Fall Mudcrawl wristbands and waivers run through Muenster

Anyone driving to the Rednecks with Paychecks Fall Mudcrawl this week has business in Cooke County before reaching the mud. The organizer's contact page directs ticket holders to collect wristbands and complete waivers at its ticket facility at 301 North Ash Street in Muenster, then drive to the park at 3064 FM 3206 in Saint Jo. The company lists the event for Sept. 17 through 20 and bills it as a celebration of 15 years.

Admission covers the run of more than 1,200 acres of riding ground, according to the organizer's attractions page, with mud pits, canyons, creek beds and rock courses. Competitions and live entertainment on Friday and Saturday are included. The company also advertises a Back 40 section of better than 300 additional acres holding a mega truck and side-by-side track, a bigger tug pad, another vending area and more powered RV spaces.

The organizer requires attendees to be 18 or older and to carry valid photo identification. It lists Sept. 17-20 admission at $105 for the four days and $100 for a Saturday-Sunday pass, plus applicable fees. Camping costs extra. Its ticket page shows the same four-day pass listed about $20 cheaper during a late-July early sale.

The name goes back a decade and a half. A February 2014 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office publication records the company's claim that it first used Rednecks With Paychecks for off-road entertainment exhibitions in August 2011, with commercial use starting the next month. Its Summer Roundup page advertised an all-ages event for June 18-21 of this year, with a $10,000 payout for a junk car race.

Medical coverage at the park has come from Sacred Cross EMS. Chad Edgar of that organization told the FirstNet Authority it had served Rednecks with Paychecks since 2011 and held continuous coverage across the four-day events. Edgar said his crews worked through the Montague County Sheriff's Office dispatch center, and that a deployable cellular system improved contact with hospitals, ambulance crews and medical helicopters. He was describing past operations, not this year's staffing.

Cooke County keeps its own off-road ground on different terms. Red River Motorcycle Trails at Bulcher describes a 2,700-acre park established in August 1972, admitting dirt bikes, ATVs and listed utility vehicles while barring Jeeps and dune buggies. Admission there runs about $30 a person for the day, children nine and younger free, with primitive camping free in order of arrival, minus the member shower houses. That is day access to a park rather than a four-day festival package.

Growth in the wider outdoor business slowed in 2024. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported in March that inflation-adjusted outdoor recreation GDP grew about 3% that year, roughly half the prior year's revised pace and a shade behind the economy as a whole. RV recreation accounted for about $2.7 billion in Texas value added, second only to Indiana, a statewide figure the bureau does not break down to a single event or county.