Hail to the kings: Monarch festival flutters with beautiful butterflies

Each year, they migrate from Mexico to Canada in a generational relay race, then flutter 3,000 miles back to Mexico to start it all over again.

This time of year, their journey takes them through Oklahoma — which makes the 2012 Monarch Migration and Butterfly Festival in rural McClain County the place to be on Saturday.

Five of the last six years, Ann and Ed Hart, along with several other volunteers, have hosted the butterfly get-together near Washington and Cole.

“We didn't do it last year because of the drought,” Ed Hart said.

“None of our butterflies' plants survived, so we couldn't do it.”

Monarchs rely on certain plants to sustain them throughout their developmental stages. Caterpillars feed on milkweed, Hart said; butterflies eat nectar from flowers.

The butterfly festival is held at the Jerusalem Community Heritage Center and Park near Washington.