It takes an act of God, or in Routt County, the annual fair, to entice local ranchers out of the hayfields and off the ranch for several days in August. For the past century, the Routt County Fair has been the one event that brings together ranch families and others from all corners of the county — Yampa, Hahn’s Peak, Pleasant Valley, Oak Creek and Clark — to congregate, compete and camp at the historic fairgrounds in Hayden.
At the inaugural fair, held Sept. 9 to 11, 1914, it was airplane ascensions that were one of the principal draws. Many of the 2,000 people who attended the fair traveled by train, taking advantage of special trips and fares offered by the railroad, and in Oak Creek, Craig and Yampa, schools were closed so families could enjoy the fair together.
That first fair offered the chance for the residents of Northwest Colorado to see an airplane for the first time, and W.B. Cooke, the “famous bird man of the Pacific Coast,” didn’t disappoint, showing off his “flying machine” by making thrilling aerial flights on two days during the fair.
Other notable attractions at the 1914 Routt County Fair included a four-round boxing match between Fred L. Beck, of Steamboat Springs, and Percy Peacock, of Williams Fork, and a fancy shooting exhibition by Capt. A.H. Hardy, of the Peters Cartridge Co.
The now-famous horse races debuted at the fair, and the first Routt County Fair ribbons were handed out to exhibitors who showed off their top livestock, grains, grasses, baked goods and handmade crafts, including tatting, quilting and hand-stitched items.
Carpenter & White swept the Hereford cattle awards, and Coke Roberds did the same in the grade cattle category. The best pickle prize went to Mrs. L. Kimsey, Charlotte Cook won the award for best hemstitching by girls and E. Shelton & Son won the Steamboat Pilot Special Prize for the best collection of vegetables grown by any individual.
Promoters of the three-day event credited providence for the fair’s success with three days of beautiful weather followed by snow the day after the fair closed.
“Taken all in all, never was a first fair more successful,” reported an article in the Sept. 16, 1914, issue of the Steamboat Pilot. “The men behind the fair idea were untiring in their efforts to make it one of the biggest events ever pulled off on the Western Slope, and they succeeded.
“Yes, the first Routt County Fair was a success,” the article concluded.
Building on success
Fast-forward 100 years, and volunteers still work tirelessly to put on one of the most successful continuously running fairs in Colorado.
A century later, the Herculean efforts that went into planning that first fair continue as the 2014 Fair Board marks the event’s 100th anniversary throughout the next two weeks. The fair officially opened Friday night and will continue with daily events and activities scheduled through Aug. 17 at the historic fairgrounds in Hayden.
As Fair Board member Linda Long describes it, the Routt County Fair is one of “the biggest little fairs in the state,” and she says it takes hundreds of volunteers to bring the fair to life each summer.
And when it comes to volunteering, Long could be considered a professional. She’s been involved with the Routt County Fair for 42 years, first serving as a crops and building superintendent and then joining the Fair Board in 1991.
“I’m always community minded,” Long said when asked why she’s remained involved in the fair for such a long tenure. “It’s just exciting for me to see the look on people’s faces as they enjoy the fair.”
Long serves on the board with her son, David, and two fairs ago, the summer before her mother passed away, the Long family had five generations represented at the fair.
“That’s kind of rare,” Long said. “For us, and many others, it’s quite a family event. We come down and camp here for a week.”
The 2014 version of the Routt County Fair will be flavored by history.
Past Fair Board members will serve as the grand marshals of the parade through downtown Hayden at 10 a.m. Aug. 16, and there will be a special luncheon held Aug. 15 in recognition of former Routt County Fair royalty.
For exhibitors, there will be special categories for historic items and entries that celebrate the fair’s past 100 years, including a contest for the best old photo from the fair. There also will be a new award presented in each of the 11 departments for the exhibitor that best represents the 100th anniversary of the fair.
Community Agriculture Alliance will host heritage arts demonstrations in the Exhibit Hall on Aug. 15, 16 and 17, showcasing skills such as spinning, fence repair, leather tolling and horse-hair braiding.
Special ribbons commemorating the fair’s 100th anniversary will be awarded, and Long hopes the excitement of winning one of those one-of-a-kind ribbons will attract even more exhibit entries than usual.
The record number of entries at the fair stands at 1,350, and Long is looking to surpass that this summer.
“Our aim is to fill this building (the exhibit hall) and get people out for the special ribbons,” Long said. “And we don’t turn exhibits away. We try to find a place for them in the building.”
