What's Happening at the Fair?

Last year I promised the vendors that had booths during the fair in the arena commercial area that I would try to bring in a big exhibit that would bring more people by their booths. My dream was to display our gillnet boat in this vendor area.

The Wahkiakum County Fair's double-ended Columbia River Gillnet Boat has been moved to the fairgrounds arena commercial vendor area! This boat was built between 1913 and 1916 and has been in storage up on blocks sitting in its hull cradle for over 30 years.

On Monday, the gillnet boat was carefully moved into the display area by a few knowledgeable volunteers. Huge thanks to Bill Chamberlain, John McKinley and Dan Meader for tackling this project and making it look easy. To the crew that showed up to help position the boat nice and straight for the exhibit, thank you John Gustafson, Ed Stevens, Nick Brockway and Kent Martin.

A few months ago I heard about a set of information panels that were written about the Legacy of the Columbia River Fisheries. As I was reading through the information and looking at the pictures, on one of the panels was our double-ended gillnet boat. I knew these two exhibits needed to be joined and displayed at our fair. The boat is a real treasure of our past and is going to be the center of an educational historical exhibit displayed with the Legacy of the Columbia River Fishery Panels.

What more could we add to this already incredible exhibit? How about a barbecue featuring Alaskan salmon, caught by Art Pedersen, cooked over a big alder wood fire in the fairgrounds park at noon, on Saturday during the fair?

Groups of shoppers stopped by the fairgrounds Rummage and Book sale last Saturday in spite of the rainy weather. Thank you for your purchases and also for the donations we received! We receive new items each week as people continue to donate good usable items to the fair sales. I just picked up a truck load of nice items that were donated and they will be available to purchase this Saturday. We will be open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The funds raised at our rummage and book sales will be used to make needed improvements all over the fairgrounds. Be sure to purchase raffle tickets for a cord of alder/maple firewood at the sale too, for $1 a ticket. The drawing will be held August 18 during fair time.

The second Horsemanship Challenge Series event begins at 9 a.m. on July 14 at the Wahkiakum County Fairgrounds Arena. The break down for the age groups is Junior (3rd – 5th grade), Intermediate (6th – 8th grade), Senior (9th – 12th grade) and Adult 19 years and up. The cost is $25 to run through the events. We have camp sites available Friday - Sunday in the Fairgrounds Park for $16.04 per night per family and stalls to rent for $10 a day per horse for the July 14 event. For Horsemanship Challenge information or a pre-registered time to run the course contact Show Manager Tina Merz at 957- 5368. For camping or stall rental contact Fair Manager Becky Ledtke at 795-3480 .

Wahkiakum County Fair now has a Facebook page! You can view our 2012 Fair entertainment schedule and check for new events happening at the Fairgrounds each weekend. Be sure to Like our Facebook page and share it with your friends.

If you need to gain access to the Fairgrounds contact Fair Manager Becky Ledtke at 360-795-3480 and leave a message.