Annual Beagle Trade Day draws nearly 100 participants

Billy Nelson and his son Derek drove from North Augusta to the Winfield Community Center on Saturday.

They ate some food, talked to friends and joined approximately 100 people for the Third Annual Barbecue and Beagle Trade Day.

The event, hosted by the CSRA Gun Dog Beagle Club, gave people a chance to buy, trade, or sell anything related to hunting, especially hunting with beagles.

"You run into people with the same interest," said Dalton Rivers, president of the club. "I'm hoping within the next few years we'll have a couple hundred."

Rivers said the event gets bigger every time, drawing people from several states - including Tennessee, Kentucky and South Carolina.

The goal is to reach the numbers similar events see in states such as Kentucky, where attendance can reach into the several hundreds in both humans and dogs.

"We're trying to get there," Nelson said. "I think we are on the right track."

Derek, 11, spent most of his day playing with the dogs and haggling with handlers for a good price.

"He said he could sell me that one for $100," Derek told his father after a conversation with a handler.

Billy said the two made the trip to spend the day with fellow dog lovers and to get a plate of barbecue, but, there was a chance Derek would leave with one of those beagles.

"We'll see how the day goes," Billy said.

Whether or not the Nelson's went home with a dog, Dalton Rivers, president of the club, said the event was a success because they, and other families, were there to begin with.