Highlights Archives
Wisconsin Goes to the State Fair
Cream puffs, cows and cotton candy are just a few of things that make the Wisconsin State Fair such a memorable and anticipated summertime event. The 11-day extravaganza that attracts nearly a million people to State Fair Park in West Allis is quite a different event than the first Wisconsin State Fair, held 155 years ago in Janesville.
Between 8,000 and 12,000 people paid their 10-cent admission price to attend Wisconsin's first State Fair in 1851. The fair was sponsored by the State Agricultural Society to showcase the state's advances in agricultural machinery and production. From almost the start, the fair was a big deal here in Wisconsin, even attracting presidential hopeful Abraham Lincoln in 1859. Until 1892, the fair did not have a permanent home and migrated to a different Wisconsin town each year.
The annual fair has been cancelled only five times in its history. The 1861 fair, set for Madison, was called off due to the Civil War. The fairgrounds, renamed Camp Randall, became a training camp for volunteer troops. The war led to the fair's cancellation again in 1862 and 1863. The 1865 fair was held not as an agricultural exhibition, but as a fund-raiser for the Soldiers' Home in Milwaukee. Anticipating a loss of attendance due to the nearby World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the fair was cancelled again in 1893. The final cancellation occurred in 1945 at the request of the U.S. Office of War Transportation.
Over the years, new attractions and entertainment were added to the standard farm exhibits to increase attendance. Alice in Dairyland, for example, got her start in 1948. The State Fair records in the Society's archives fully document the development of the modern Wisconsin State Fair and include more than 3,000 photographs. More than 200 of these images are available for online viewing in our feature gallery, Wisconsin State Fair, from the Society's image database, Wisconsin Historical Images.
:: Posted August 9, 2006
|
