Town of Fabius

PETITION SEEKS END TO "TUG IN THE MUD":

Jim Mueller, of Fabius, wasn't sure if the "Tug in the Mud" spectator on the motorcycle would make good on his threat to come back that night and burn his house down.

So Mueller slept that night, this past Memorial Day, with a loaded .22-caliber pistol in his nightstand.

"It's probably the worst feeling I've ever had in my life," he said of being threatened by a "Tug" fan who swerved at him at high speed and then came back to confront Mueller in front of his home. "No one should have to live like that."

Mueller and many other Fabius residents who live near Robert Miller's mud bog on Bardeen Road near Toggenburg Ski Center have had enough of the stuff that goes on there.

Twice a year for the past dozen or so years - on Memorial Day and Labor Day - hundreds, maybe thousands, descend on Miller's 47 acres to watch truck owners race their vehicles through a mud bog and have an outdoor party.

"People just like getting muddy and raising hell," Miller said. "There's no damage or harm to anyone else."

Local residents, and the Fabius Town Board, disagree.

The residents are determined to stop the Labor Day Tug, and all others.

To at least get control over such events, Fabius Supervisor Robert DeMore had town attorney Ron Carr draft a local law requiring a mass-gathering permit for events drawing more than 250 people.