Virginia’s Annual Shad Planking is the traditional kickoff to the election season.
by Michael Fletcher
[Ed Note: This article originally appeared in print in Bearing Drift’s May 2011 issue. To subscribe, join our mailing list and get a first peek in print every month.]
Take a drive down Virginia Route 460 this time of year and you see the usual abundant signs of spring: dogwood blossoms, colorful azaleas, golden daffodils, and hundreds and hundreds of campaign signs. Seemingly disproportionate to the number of registered voters in the small towns that dot this rural highway, these campaign signs herald not the coming of spring – but the annual Shad Planking.
The Shad Planking, hosted by the Wakefield Ruritan Club, is the unofficial kickoff for the spring political season. Scheduled to be held Wednesday, April 20, this bipartisan event will include Governor Bob McDonnell as the featured speaker.
When it began near Smithfield in the 1930’s, the planking celebrated the running of the shad in the James River. At the event, the oily, bony fish are smoked on wood planks over an open flame – hence the Shad Planking.
The Shad Planking became a political gathering when the Ruritans took it over in 1949. It was exclusively a Democrat function for many years – noted as much for the good ole’ boy politics as the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Of course, during the years of the Byrd Organization, Virginia was almost entirely a Democrat state. The Shad Planking was traditionally where the Democrats “selected” the next Governor of the Commonwealth. These days, both major parties are represented at the Shad Planking, along with a sprinkling of Libertarians and Tea Party supporters.
Up until the 1970s, the event was also exclusively male. Stories abound that there was no need for porta-johns because, after all, there were trees. And with the free-flowing beer … well, I’m not going to draw a picture.
True to another blemish on Virginia’s political history, the event was also only for whites for too many years. Then State Senator L. Douglas Wilder is believed to be the first African American to go to the event in 1977. That same year, Washington Post reporter Megan Rosenfeld was the first woman to attend the planking.
The headline speaker is traditionally a high ranking official. Former Governor Mills Godwin, Jr. has the distinction of being the only featured speaker who has headlined the event as both a Democrat and as a Republican, coinciding with his terms as governor. Former Attorney General Mary Sue Terry, the first woman elected to statewide office in Virginia, remains the only woman to have been the featured speaker at the event.
Shad has a long history in the Commonwealth and was a major source of food for early Virginians. Thomas Jefferson was born on a farm on the Rivanna River called Shadwell and is said to have eaten his fish “laid open, broiled, and addressed with salt, and butter.” But few attendees at the Shad Planking are there for the cuisine, although the bony fish can be enjoyable accompanied by the traditional sides of Virginia Diner coleslaw, corn muffins and sweet tea.
While the bony fish used to run in abundance in Virginia, overfishing, pollution and dam-building have had a detrimental effect on the fish population. Commercial shad fishing was banned in Maryland in 1980 and Virginia instituted a ban in 1994. Today only Native Americans may catch and keep shad and hatcheries on the Pamunkey and Mattaponi Indian reservations are attempting to replenish the population. Fish ladders have been installed on several dams in hopes that the fish can find their way upstream for spawning. Fish for the Wakefield event are reportedly shipped in from North Carolina and Delaware.
The unique method of planking the fish to cook them is said to be traced back to a Mr. Paul Cox of Surry County. Mr. Cox, and friends Dr. E.C. Nettles and Mr. Richard Savedge, invited friends to historic Wrenn’s Mill in Isle of Wight County. After they had caught their fish in the James River, Mr. Cox introduced the fish-cooking process to his friends.
After World War II, Dr. Nettles suggested that the Wakefield Ruritan Club adopt the event as an annual fund raising event. Since that time the Shad Planking has been held on the third Wednesday in April. From the original attendance of 300, now over 2000 attend.
There’s no written rule that a Virginia politician has to attend the Shad Planking, or that the area has to be plastered with the campaign signs. But perhaps there
is significance in the fact that in 2009, Democratic Senator and gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds did not attend.
A “Traditional” Shad Recipe
1. Clean and scale the shad and split it open from
head to tail.2. Preheat an oak plank in front of hickory coals
and grease with butter.3. Place the shad on the hot board with the skin
side down and fasten it securely with thumb
tacks.4. Stand the plank on end at a 60-degree angle in
front of the coals.5. Baste frequently with melted butter and shake
salt and pepper over it.6. When done, remove the tacks, throw the shad
away, and eat the plank.
