Wood Tick Races — The Kentucky Derby of the Northwoods
Since 1981, the small community of Oxbo, Wisconsin has hosted a sporting event of epic proportions. Known colloquially as the Northwoods Kentucky Derby, the Oxbo Wood Tick Races are held on the third Saturday in May every year at the Oxbo Bar & Grill
Oxbo is a small community in the Flambeau River State Forest. The town is made up of the Oxbo Bar & Grill, the adjoining Oxbo Resort, and a handful of other buildings scattered throughout the forest. The town is about 40 miles east of Hayward, 13 miles west of Park Falls, and 50 miles south of the lake Superior shoreline. In short, it’s pretty remote.
But even though it’s small and off the beaten path, every year hundreds of aspiring wood tick racers descend upon Oxbo to enter the Oxbo Wood Tick Races.
Wood Tick Racing
In 2026, the 45th annual Wood Tick Races, there were 187 entrants — and that’s just the number of competing wood ticks. The number of people who traveled far and wide to watch fleet-footed wood ticks vastly outnumbered the arachnids.
How to Race a Wood Tick
Step one: Get a wood tick.
These tiny bloodsucking beasts are pretty common in Wisconsin in early May. But if you aren’t able to secure yourself a wood tick, no problem. You can buy one from the Oxbo Resort’s limited supply for just $1.00.
But the Oxbo’s stock of ticks sells out quickly. There’s no guarantee there’ll be ticks for sale when you arrive, so it’s best to bring your own. After all, you need a little time to develop that personal relationship with your racing tick.
Step two. Register your wood tick.
Pay the registration fee of $1.00 (cash only). Come up with a fun name for your tick. This can be hard to do when you’re put on the spot, so the professional racers always show up at registration with a few entertaining names. Here are a few of the more memorable names we encountered at the 2026 seasonal competition:
Tick Flair, Tick-awwf, Tick Tracy, Rowdy, Roy, Gin Ticky, Nancy Lou, Tick Me Off, Tic-uila Sunrise, Lickity Split, Double D, Wolverine, and (my personal favorite) 6-7.
Then write your tick’s name on the registration fee dollar bill and on the colored nametag sticker you’re given.
The entered ticks are grouped into different heats. These heats are identified by the different colors on the nametag stickers. This year there were six heats — red, green, blue, purple, yellow, and another blue. Or maybe there were seven. To be honest, in all the excitement I may have lost count.
You can register a tick to race right up until the first heat is over.
Step three. Race your wood tick.
When your heat is called, head to the Wood Tick Racing Pavilion and get ready to pit your wood tick in a race to the death.
Ticks are paired up bracket-style through random chance. For each race, two dollar bills are drawn and clipped to the competition board. The ticks named on those bills go head-to-head in the Oxbo International Raceway.
Two ticks enter. One tick leaves.
Both ticks are placed in the center of the yellow circle. When both ticks are right-side up and ready to run, the race is on.
The first tick to scurry its way across the outer red circle is the winner — and the dollar bill with its name gets placed into the “winner” box.
While the winning tick advances to the next round, the loser is ceremoniously smashed with a wooden mallet. The losing tick’s trainer is always welcome to smash their tick themselves, but if it’s too much of an emotional moment, race emcee Niki is always happy to finish off the slower tick.
There are two tracks in the Wood Tick Pavillion, and races alternate between the two tracks to keep the races ticking along.
When all the initial heats have concluded, the remaining ticks are chosen bracket-style to
face off in head-to-head action until only one tick remains. The winning tick has the distinction of the last tick to be smashed.
This year Tick-awwf took first place with its final competitor, Wolverine, coming in as runner-up.
But the trainer of the the winning tick gets the entire purse of all the entrants’ fees (so a big stack of one dollar bills with tick names written on them), a commemorative wall plaque. and — as they say up in Oxbo — bragging rights.
Thrills, Chills, and Upsets
Wood tick racing, as it turns out, is a strangely thrilling event.
My favorite-named tick, 6-7, was on target to win its first heat. But, just as it was about to cross the red line, it got confused and headed back toward the yellow circle. 6-7’s competitor wasted no time in exploiting this error and bolted across the red line.
Race Emcee Niki gets a lot of the credit for keeping the excitement level up. She calls the race while the action unfolds. She’s been on the mic here at the Oxbo Wood Tick Races for seven years, so her color commentary is quite entertaining.
Wood Tick Racing in Action
if you want to get a taste of the red hot excitement of a Wood Tick Race, here’s a short video (just under a minute) of one of the races from the 2026 season.
More than a race. It’s a celebration!
The Oxbo Bar & Grill goes all-out for the Wood Tick Races with a wide variety of beverages on offer, the special Oxbo Burger, food, and a live band. In 2026, Gman and Lisa kept the place rocking.
So until it’s time for your race, you can just hang out and enjoy the festivities.
With every subsequent year seeing a record number of tick bites, the Oxbo Wood Tick Races are welcome antidote to the eight-legged scourge of Wisconsin forests.
If you want to attend this cathartic celebration, mark your calendars for the third Saturday in May. Tune in to the Facebook pages of the Oxbo Bar & Grill and the Oxbo Resort the official announcement. It’s usually posted in February.
And, if you want to learn more about ticks, specifically in Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin — Madison Entomology Department has you covered.
Wood Tick Races
- 6275N Oxbo Dr, Park Falls (just off State Highway 70)
- GPS Coordinates: 45.861325, -90.705740 [ Google Maps ]
- what3words: ///exploration.sardine.considering
