199th year of the Peters Hollow Egg Fight scheduled for Easter Sunday
Published 10:45 am Friday, March 25, 2022
Aubrey Collins will be going for her third win in a row.
In the last egg fight in 2019 Laura Baird won, defeating her brother Matt Peters for the title.
Look what a crowd showed up for Jimmy Quillen at the egg fight.
Charles White’s sons and daughter cooking eggs.
Carson Peters is a regular at the egg fight with his grandfather, Norman Peters, as the host.
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Norman Peters says, ‘Let’s Fight Eggs’
BY C.Y. Peters
Easter Sunday is coming soon, we’ll be fighting eggs a little past noon. For nearly 200 years, people from as far away as Washington state have traveled to Peters Hollow for the annual egg fight up Stoney Creek. Norman Peters, who has been the host for the past 30 years, says he’s looking forward to Easter Sunday. For the last 50 years, Peters has been shooting for his second win. His first came in 1970 after beating two-time champion Ruth Jones. Jones became the first woman to win the egg fight in 1968. The old saying is that the egg fight dates back to 1823 when a few men began to argue about whose chicken laid the hardest eggs. A fight broke out and the feud is still going on. In the early years, there was no limit on the dozen of eggs you could bring. I have seen pick-up truck beds loaded with dozens of eggs. The fight would go on into the late Sunday night. Then in the late ’60s or early ’70s, a 12 dozen limit was voted in and now the maximum is six dozen for the adult division.
Charles White would have all his children meet on Saturdays. He had a big cast iron pot that would hold about 15 or so dozen eggs to be boiled at one time. In the old days, Sunday was a dress-up day and everyone wore their best clothes to the fight, women in dresses and men in suits. Today it’s just casual dress. Dale Colbaugh normally has on his U.T. attire and Mike Scott always has his Virginia Tech baseball cap. Children would carry their eggs to the fight in a basket.
On Egg Fight Sundays about 200-300 people usually show up with around 50 to 60 contestants in the four divisions. This year being an election year there may be 500 show up. “All the candidates show up during election years,” stated Peters. Back in the early years (’60s and ’70s), Jimmy Quillen and many of the congressmen and senators would come. Now, just most of the local campaigners show up. The egg fight has been canceled for the past two years. This year’s Easter is in mid-April and it should be a pretty day so many may turn out. The Easter Bunny usually comes and is expected to be back this year. The winners can be traced back to 1958 when Howard Peters won, and Ray Lowe in ’59.
Jerry Peters is the king of the egg fight, winning eight titles. Mike Scott is next with six wins. Hannah Colbaugh was the last person to win back to back, but no one has ever won three in a row in the adult division. Aubrey Collins has won back to back in the children’s division and will be trying for her third in a row. She moves up this year to the 7-12 bracket.
Roger Andes was the first winner in 1975 when they added a children’s division. If you were not a teenager you were in the lower division. There are four divisions and all you have to do to enter is be born. The 0-3 is the smallest division and to enter you need one dozen hard-boiled eggs. The next is the 4-6-year-olds, also using one dozen. The 7-12 age bracket uses two dozen eggs and the adult division from 13-100 starts with six dozen eggs. The event begins around 2 p.m. right after Norman finishes his Sunday lunch.
This will be the first year in 80 years that Clifford Peters will not attend. Peters passed away in 2020 but attended the egg fight for 79 years straight. His parents, Buster and Maggie, hosted the egg fight for many years.
Easter is a special time in Peters Hollow. It’s kind of like Christmas for some and family reunions. Kinfolk comes in for the event and all the news networks find their way to Stoney Creek. Greg Fisher said, “It’s better than Christmas. We come in more for Easter to see our friends.” Greg lives in Washington D.C.
Country music superstar Carson Peters has been in the fight every year. He won a few but still looking for his first win in the adult division. Norman says, “Come on out and have a wonderful Easter with us. Bring your chair. The event will start with the smallest division around 2 p.m. with the adult division beginning around 3 p.m.”
