From giant cabbages to JFK, the Alaska State Fair celebrates 80 years in Palmer

The 2016 Alaska State Fair in Palmer marks the 80th anniversary of the festival. To commemorate the occasion, officials commissioned artist Ruth Hulbert to create a quilt-themed poster with nine panels. Each panel covers a different decade, starting with 1936-1945. Here's a quick history of the fair as told in Hulbert's art and augmented by details dug up from old newspapers and documents from the fair office and Palmer Historical Society.

The beginnings

Planning for the first Matanuska Valley Fair — the original name — began in 1935. Milton David Snodgrass, the director of the University of Alaska Experimental Station in the Valley, set about creating a four-day harvest festival with people who had homesteaded the area even before the settlers with the Matanuska Colony Project showed up. They incorporated The Matanuska Valley Agricultural and Industrial Fair as a nonprofit organization.

The opening day, Sept. 4, 1936, was selected to coincide with the opening of the bridge across the Knik River, which completed the road connection between Palmer and Anchorage. That made it possible for people to risk the muddy pioneer road in cars if they didn't want to make the six-hour train trip.

(Getting to the fair has always been a consideration. In 2016 many are concerned about slowdowns due to construction at the Glenn-Parks intersection, but as of press time both the fair and the state Department of Transportation say the roadwork will be at a point that it won't impede traffic.)

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The festival took place in the newly completed Central School, now Mat-Su Borough offices, with tents and tarps set up around the school for displaying produce and livestock. Admission was $1. Events included egg races, sack races, softball, a baby show, boxing, horse races and, we're told, a "chariot race." The most publicized event was the competition for the Fair Queen, a beauty contest that's still part of the festivities. Fair food was limited to hot dogs, popcorn and homemade root beer.

Activities spread outside the fairgrounds, such as they were. In 1938 one competition sent judges around the community to award ribbons to residents based on farming methods, homes, painted building, good fences and "gates that wouldn't fall down." 1938 is also the year that Buddy Lenze won first prize for the biggest cabbage, 10 ½ pounds.

As the event grew in popularity, organizers acquired 14 acres as a permanent location. It's now the site of the Alaska Veterans and Pioneers Home in Palmer. In 1939, 1,600 people attended the fair at the new location. 1941 is remembered as the year when Max Sherrod brought in a 25-pound cabbage. He had a 36-pounder still in the field, but that one was sent on tour to the states.

Post-war boom

America's entry into World War II put the fair on hold. It was suspended from 1942-46, so even though 2016 is the 80th anniversary, it's technically the 75th year of the fair.

The festival roared back to life in 1947. The war had brought thousands of soldiers to Alaska and they all needed to eat. As a result, farming was booming. In 1947 the Valley grew 2,500 tons of potatoes and successful crops of wheat, barley, oats and winter rye. Thirty-three dairies were in operation, all rated Grade A.

Eager to connect with the crowds, 160 exhibitors set up stands. Among them was the booth of the Alaska Republican Women, the oldest still in operation today, indicated by an elephant silhouette in Hulbert's quilt. Politics were among the big attractions, like the debate between territorial senate candidates Zach Loussac and Heine Snider in 1950.

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Entertainment was increasingly used to boost attendance. The first carnival rides opened in 1950. An air show became part of the event in 1951. A poke (pouch) of gold worth $500 was raffled off.

The 1953 exhibitors' booklet notes 300 farms in the Valley and brags about showcasing "displays from all over Alaska." The prize for the biggest beet, chard and rhubarb was $1.50. Among the most valued prizes were Mason jars for canning. Among the sewing contest categories was one for "thrift." Contestants were judged on their "ingenuity used to solve the problem, economical use of material and durability of the result."

The booklet ran ads for area hotels where visitors could stay if they didn't want to take advantage of "casual camping" and also restaurants, since food booths were still rare. The Palmer Fountain and Café, J.M. Kerttula, Prop., invited guests to "visit us during the fair for the finest food in Alaska." We presume they didn't mean caramel corn.

