Mighty Mud Mania is coming! Mighty Mud Mania is coming!

That cry isn't likely to make too many St. Louis parents happy. 

But, it signals plenty of fun for local kids ages 6 through 15. Mighty Mud Mania is a time of good outdoor fun and especially a great time to get very dirty. 

Although there are 10 different play areas, the main attraction is a 200-foot obstacle course that ends in a gooey, slippery, oozy mud pit. 

Marty Koch is the St. Louis County recreational supervisor in charge of setting up the event. It will be held at Jefferson Barracks Park in South County Friday and Saturday, July 28 and 29. 

An estimated 6,000 kids are expected to take part in the two-day event. On Friday, the county opens the area to kids attending organized day camps. On Saturday, the event is open to the general public. 

Admission is $6 per person in advance or $7 per person at the gate.

Kids are urged to buy tickets in advance. They will be given a scheduled arrival time. The event sponsors let in 150 kids at 15-minute intervals from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to even out the flow of kids and avoid long lines. 

Once inside, kids can stay as long as they want. The play area shuts down at 5 p.m. 

For ticket information, you can call (314) 894-3089. 

Koch said kids who come should expect to get plenty dirty. "In fact, we urge kids to wear clothes they never plan to use again," he said. The sponsors provide empty 55-gallon barrels where kids can throw away their dirty clothes.

At the end of each day, the barrels are full, Koch said. 

Also on hand will be a whole bunch of shower heads attached to a fire hydrant so kids can clean up between events. "Kids can be wet when they go into other areas but we don't want them to be muddy," he said.

Kids go barefoot through the various fun areas. "We don't let the kids wear shoes because the mud just sucks them off," he said. 

In addition to the mud area, other fun events include:
 

• A giant sand box with three trailer loads of sand. Kids dig for buried gift trinkets.
• A face-painting area. 
• A 30-foot-square area where kids play in 2,000 beach balls.
• A maze area built with bales of straw. 
• There are inflatable attractions such as slides and a "moon-walk."

In addition, there will be some secret new areas which will be tried for the first time this year. Koch said, "We always try two or three new areas each year. If the kids like them, we will bring them back next year," he said.

The event staged by the St. Louis County Parks Department. It is sponsored by the Missouri Army National Guard and the Oakville High School chapter of TREND, an anti-drug organization. 

Parents are required to sign a waiver of liability form before their children enter the recreational area. However, Koch said the events are very safe. On the day before the event, 150 volunteers try out all the events to double-check for safety.

One of those volunteers will be Mark Cowie of St. Louis. His is studying for a degree in parks, recreation and tourism at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He gets college credit for his work with the county. 

In the 16 years the event has been staged, Koch said about 75,000 kids have participated. Only one suffered an accident that required stitches. "And that was an accident in the parking lot," he said. 

But, at the end of the event, what happens to the mud pit? 

"There's a natural sink hole at Jefferson Barracks Park. We just push the mud into the sink hole and start over from scratch next year," he said. 

Any areas that are churned up during Mighty Mud Mania are reseeded. "It takes about a month for the area to recover," Koch said.