Some of the more unique exhibits in past years have included a handmade coffin and a 20-foot-high metal horse sculpture, which was too large to fit in the exhibition space and now sits on the corner of Routt County Roads 44 and 56.
The pride Routt County residents take in winning ribbons for their home-grown and homemade exhibits is as real today as it was 100 years ago.
“Across the state and across the nation, county fairs are really languishing,” Routt County University Extension Director Karen Massey said. “I truly believe the Routt County Fair is the best in Northwest Colorado. We have more entries in our exhibit hall than larger events on the Front Range.
“I’d like to say it’s not about the awards, but I’d be lying. There are women who have been competing with one another for years to win the best quilt or best pickle. There’s definitely some bragging rights going on.”
And it’s that friendly competition and camaraderie that keep people coming back to the fair year after year.
“The Routt County Fair is the celebration of Routt County’s agricultural roots,” Massey said. “It is the one time of the year when people from all over the county work together to put on an event.
“Routt County Fair is about our connection to our land and to each other.”
Deep roots, rich history
The history of the Routt County Fair goes back to a successful Railroad Days event that was held in Hayden in 1913. After that well-attended public gathering, a “bunch of fellows” met at the old Furlong store to talk about the possibility of holding a community event on an annual basis.
The group discussed creating an event aimed at raising improved stock and encouraging agriculture products in a competitive way, and from that informal meeting, the Routt County Fair and Racing Association was formed.
According to several histories of the fair, including “Faster Horses, Younger Women, Older Whiskey” by Sureva Towler and Jim Stanko, the association purchased 37 acres of land in Hayden from Wilson Cary at a price of $50 per acre with Cary taking half the payment in fair stock.
The first elected board of directors of the newly formed association included B.T. Shelton, F.R. Carpenter, D.L. Sellers, S.A. Adair, S.M. Dawson, George Anderson and Stanley Brock. Marshall Starr was appointed as the first board president.
In the months leading up the 1914 fair, volunteers worked tirelessly to grade the land and create a sloping oval racetrack, which was surrounded by a wooden plank fence. A wire fence was erected to encircle the entire grounds, and a ticket office at the main gate and a temporary grandstand also were built just in time for the opening of the fair.
Gate receipts were enough at the inaugural fair to pay all the premiums and purses in the race. The association also allotted $1,500 in stock sales after the first year to erect a permanent 1,000-seat grandstand, a livestock shed, a corral and a two-story exhibit hall with a viewing balcony, which all were completed in time for the 1915 fair.
That early property remains the site of the fair today. The historic racetrack was renovated this past year, and the grounds now are served by newer buildings that are used for livestock showing and a place to exhibit fair entries.
The exhibit hall, which was relocated to the old Road and Bridge Shop on the fairgrounds site in spring 1984, also received a facelift this year with a bathroom upgrade and the addition of decorative wainscoting on the hall’s interior walls. In honor of the 100th anniversary, individuals and businesses have the opportunity to purchase commemorative tiles that will be placed above the wainscoting with all money benefiting further remodeling at the hall.
In 2002, Routt County 4-H and FFA members led a fundraising drive to construct a new multi-use indoor arena, which is the site of the fair’s annual livestock show. The facility was built with the assistance of an Energy Impact Grant and tremendous support from the community.
The newest upgrade to the fairgrounds is a state-of-the-art sound system that provides improved announcing capabilities and a communications system between buildings. It will be used for the first time during the 2014 fair.
Here’s to another 100 years
The longevity of the Routt County Fair is not something current organizers and those who have enjoyed the fair for decades take for granted.
“It’s an exciting time to celebrate 100 years, for sure,” Long said. “And the fair is a really important tradition we want to keep going.”
For Marsha Daughenbaugh, executive director of Community Agriculture Alliance and a longtime Routt County rancher and 4-H leader, the fair represents continuity and connectivity.
“I grew up in the 4-H program,” said Daughenbaugh, who was a 4-H member for 10 years and a leader for 19. “Back then, every little draw seemed to have a club. The first time I remember going to the fair, I was with my father and mother. I vividly remember the old two-story exhibit hall and looking down at the displays.”
Daughenbaugh’s memories of the fair grow stronger as she thinks back to the years when she and Mary Kay Monger served as co-leaders of the Fairplay 4-H Club.
She recalls the summers when the Daughenbaughs and Mongers would bring their horse trailers to the fair and camp for days.
“We would set up a barbecue grill and a picnic table in between them, and we would feed as many kids as we could during the fair,” Daughenbaugh said. “We used our two campers as a staging area — a place for the kids to change clothes, get out of the sun and, of course, eat as only teenagers can do.”
