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STORIES FROM IOWA'S PAST
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Birth of the Iowa State Fair
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A Guide For Newbies and Out-Of-Staters.
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A Guide For Newbies and Out-Of-Staters.
INDEPTHIowa
On Oct. 25, 1854, one of Iowa’s greatest traditions – its state fair – began with a modest three day event in Fairfield, in southeast Iowa.

It all started on a Wednesday, in 1854, when the three-day Iowa State Fair was held in Fairfield, in southeast Iowa. It was a humble event, designed more with education than entertainment in mind, held in the middle of the week so that travelers wouldn’t have to travel on the Sabbath.

Iowa was just eight years old when that first fair was held. The first significant railroad in the state wouldn’t be finished for another year and the territory west of Des Moines was mostly unsettled and would remain that way for another 15 years.

The Iowa Agricultural Society had been advocating a fair for a few years, theorizing that the gathering would provide needed education to easterners struggling to turn the prairie into what would become the most fertile ground in the world. The fair was set up on a six-acre piece of land, surrounded by a high fence and replete with a handful of temporary sheds and pens for livestock, a tent for exhibits, and a 300-yard circular track for races.

Fairgoers traveled to the grounds from across the region in covered wagons, camping along the way and at the fair. Most of the men still carried pistols in their belts for protection, and a dozen or so men served as the police force for the event.
Hezekiah Fagan, a farmer from Polk County, won the first corn growing contest that year; the Stuart brothers from Lee County won a blue ribbon for the best crop of spring wheat. Visitors gawked at a collection of snakes and lizards preserved in alcohol and a variety of stuffed birds from around the state.

The weekly Fairfield Ledger estimated that from 7,000 to 8,000 people attended. "The attendance was large. For several days before the Fair, strangers commenced pouring into Fairfield by scores,” The paper reported in its November 2, 1854, edition. “Such a concourse of people never before
assembled in Iowa.” The entire event cost $323 to stage.

The fair was enough of a success that it returned to Fairfield in 1855, this time located on 10 acres of land. That began the 22 year practice of moving the fair around eastern Iowa every two years until finding a permanent home in Des Moines in 1878.

The cities that hosted the state fair included: Muscatine, 1856-1857; Oskaloosa, 1858-1859; Iowa City, 1860-1861; Dubuque, 1862-1863; Burlington, 1864-1866; Clinton, 1867-1868; Keokuk, 1869-1870, 1874-1875; and Cedar Rapids, 1871-1873, 1876-1878.

The event grew in size and scope every year, in part because of the state’s booming population, an improved infrastructure, and the steady development of the railroad.

But in 1861, with the start of the Civil War, the fair went into a mild hibernation for four years. In Iowa City, the fair was held at the Johnson County Fairgrounds, which had temporarily become known as Camp Fremont and was used to muster troops into Union service until three days before the start of the event. A year later, after some talk about canceling the event, it was held in Dubuque and enjoyed a surprising attendance. Iowa was a handful of states in the so-called Northwest Territory to hold state fairs that year.

By then, discussions were being held about finding a permanent home for the fair. In fact, as early as 1855, fair officials began pushing for a “permanent location of the place of holding the exhibition . . . the Society must be permanently located in some central position and permanent arrangements made for its accommodation."

Finally, in 1879, the Fair moved to Des Moines and remained there, although it took six years to persuade the Legislature to appropriate the money to buy a site. In the meantime it took place on the west side of Des Moines in a 16-block tract of land known as Brown’s Park, which was locatd between 38th Street and 42nd Street, Center Street and Grand Avenue.

In 1884 the state legislature agreed to appropriate $50,000 for a permanent location if the city of Des Moines could raise an equal amount. Des Moines met the challenge and on Sept. 7, 1886 the current grounds, two miles east of downtown, were dedicated.

Cars lined up in the fairgrounds at the Iowa State Fair in 1939