A Cow, a Crown and a New Girl in Town!

September 28, 2026

A Cow, a Crown and a New Girl in Town!

A Cow, A Crown and a New Girl in Town

A Salute to a Former Fall Festival Queen

As summer yields to fall here in Dixon, there are certain things that you can set your watch by. The return to school brings back busy weekday mornings with the roar of buses, the leaves begin to tease us about the upcoming fall splendor, there is noticeably less daylight as the days become shorter and shorter, also the faint smell of smoke as the local wood burning stoves begin to fire. Then, there is Cow Days.

In the fall of 1984, Helen Winters had an idea for the re-boot of Cow Days—which was Dixon’s fall festival that had somehow fallen by the wayside several years earlier. Connie Eiserman began to organize the event and began a merchant’s association which we now know as our Dixon Area Chamber of Commerce.

The first Cow Days had a very different face than what we see today. The original idea of Cow Days was to bring people to town to showcase the downtown businesses. At that time, Second and Elm Streets had a lot more store fronts that were filled with local merchants. This was before large corporate conglomerations were present in really small towns. There may have been some regionally owned businesses, such as the new Casey’s store that had opened somewhat recently, but for the most part, the businesses in downtown Dixon were locally owned and operated.

That is right, there were no food trucks, no large tents, just a scattering of table-top vendors who sold arts and crafts or local organizations mostly selling food with simple table set ups that would be classified as primitive in modern day.

The excitement of the community gained momentum as plans for Cow Days really got going. Along with the re-boot of the name “Cow Days”, also came the idea that some lucky person could win a cow. As well as the coronation of a fall festival queen.

Organizers had approached the high school to have each class nominate a queen candidate. This was a new concept to all of the students who were not used to having a fall festival or a queen. Most of the queen candidates at that time were school sponsored, such as Homecoming Queen, Pancake Queen, Prom Queen or Fair Dixon. However, the fall festival activities were slightly different where the queen was nominated through the school, but the remaining events were handled by the merchant’s association. This was slightly foreign to the students since it was new, there was no tradition or standard to follow, and a lot of the student’s weren’t sure what to think about this new queen for a festival that had such a unique name.

Each class nominated one girl as a representative. Glass jars with a photo of the candidate were placed at many local businesses and the community would drop change into the jars. The jars were collected prior to the festival and the queen candidate who had the most money collected would be the winner. This basic concept remains a tradition today.

That year the junior class candidate was the winner. A newcomer to Dixon that semester who had moved here from Anchorage, Alaska named Michelle Meyer.

Michelle’s dad was in the Army, and they had been stationed all around the world. Most of her years in school had not been spent in the continental United States. She had always lived in government quarters, and she was so excited to move to Dixon because it would be their first real house. It was a tough move because of her age—junior year and leaving all of her friends behind, but after countless moves with the military, she was really looking forward to the idea of living in a small town that might offer more stability. Her school in Alaska had in excess of 1,200 students, which was roughly the population of Dixon at that time.

Chatting with Michelle, she told me that after moving to Dixon she realized that it was “different in every way”. Most locals will take that as a compliment as we all know that while Dixon is small, it is unique from any other place on earth.

Back in those days, military transfers into the school were less common than they are today. Dixon was much more of a community that did not have as much influence from outside places. It is not a secret to people who attended Dixon Schools how hard it was for some of these kids to blend into our community. This was a result of local kids who had attended school together for all of their lives being infused with outsiders, as well as the outsiders who had their own culture from years of military life. This was not always a seamless transition.

Michelle recalled the nomination process for fall festival queen. She remembers being nominated and several of the other kids telling her that if she won, that she would have to milk the cow. She responded by telling them she didn’t know how to milk a cow but was so excited to be nominated for something at her new school, that she would worry about that later. She confided in me that she has often wondered if her nomination was kind of a joke since she was new and so many of the kids were calling it “Cow Queen”. However, if such were true, Michelle turned things around with her positive attitude and spun being the object of fun into opportunity.

When Michelle arrived home and informed her parents that she was nominated to be a queen candidate, they could not have been happier! They were so honored that Dixon had been so welcoming and accepting. They drove to Rolla and purchased her dress for the event which cost $225, this would be about $725 in modern times. She said that the dress was a big deal as her parents never spend so much money on anything, and the dress made her feel “amazingly special”.

With Michelle being new to the community and Cow Days being new, somehow having a car for the newly coronated queen to ride in at the parade, got lost in the translation. Without complaint, she walked the parade route in her new dress and heels, greeting people, shaking hands and introducing herself the entire way.

Michelle Meyer, Dixon’s Fall Festival Queen of 1984, walking the parade route.

Coronation of Fall Festival Queen, 1984

I really think that Michelle through her positive attitude turned things around on the kids that had teased her and tried to make fun of her by the nomination. She went from a new student who no one knew to being known by everyone over the span of one weekend. She returned the next year to crown the next fall festival queen and ever since, fall festival queen has been a coveted title that is considered an honor to be nominated for, or to win. The pageant has also become much bigger over the years with multiple age groups being represented. Michelle stated that there are still some of her old school mates that affectionately call her “Queen Heifer”.

In the fall of 1985, Dixon redeveloped Miss Merry Christmas, changing it to a pageant where it had previously been teacher’s choice. Michelle also won the Miss Merry Christmas Pageant her senior year and was the Salutatorian of her graduating class in 1986. Among other honors, she was a Prom Queen attendant, a cheerleader and in the flag corps, and was a Frisco League Oratorical Contest winner. She also went on to earn two Bachelor of Science degrees at Drury University in Business Administration and Communications.

Currently Michelle Meyer Scott is married to her husband of 20 years, Bill, and resides in Overland Park, Kansas. They have one daughter, Katie, a senior in high school who is the spitting image of her mother. Michelle is a real estate agent, and also spends time doing private swim lessons, tutoring, and substitute teaching. She also enjoys scuba diving, travel and cooking. She has previously owned small businesses including a cooking school.

Michelle stated that she loved her time in Dixon and made an appearance at the Miss Merry Christmas Pageant in 2025 when many of the queens had reunited.

I personally want to give a huge shout out and thank you to Michelle, who continues to support Dixon and cherishes her memories of living here. She has returned to Dixon for reunions or appearances on several occasions. She may have grown up in the military, and she, like so many others have moved on, but somehow this little hometown place won her heart.