery with a two-seater outhouse! Not two stalls - one bench with two seats. Kinda like his-and-hers sinks in some modern bathrooms, except the couple shares a different experience. Yuck.

The event featured a crossword puzzle this year, enabling teams to skip a few cemeteries and fill in their answers because of the intersecting words. Liz came up with the concept, and we had fun figuring out how to give away a few of the answers to the people who worked the puzzle the best.

Well, the best were Michele Stromgren and Andrew Stromgren, who answered 19 of the 23 puzzle questions correctly, taking first overal and winning class B. Second in class were Louis Hardin and Gabby Minter with 15 points, followed by Dave Fuss and Rachel Fuss with 14.

Second overall were Jerome Porter and Jessica Porter, winning class AA with 19 points, minus one point for being late, and taking second overall in a tiebreaker. Second in class AA were John Knauss and Jillian Odland with 17. Third in class with 15 points were Ben Wedge and Ryan Hammond, winning a tiebreaker with Shaun Sapala and Dana Sapala.

Christophe Spargo and Jamie Wanken seemed to have the best strategy, concentrating on the crossword puzzle and only bothering with one tiebreaker. Their 19 answers equaled the top two teams, but a late point left them at 18 in 3rd overall and a clear win in class A. Second in class A were Becky Baker and Matt Baker, and third were Erick Dahl and Brian Miller.

Class G was won by Clarence Westberg and Kate Westberg with 17 points, 4th overall. Greg Stromgren and Deb Strongren took 2nd with 15 points, with Doug Atwell and John Wiersma 3rd at 14.

Nick Shamla and Kevin Scheible had a fantastic first event, winning class C with 16 points and 6th overall! Dave Huber and Shannon Huber were second, and Scott Harris and Katy Gilley took 3rd.

Class D went to Lara Bettinger and Sam Grobe, running unopposed. Six teams ran in the run-for-fun class 0. Michelle Gawboy and Andrew Gawboy won the Best Costomb award with their Witch and Witch Doctor costombs, and Kerry Freund and Kathy Freund took home the coveted "dead last" award.

Special awards were given to the people who ran the very first Tombstone Trail and were here for the 40th, Dave Fuss, Sue Iverson, Gary Starr, Clarence Westberg, and Kate Westberg. Special recognition was also given to Kerry Freund, who has run 36 of the 40 Tombstone Trails, Kathy Freund, who ran her first Tombstone Trail at the age of 2 months, Dave Fuss, the all-time winner with 5 first places overall, and Rachel Fuss with 4 all-time wins.

Finally, at registration I somehow gave Erica Strand and Wesley strand my copy of the questions with all the answers on it. They did the right thing and kept that copy away from their teammates who were answering questions in the cemeteries. We gave them a special Roll of Honor trophy for sportsmanship.

Liz will make an announcement when she figures out where to run the 41st Tombstone Trail next year. I've offered to help if she needs me. If not, I look forward to competing on it myself with my wife and grandkids. I hope I don't turn out to be horrible at it!

Thanks to the hundreds of people who have run the Tombstone Trail over these 40 years and for all the feedback that's kept me going all this time. Thanks also for not giving me too hard a time when I screw up. Here's to another 40 years!

Mark Larson
Rallymaster

You can see the event results here.

Read the 2016 report.