Swallows Week Not Just for the Birds

As a few swallows circled overhead in their return to the Mission San Juan Capistrano this week, many residents were occupied with far weightier matters.

Like preparing to kidnap tourists on the streets of San Juan Capistrano today, deciding who has the longest beard or which local female will make the finest frontier floozy.

Yes, the denizens of San Juan Capistrano are a little different. And every year, as tourists strain for a glimpse of those famous migratory birds, several lesser-known, offbeat Swallows Week events are happening.

Early this morning at Mollie’s Cafe, a restaurant near the mission, dozens of men and women will be deputized for Hoosegow Day. Clad in white shirts, black jeans and vests, they will comb the city, firing blanks in the air and tossing tourists and residents alike into a portable jail until they come up with $1 bail.

On Wednesday night, at the Fiesta Grande, recognition was given for the hairiest man in San Juan Capistrano, a beard-growing contest that started months ago. The most authentic-looking saloon girl, prairie maid and cowgirl were honored with Soiled Dove awards.

“This is a way for us to honor our western heritage and have fun with it,” said Georgia Sharpe, who belongs to the 250-member San Juan Capistrano Fiesta Assn., which runs most of the Swallows Week events. “San Juan has its own personality that you definitely don’t see anywhere else.”

Although few swallows actually wing their way to the mission on Swallows Day, despite legends describing clouds of birds darkening the sun, the event gives the Fiesta Assn. a chance to celebrate the town’s history.

The group also organizes the Swallows Parade, which takes place on Saturday at 11 a.m. But role-playing is what attracts the locals to Swallows Week, where cutthroats, bushwhackers, sheepmen, bounty hunters, lawmen and desperadoes are welcome.

Besides taking a turn as deputy on Hoosegow Day, Fiesta Assn. board member Charles Rea also comes to events at the Mission San Juan Capistrano as Curly Patton--an Army scout and gambler who lived from 1848 to 1910.

“It’s fun, and it’s kind of an outlet,” said Rea, who is Patton’s great-great grandson. “It also gets you into the history of the Old West and the local area.

Much of what happens is left to the whims of the deputies set loose to roam downtown San Juan Capistrano. At last year’s Hoosegow Day, about half a dozen locals decided to stage a mock western gunfight in the street, complete with fake blood.

Sharpe said her first taste of Swallows Week came 11 years ago when she drove into town on Hoosegow Day and saw three women in long western-style dresses dancing in the street.

“It was in the middle of town, in the middle of the street,” she said. “They came up and asked where my button was [the $1 bail pays for a commemorative button, and proceeds go to the Fiesta Assn.] and told me to get out of the car. I paid the dollar.”