By Dee Grenert Staff Writer
CULVER — What makes the annual Culver Lions Club Corn Roast such a summer tradition?
According to Lions Club publicity chair Kathy Clark, look no further than, well, the corn.
“We get compliments every year from people who say, ‘This is the best corn we’ve ever had,’” Clark said. “(Corn roast chairman) Ned Davis finds it. He always finds the best corn.”

This year’s all-you-can-eat corn roast runs from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, behind the Culver train station in the Culver Town Park. As usual, the Lions will serve hamburgers and drinks as well — all for $7 for adults and $3 for children.
While hungry mouths from throughout the community flood the park each year for the chance to gnaw fresh, roasted corn off the cob, the event started as a Lions Club members-only gathering.
Longtime Lion Larry Welsh said his father started the corn roast as a private feed in 1947. Two years later, the Lions moved the growing party to the larger Davis farm, and finally took it to town and opened it to the public during the 1950s.
“People started asking, ‘Can I bring so and so?’ It got to where we had over 100 people coming to the meal, so we moved it to town,” Welsh said. “We used to have it on the other end of the park, but that was too long a walk. Since the (train station) is our building now, it works well to have it on this end of the park. We still roast about 325 dozen ears a year.”
Saturday’s corn roast will look very much like the original six decades ago, with just one inflationary effect.
“When it started, it cost $1 for all the corn you can eat; now it’s $7 for all the corn you can eat,” Welsh said.
And the corn roast turns into a true community event each summer. Children, and sometimes exchange students, sit in a circle, cleaning mammoth piles of corn. The corn is then carried to steaming black cauldrons, manned last year by Dan Adams, Tom Schmidt and Glen Patton, and roasted.
“It’s so fun to watch the city little kids,” Clark said. “Their moms will sit them down and they’ll husk corn. We’ve got some of the same kids doing it year after year.
“The guys with the big black pots are the ones with the tough job,” Clark added. “They stand over these big pots of boiling water, but it’s usually the same guys every year.”
All the proceeds benefit projects supported by the Lions. Welsh noted that the Lions have donated funds to the Culver-Union Township Fire Department, Culver Little League and Culver Town Park for stone fireplaces, grills and playground equipment. The Lions also put up Christmas decorations throughout town in December, maintain the train station and also work with other Lions Clubs on projects throughout the state and country.
“You don’t have enough paper for all the projects we’ve done in the past,” Welsh said. “We don’t keep any of this money. Everything comes back to community projects, state projects and national projects.”