The fair, Daughenbaugh said, is about teaching kids values and about giving the rural community a chance to gather together off the ranch.
“There are so many things kids learn at the fair. They learn to respect adults, and the competition teaches them that everyone is going in there and not everyone is going to win. They also learn to be grateful to a community that supports the county fair.
“For the rural community, it’s the one time a year you can get together and just visit,” Daughenbaugh continued. “You reconnect with old friends and meet new people that have moved into the valley. It is what it is. It’s not big or pretentious. It works.”
Routt County Extension Agent Todd Hagenbuch has been coming to the fair since he was a youngster and would enter four or five of his best heifers in the livestock show.
“Everyone brought in their best stock and competed against their neighbors,” Hagenbuch said.
“For me personally, the fair is the one time we can come out of the hay field and take the time to break bread with one another. That’s the real beauty of it. It’s a time to connect with people — people of like minds and interests.”
But Hagenbuch is quick to point out that the fair is about more than just history.
“The fair is not just for the historic Routt County families,” Hagenbuch said. “There’s opportunities for new families to engage in the Routt County Fair. It’s dedication that allows the fair to continue year after year, but there is room for new people.”
Former Routt County Extension Agent C.J. Mucklow, who served in that capacity from 1989 to 2011, has the opportunity to visit fairs all across Colorado in his current role as western regional director for CSU’s Extension Office. He remains proud of his hometown fair and points to several traditions that have contributed to the local fair’s long and storied history.
“We have more open exhibits by far than any other fair,” Mucklow said. “It’s very cool. We haven’t lost participation like other fairs.”
The fair’s famous barbecue, held Saturday night before the livestock show, is another huge draw.
“Every fair has a barbecue, but we have one of the biggest. About 900 people come. They have a secret sauce, which includes a lot of whiskey and beer.”
For Mucklow, community involvement is at the very heart of Routt County Fair’s success as it enters its second century.
“Routt County Fair does a better job than any other fair of keeping the locals involved,” Mucklow said. “Historically, the fair was a way to show off agriculture commodities. It’s now become a way to show off all kinds of homemade things. It’s about keeping our cowboy culture and our agricultural heritage a part of Routt County — the fair is the event that does that.”
The fair of the future
Routt County ranchers Bill Gay and his mother, Elaine Gay, are seasoned fair veterans. The family home and barn are filled with shelves of trophies and drawers of ribbons won at the fair by several generations of family members throughout the years.
When asked about her fondest fair memories, Elaine, at age 96, said she remembers a cake she made when she was 10 years old that won a blue ribbon at the Routt County Fair and earned her a trip to the state fair in Pueblo.
“We took the train, and Mrs. Werner was our chaperone,” Elaine said. “It was a white cake with white frosting. I think it was a one-egg cake that I used to bake to save on eggs.”
Elaine also talked about the time she and her sister won $60 from selling two steers at the fair.
“Mother took us to Golden Rule (a store in Steamboat Springs) to buy clothes for school, and we paid with a check against the money we were to get from the steers,” Elaine said. “But we never got the money because the bank closed. It was during the Depression.”
As a result, Elaine said she and her sister picked strawberries in Strawberry Park to pay for the clothes, which was a common way for kids to earn a little spending money in the early 1930s.
“Back then, everyone went to the fair for fun,” Elaine said. “You ate there, and you saw all your neighbors there.”
For Bill, the fair is not about the past but the future.
“Back in the ‘40s, ‘50s and even the ‘60s, the fair was a reflection of the ranching and farming community of Routt County. The big victories were the grand champion breeding females — bovine, sheep and equine.
“Then in the ‘70s, that started to change,” Bill said. “The 4-H sales became the focus and the exhibit hall. The focus has changed because agriculture has changed in Routt County.”
Bill predicts that more changes are in store for the fair heading into its next 100 years. He is counting on sustainable agriculture to be the “new wave” of agriculture for Routt County.
“The fair could become a picture window for sustainable agriculture, and we should lead the parade in terms of education and demonstrations,” Bill said. “Sustainable agriculture makes greater use of the land and resources we have to provide food for immediate consumption. Agriculture has evolved, and the fair has to change with the times and be out in front of whatever agrarian movement is ahead.
“For the fair, I think this is a wonderful and exciting opportunity.”
To reach Lisa Schlichtman, call 970-871-4221, email lschlichtman@SteamboatToday.com or follow her on Twitter @LSchlichtman