Property Record
FAIRGROUNDS RD
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Vernon County Fairgrounds- Race Track |
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| Other Name: | Race Track |
| Contributing: | Yes |
| Reference Number: | 73586 |
| Location (Address): | FAIRGROUNDS RD |
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| County: | Vernon |
| City: | Viroqua |
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| Year Built: | 1891 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1996 |
| Historic Use: | fairground/fair structure |
| Architectural Style: | NA (unknown or not a building) |
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| Demolished?: | No |
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| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | The race track is a flat dirt oval-shaped track that is a half-mile in length. This track has been in existence since the county fair was moved to this location in 1891 and it is still in use as a horse race track in 1996, the races being among the fair's most popular events. Because of its historic and continuing importance to the fair and because of its significance to the proposed historic district as its oldest extant resource, the race track is considered to be a contributing element and a significant landscape feature. 1995- "The race track that occupies the north half of the fairgrounds is believed to be one of the oldest if not the oldest resource 1n the district. This landscape feature consists ot a half-mile-long oval-shaped track which is surfaced in dirt and which encircles a grass-covered inner oval. Horse racing was a principal event at the annual fair even betore the fairgrounds were moved to this location in 1891 and the track is believed to have been one ot the first things that was built when the fair rnoved to its new grounds in that year." - "USH 14 Transportation Study ", WisDOT ID #1646-07-00, Prepared by Timothy F Heggland (1995). |
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| Bibliographic References: | Vernon County Censor. June 24, 1931, p. 4. Vernon County Heritage. Viroqua: Vernon County Historical Society, 1994, p. 242. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |