Published in the Adams County Record News Paper.
Just after dawn on Saturday morning, upwards of 2,000 homing pigeons will be released in Council
for the start of what’s hailed by some as the Kentucky Derby of the sky.
The birds will make a frantic beeline to their nests and mates all the way back in San Francisco,
in one of the most prestigious races of the year for Bay Area pigeon fanciers.
Nobody really knows exactly how homing pigeons are able to navigate such a long and entirely foreign route,
but the winners of this race will likely make the grueling journey in one day, not even touching down until
they make it home. Some of the losers might not ever return.
Former pigeon racer and local resident, Arne Pederson says the Council race, as it is called,
is well known among pigeon fanciers. “The Council race is a big deal,” he says.
Council has been a release point for pigeon races for as long as he can remember, at least 40 years.
It just happens to be exactly 600 miles from San Francisco, which is the longest distance the birds will race all year.
Pederson raced pigeons for 15 years out of the Bay Area, never stepping foot in Council and having little idea
that he would eventually settle in the very area his birds took flight from each year.
Pederson was involved in the same combine (group of pigeon racing clubs) that is still putting on this most notable race.
The Bay Cities Combine holds 10 major races per year, which take place throughout the west,
and all lead up to the Council-to-San Francisco race, the final and biggest race of the year.
Only the best birds will even enter this race, the slowpokes having been culled throughout the year.
The Council race not only plays a pivotal role for racers gunning for the highest average speed over the course
of the year, but it holds much esteem among pigeon breeders in itself.
If you win Council, you don’t race that pigeon again, Pederson says. You breed that sucker.
The eggs alone from such a pigeon could go for hundreds of dollars, he added.
World-renowned champion pigeon breeder Alex Bieche has pigeons with bloodlines traceable to 1938.
It’s a much different world, he says, speaking of the contrast between a pedigreed ace racing bird and the
flea-infested flying rat that is your average pigeon.
Bieche has been racing pigeons all his life as a hobby, but in the past 15 years it has turned into a
lucrative profession for him as well.
In many pigeon races there is a lot of money to be won directly. For example, one of the biggest money events
is in South Africa, and has a prize pool of over a million dollars.
While the Council race is not really a money event, it carries a lot of prestige. And with that prestige come big
bucks for a pigeon breeder.
In 2009 Bieche had the number one racing pigeon in all America. He turned down a $15,000 offer for that bird,
Mr. Dependable, but can readily sell the offspring for up to $3,000 a piece. And so he does.
The most money ever paid for a racing pigeon was $250,000.
Arne Pederson won a race from Salt Lake in his day (also 600 miles, and equally prestigious),
and said he was able to put a kid through two years of college in the aftermath.
With so much on the line, you can bet these pigeons are very well taken care of by their owners,
who need both time and money on their hands to get into the sport to begin with.
Gearing up for this event, trainers will have the pigeons on specific training regimes and high-carbohydrate diets,
just like an athlete gearing up for a triathlon.
These birds probably eat better than most people in Council, Pederson said.
Pigeon racing has been very popular in other countries for centuries, and even in the United States the history of
racing pigeons dates back to 1875. Homing pigeons have been used as message carriers for over 5,000 years,
and in both World War I and II, pigeons were used to deliver vital messages in the midst of battle.
“The pigeon is the only animal other than human to win the medal of honor, noted Pederson.
After all this time, it’s still a complete mystery how a pigeon is able to find its way home without map or compass.
Oddly enough, rain and bad weather seem to scramble their internal homing device. In 1980, 2000 pigeons were
released from Council just prior to the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Only one pigeon made it home that year.
Wes Askins drives the truck that carries the pigeons from the Bay Area all the way to Council.
This is a big responsibility, he said, I don’t take this job lightly.
Askins knows how important the birds are to their owners, who will be waiting anxiously by the pigeon lofts come
Saturday evening.The pigeons will be anxious too.
These birds love their home,Askins said.They like having a roof over their head,and they'll be in a hurry to get back
to their mates too.
If there is bad weather on the day the race is scheduled, Askins will drive the truck back towards the finish line until he encounters better weather. Last year the pigeons took off from Cambridge.
Usually the Council race happens in June, but with such a wet spring many of the races have been pushed back.
Weather permitting; the pigeons will take off from the Shell station in Council just after dawn on Saturday, July 2.
Arne Pederson will be on hand later that day at the Council Coffee Company from 10 am to Noon to answer any questions anyone has about this interesting and unique event