With a Name Like Antlers, What Would You Do?

“With a name like Antlers, what could we be but the Deer Capital of the World,” Scott Pace, a local resident of Antlers, OK but also an economic development specialist with the OK Department of Commerce, told me at one of my Rural Economic Development Summit talks in the state. “We don’t necessarily have the best deer but we aren’t going to let that stand in our way,” he told me laughingly.

Antlers is a small town of 2,000, just over the Oklahoma border north of Paris, Texas (another town that has really played up their town name). On the first weekend of October they hold their Deer Capital of the World Festival. They first started it in 2001, bringing in 7,500 people. In only 4 years it has more than tripled in size and has become such an event that at last year’s event Cabelas, Stil, Bass Pro and other major retailers were there with booths and trailers. They have raised enough funds that they are now building a 3,100 sf Wildlife Heritage Museum. My guess is that this festival will grow into something that won’t recognize from their humble start four years ago.

It is a great example of a town fully utilizing their resources (third key in my book). What have you got in your town that you could utilize?