Small Minnesota Town Just Hosted Their Bizarre Annual Woodtick Races

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I just discovered a small town in central Minnesota that hosts a pretty bizarre annual event each summer. In the town of Cuyuna, MN there's a bar called the Woodtick Inn. On the second Saturday of June, they host their annual woodtick races. Yes, woodtick races! I guess they're sticking with their woodtick theme but I can't imagine wanting to race woodticks. But it appears to be a really popular event and this years just took place this past Saturday.

Where is Cuyuna, MN?

First, let's talk about Cuyuna a little bit. Cuyuna has a population of about 271 people, it looks like there's a total of 10 roads in the entire town, and it's about 30 minutes northeast of Brainerd. So yeah, it's a small town. But these woodtick races seem to be incredibly popular among the residents!

Let's Talk About Those Woodtick Races

Woodtick Inn was hyping up the annual woodtick race for this year on their Facebook page.

The races this year were this past Saturday the 12th. Check out all of the tables they had set up! Turns out this is a well-attended event.

They even had live music set up to play after the races were over, it's a big deal! What I've read from RoadsideAmerica.com is that the entry fee is $5 and $1 for a tick (or you could bring your own). There's a table that you sit at with other racers and there's a circle in the middle of the table. The ticks start in the middle and whichever tick makes it to the outside of the circle first wins.

They crowned a first, second, and third-place winner and it looks like they each won a good chunk of money thanks to their tick. First place (racer 155) won $560, second place (racer 247) won $336, and third place (racer 21) won $224.

Speaking of ticks, they're pretty active this summer. So keep scrolling to check out some info about Minnesota ticks and how to prevent a tick bite.