Culpepper and Merriweather Circus

Typical High Grass Circus, entertaining small town America since 1985. ``Yesterday, we didn`t make gas money from here to there.`` - ``Here`` was New Windsor; ``there,`` Firemen`s Park at Wataga--about 30 miles distant over county roads that twist and turn through the knee-high-by- the-4th-of-July cornfields. Most of the equipment is carried in a box truck whose battered sides proudly herald the Culpepper and Merriweather Great Combined Circus. Those last two adjectives, long-time standbys of big-top hype, euphemistically inventory a touring company of six performers, one roustabout, two boys--sort of ``Toby Tyler`` summer interns--six dogs, three goats and a half dozen Shetland ponies. Thirty or forty years ago, Johnson explained, dozens and dozens of similar one-ring shows were on the road each summer playing the nation`s back- country villages. This is the only one left. From its limited-scale animal menagerie, audiences have long referred to this kind of vest-pocket circus as a dog and pony show, but in the special language of circus folks, it is known by the kind of ground surface the weather`s vagaries all too often condemn it to perform upon. ``Ours is the end of the line,`` Johnson said, climbing behind the wheel of that gilt-lettered truck and guesticulating at the tiny fleet of vehicles strung out behind him, signaling the other drivers that it was time to go.
``Take a good look: We`re the last little mud show in America.``
These days, most people probably equate the circus with Ringling Bros. or the Shrine Circus, shows that play indoor arenas in the major cities. But to folks in the business, Johnson noted, the essence of circus life has always been a canvas top and the open road. He was pointing through the truck`s windshield to a pair of paper arrows tacked to a telephone pole up the highway. Since the days when they traveled by horse-drawn wagons, and the elephants walked from town to town, that is how circuses have traditionally navigated their way between one-night stands. On a bigger show, those arrows would be set out by an advance man, known as the ``24 hour man.`` But given its minimalist cast, Culpepper and Merriweather can hardly afford to let anybody get that far in front of the main traveling party. Instead, aerialist Lynn Metzger and Terrell ``Cap`` Jacobs, who does a whip-cracking act, get their RV on the road about 20 minutes before everybody else sets out. ``That`s what this life is all about,`` Johnson said, as Wataga`s water tower made its first appearance on the horizon. ``You chase the arrows with a broken-down truck--and a dream.``
For most of those who share it, that dream is born early and dies late. While helping to stake down the circus` 50-by-70-foot tent in the grassy field to which the arrows had led, Johnson recalled that he has been the show`s owner for the last two years. For a decade and a half before that, he was a troupe manager and circus hand, but at age 9 he had already bought into the big-top fantasy. By the time he turned 17, Zajack had worn his folks down enough that they let him join the Franzen Bros. Circus for what was supposed to be a summer job. Except when a show has folded, he has never been home again since. The circus, he noted, is like a little tribe of nomads. Once initiated, you don`t drop out. (Chicago Tribune)
Culpepper & Merriweather Circus was based in Queen Creek, AZ until 2001, when new ownership moved its base of operations to Hugo, OK, deep in the beautiful Red River Valley. Hugo is known as "Circus City, USA" for a good reason. We are the 20th circus to call Hugo home since 1941, and the third active circus currently operating from the seat of Choctaw County.
http://www.cmcircus.com/