SMITHSHIRE, Ill. – Want to compete in a REAL contest, one that requires concentration, strong hands, arm strength and quickness? Want to test your dexterity working against corn and a clock?

If so, then grab your hooks, pegs, wrist bands and gloves and head to one of seven state cornhusking contests across the Midwest.

The 2024 Indiana State Cornhusking Contest will be Oct. 5 at Reed Farms, 27615 County Road 48, in Nappanee, Ind. This event will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The 2024 Illinois State Cornhusking Contest will be Oct. 6 at the Mike Hennenfent Farm, 1063 30th St. in Smithshire, Ill Registration will start at 8 a.m. and the contest will begin at 9 a.m.

“I remember picking corn by hand this way when I was a teenager,” said Harlan Jacobson, who competed in the Illinois state competition nine years ago.

“Guys like dad have been getting together for many years just to keep the tradition alive,” said Harlan’s son Matt.

The Illinois Cornhusking Association sponsors old time corn husking contests each fall to celebrate the history and heritage of farming and harvesting corn crops in the state.

Three-quarters of a century ago cornhusking was performed with horses pulling wagons while a lone figure wearing a corn husking hook would pick two to three rows of corn at a time. With a musical-like rhythm each ear was hooked, cleaned of husks and flipped into the wagon. From sunup until sundown, it was the time of the corn husker. Today’s corn is harvested with the aid of Global Positioning Systems, computers, and is a few years away from robotics.

Cornhusking competitions in several states helps keep this tradition alive.

The first unorganized corn husking event in Illinois got its start in 1922 by Henry A. Wallace, an editor on Wallaces’ Farmer magazine. The shucking event was called “Battle of the Bangboards,” a title that remains to this day. It was a way to demonstrate who the best corn husker was. The contest hasn’t changed much since 1922 as back then, the contestants competed to husk the most corn and toss the corn into a wagon in a given amount of time. At that time the winner wasn’t the one who husked the heaviest load, rather the one with the heaviest load after deductions.

Wallace’s initial thought was that if some of these fast huskers competed together in the same field, onlooking farmers could learn how to become better huskers themselves.

Incidentally, Wallace was the 33rd vice president of the United States (1941-1945), the secretary of agriculture (1933-1940) and the secretary of commerce (1945-1946).

The very first Illinois State Corn Husking contest was Nov. 21, 1924, at the F.I. Taylor farm near New Berlin. Nearly 4,000 crowded that farm to witness this event.

The competition, sponsored by Prairie Farmer magazine, continued into the 1940s. But the first sign that manual corn husking didn’t have a bright future also took place at that 1924 event. A mechanical husker, operating simultaneously with the human husker, harvested ears of corn at triple the rate of the fastest competitor.

The 1924 contest was won by Henry Niehaus, of Nokomis, who shucked 31.64 bushels of corn in 1 hour, 20 minutes. Niehaus and runner-up Pearl Mansfield, of Morrisonville, went on to place fifth and third, respectively, in the national competition held in Des Moines, Iowa, the following week. It was noted that the mechanical husker turned in 94 bushels in the same 1 hour, 20 minutes.

An essential part of a cornhusker’s equipment was his favorite hook, or peg, attached to a leather glove. Those husking aids made of leather and steel were fitted or strapped onto the hand.

The V-shape of the hook and the metal point of the peg will slash or rip the corn husks from the ear. Hook users hold the ear with one hand while flashing across the corn at about mid-ear with the hooked hand. The other hand immediately pulls back the remaining enveloping husks. The hooked hand then grabs the ear near the butt end, breaking it from the shank, and then flips the ear into the wagon drawn at his side.

NBC radio began broadcasting the national husking championship in 1929. As a spectator event, husking probably reached its greatest popularity in the late 1930s. An estimated 75,000 to 85,000 people attended the Illinois state championships near Modesto in 1938.

There was a lull in this state event in the 1950s and 1960s, but the cornhusking contest was revived in 1970.

This year, state corn husking competitions will also be in Iowa (Oct. 19-20, Indiana Creek Historical Society & Museum, Hastings, Iowa), Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota. Nebraska had its competition on Sept. 16 at The Stuhr Museum in Grand Island.

In Indiana, competitive classes include boys and girls (14 under and 15-20), men and women (21-49, 50-74) and Golden Agers (75 and up). There is also an open class for any age, as well as Team Husking (four people). Times of these events vary.

There are 12 classes in this year’s Illinois state contest. Contestants pick corn for 10 to 20 minutes depending on the class they enter. Classes include boys’ youth (10-14 and 15-20), girls’ youth (10-14 and 15-20), men (21-49, 50-74, 75 and up), women (21-49, 50-74, 75 and up), men and women open class (any age).

For more information about the Indiana event call Clay Geyer at 574-952-7197 or Ted Richard at 574-223-2747.

For more information ,contact Illinois State Cornhusking President Dick Humes at 309-729-5261 or email FrankHennenfent@yahoo.com.