News

Bottineau County Fair celebrates 125 years

By Scott Wagar

06/10/2014

Editor’s Note: The 125th Bottineau County Fair will take place from June 12-15. With the county fair in its Quasquicentennial year, the Bottineau Courant has written an article on the origins of the Bottineau County Fair and its history in its celebration of this landmark fair event.

One could say the Bottineau County Fair actually started on September 12, 1887, when the city of Bottineau hosted its first fair, which welcomed the entire county to participate in. Over a century and a quarter later, the Bottineau County Fair still exists and carries on as a celebratory event in the county with the honorable title as being the oldest county fair in the entire state of North Dakota.

ORIGINS

The Bottineau County Fair started out as a city fair during a unique, week long event that took place in Bottineau that September when the North Dakota Cavalry of the North Dakota National Guard came to Bottineau and set-up an encampment for a week of drills for its soldiers.

The week long drills took place at Camp Tyner, which is where Bottineau High School is located today. The camp was named after Noah N. Tyner, the adjutant general of the Dakota Territory at that time in 1887, which was two years before North Dakota became a state. (Tyner was from Davenport, Iowa, and served with the 14th Iowa Infantry during the American Civil War. He was wounded in the Battle of Shiloh on April 6, 1862. He remained in the war until his discharge in November in 1864.)  

Along with the soldiers that came to Bottineau that fall, some special events followed the soldiers to the community, which included a grand ball and something new to Bottineau, a fair.

The fair that week took place under cold and inclement weather. However, the weather didn’t stop the brass band from playing and local individuals rushing to the fair to get their first real glimpse of a fair, which included prizes given out for a variety of exhibits in field crops, vegetable gardens, preserves and flower arrangements.

With success of the first fair, the Bottineau County Agricultural Society (BACS) was organized on August 18, 1888 with William Stewart Sr. as the president of the board and J.H. Thompson as its secretary. The board’s mission was “To establish a board for the purpose of operating a county fair.”

It didn’t take the fair board long to establish a county fair, which took place in the fall of 1889.

“The directors of the Bottineau County Agricultural Society met at the house of Dr. J.A. Greig, which included President William Stewart, J.A. Greig, P.D. Sutor, George Fletcher, James Waddle, David Clark, David Dinwoodie, David Miller and J.H. Turner,” stated the Bottineau Pioneer in late September of 1889. “The report of the committee appointed to prepare a prize list was accepted and order printed in each of the Bottineau papers.”  

The fair that year took place in downtown Bottineau through a number of different establishments in the business district. “The Bottineau County Agricultural Society is animated by the right spirit and from the very first has determined to have the affair a success,” stated the Bottineau Pioneer a week after the fair ended.

GROWTH

With each new fair, the BCAS improved the county fair. In 1902, the board purchased 40 acres of land (the present day fairgrounds), constructed a grandstand that seated 1100 people, along with the race track for individuals to observe events.    

At around the same time, horse races were introduced along with baseball tournaments made up of teams from around the county.

Baseball became a highlight of the early fairs and included many rivalries within the county’s communities. Perhaps the biggest rivalry at the county fair game was between Bottineau and Willow City. At the 1912 Bottineau County Fair, the Bottineau/Willow City rivalry brought over a thousand spectators to the fairgrounds for the game.

MIDWAYS AND  LUCKY BOB

The year 1908 played a significant part of the Bottineau County Fair’s history. In that year, the residents of the county voted to make the fair its official county fair. When the fair took place that summer season, local fairgoers saw something they had never seen at a fair, carnival rides, which kept the employees of the Midway busy that year.

An odd controversy took place between the fairgoers and the BCAS in 1911; and, it came over a guy called “Lucky Bob”.

Lucky Bob was Bob St. Henry, and he brought a new event to the Bottineau County Fair with stunt flying with a Curtis bi-plane. The problem between the two entities was Lucky Bob’s price, which was $500, or, $12,600 in today’s standards of inflation; or, a $71,800 income value for St. Henry.

Considering the large amount of money Lucky Bob wanted to appear at the County Fair, the local residents were upset with the BCAS in paying out that kind of money. However, the members of BCAS stood its ground with their decision and it paid off. Lucky Bob drew the largest crowd the fair had ever seen at that time in its history and it brought the BCAS a profit.

Lucky Bob was so popular he made a return trip back to Bottineau for the 1912 Bottineau County Fair, which drew even a bigger crowd.

“The crowds came early both days of the fair,” stated the Bottineau News. “They came by trains, horses and autos. The trains from both ways (Rugby to Bottineau and Souris to Bottineau) were packed full.”

So many individuals wanted to see Lucky Bob that the Great Northern Railway added an additional train to Bottineau from Rugby just for Lucky Bob’s event at the fair.

CONSTRUCTION AND EVENTS

Up to 1917, the fairgrounds in Bottineau had only stalls for its livestock. That year, the BCAS hired Ed Moline to construct the first horse barn on the grounds, which was 60 by 140 square feet in size.

In the early 1950s, after a wind storm blew down the grandstands, a new grandstand was constructed, which was utilized by fairgoers until the early years of the 21st Century when the grandstand had to razed over age and safety and the current grandstand replaced it.   

Over the years the Bottineau County Fair has seen many events and changes. Some of the events included Roman Chariot races, horse pulls, car racing, tractor pulls, demo derbies, football games, Native American round dances, rodeos, circuses, television personalities and musical performers.

Fairgoers have seen commercial and static exhibits, baking and cooking contests, eating competitions, church stands, free meals and treats and so much more.

The grounds have also seen new barns and exhibit halls.

REMEMBERANCE AND FUTURE

In over 125 years, the Bottineau County Fair has been a special occasion for those in the county and outside of the county, and no doubt the county fair will keep its traditions of being the oldest county fair in the state and a pinnacle event in the county’s summer activities, all thanks to the hundreds of area residents that have volunteered their services to the fair board.