Lincoln fairgrounds' final bow

LINCOLN — It has weathered fires, torrential rains and even a fatal carnival ride accident in 1965.

It has seen “Better Baby” contests, goat-milking competitions and uncounted hogs, cattle, sheep, chickens and other animals.

Memories will be at the top of the bill Friday, when the Nebraska State Fair begins its final run at the historic fairgrounds in Lincoln.

As of Jan. 1, the fair's new home will be in Grand Island. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will take over the Lincoln fairgrounds, which adjoin the downtown campus, to build a research park.

For Jill Brown, who grew up on a family farm near Arlington and served cotton candy at her wedding, waiting for the State Fair each year rivaled waiting for Christmas.

Brown recalled riding in the back of her parents' car on the way to Lincoln, making last-minute rearrangements of the bushel basket of vegetables she would display in 4-H exhibits.

Now 28 and a career specialist at the UNL agriculture college, Brown is still a fair regular and urges students to take part in the fair.

“It's a chance to enjoy the unleashed enthusiasm you had as a kid,” she said.

The State Fair has been held at the same location in Lincoln since 1901, when the Legislature put up $35,000 to buy and build on a site within three miles of the State Capitol.

Before then, the fair had bounced between Lincoln and Omaha. Nebraska City and Brownville also hosted early fairs.

The State Fair predates Nebraska statehood in 1867, with the first Territorial and Mechanical Fair held in Nebraska City in 1859.

Willard Waldo, 97, a retired hog farmer and former state senator from DeWitt, recalls building crates as a boy to ship the family's breeding stock — one per crate — via railway to the fair. Waldo visited his first State Fair as an infant, in 1912.

He doesn't reminisce about the food or carnival rides over the years. For him, as with other farmers, the fair was a trade show. He sold his hogs there. He worked with farmers, 4-H'ers and his own children to exhibit livestock. He even bred puppies to sell at the fair.

“It's pretty much business, you can see that,” Waldo said from his room at the Wilber Care Center. “But there's some joy to it, too.”

Along with circus elephants, biplanes and carousels in the 1920s, photographs from the era show stately fairgrounds with elaborate gateways, courtyards and cupolas. Most of those buildings are gone; the oldest on the grounds are the 1918 Industrial Arts Building and the 1931 4-H Building.

The State Fair has had its financial ups and downs. That first territorial fair lost money. The Lincoln Chamber of Commerce subsidized the event during the Depression years and helped the fair replace a cattle barn that burned down.

Former State Fair Manager Henry Brandt, who retired in 1988, said parimutuel betting on horse races, approved by voters in 1934, supported the State Fair for many years.

“Absolutely, that's where we made the money to build buildings on the fairgrounds and to support the fair,” he said. “I remember the first day we handled a million dollars'' in 1978. The money helped pay off bonded indebtedness and build a new grandstand in the 1970s.

After horse racing revenue crashed under competition from other gambling options, the fair verged on bankruptcy in 2003. Attendance, once near 500,000, dwindled to less than 240,000 that year.

The State Fair began seeing a turnaround after a 2004 vote to earmark about $2.5 million a year in lottery funds for the fair.

But some Lincoln leaders eyed the fairgrounds as part of a comprehensive effort to build up the city's center.

At first the talk was of moving the fair elsewhere in Lincoln, but Grand Island successfully vied for the event. The Legislature approved the $42 million move in 2008.

Brown plans to continue her tradition of attending the State Fair every day, even after it moves to Grand Island.

The fair's current executive director, Joseph McDermott, has worked there for 20 years.

Although he and his staff are looking forward to the new, custom-built digs in Grand Island, it will be sad to bid the Lincoln fairgrounds goodbye.

“That last day of the fair, it's going to be a tough day,” McDermott said.

Contact the writer:

402-473-9581, leslie.reed@owh.com