In 1947, radio station KENI started broadcasting from the fair in a trailer dubbed the "KENI Kamper." Television station KTVA, which signed on at the end of 1953, covered the fair for the first time the very next year.

Fair officials urged people, especially children, to stay off the buildings, which were flimsy wood construction. Quonset huts had supplied some out-of-the-weather space right after the war, but more was needed. Plans were made for a large concrete block building for exhibits, named after M.R. Snodgrass.

Rival 'State Fairs'

For years a prize of $50 was offered for the first cabbage to weigh more than 50 pounds. In 1957 Max Sherrod claimed the money with a 61-pounder. Stock car races were held on the fairgrounds in 1958 on a track that a reporter noted "quickly became rutted, giving spectators extra thrills."

When statehood arrived in 1959 the Matanuska Valley Fair's name changed. "Come to the First Alaska STATE Fair," read the ads.

This set off a battle with the Tanana Valley Fair in Fairbanks. The Legislature eventually decided Fairbanks would be the official state fair in odd-numbered years and Palmer would have the honor in even-numbered years. But the Matanuska boosters grabbed the corporate name, registering as Alaska State Fair, Inc. on Feb. 25, 1959.

The first state fair featured a new metal livestock building and a go-kart track made from reject coal donated by mining companies in the Sutton area. The little go-karts were something of a national craze at the time. Basically boards on wheels powered by lawn-mower engines, they could hit 65 miles an hour and Palmer bragged about having the longest such track in the state.

1959 is also when we find the first mention of Alaska Native dancers, from the Copper River area. The Alaska Nurses Association supplied free baby-sitting. One curious photo from the time shows four girls in high-heels, high-fashion dresses and even a mink stole competing in a 4-H modeling contest.

Realizing that the publicity surrounding statehood would draw more attention to Alaska, organizers required animals to be tested for diseases before being exhibited and pleaded with concessionaires to freshen up the paint on their buildings.

That attention came to the fair in a big way in 1960 when presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, on his second trip to Alaska, made a speech. Hulbert reproduces a photo of the future president with farmer J.V. Kruscavage and his donkey Cindy in the center panel for this decade. It's said that there's another photo of six local farmers pushing Kennedy's Thunderbird out of the mud south of the fairgrounds after it got stuck, but no one seems to be able to find it.

Growing pains

Fifteen thousand people showed up for the fair in 1960. In addition to seeing Kennedy, they could enjoy a bonfire, archery exhibition and "no-snow dog sled races."

Political leaders put the fair on their itineraries. Gov. Bill Egan regularly showed up and led the parade. The "Senator's Booth" featured slides of Washington, D.C., courtesy of Sen. Bob Bartlett, narrated by Mrs. Bartlett. In 1965, the show included pictures of Kennedy's casket lying in state under the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building.

In 1961 Lowell Thomas Jr. filmed the crowds and attractions, which included working models of Army missiles and a "Rest Spot" tent, courtesy of Palmer's Presbyterian churches. Road improvements made the drive easier. "Forty-eight paved miles from Anchorage!" read the ads. But a lot of people still came by train, which cost $3.

In 1962, fairgoers had the option of taking a bus operated by Anchorage City Transport. Something called "Cowboy Polo" was one of the events. Fish and Game showed off some reindeer from Nunivak Island. Snacks were still in short supply, "hot dogs and cotton candy and popcorn, when there are children to eat them." But a new food concession, Husky Burger, offered a welcome option.

Food choices grew by 1963, when pizza, tacos, fried pies and fudge were advertised. Space for an additional 150 booths was supplied by Skate Land, an indoor roller rink in Palmer and a U.S. Army Reserve armory. Horses were sheltered in a big tent. Thirty-five thousand people attended and room was becoming an issue.

Palmer largely escaped damage in the Good Friday Earthquake of 1964. The fair went on as usual that year, with the "Chee-Chako Youth Circus;" horse-shoeing; Olis (or Oley), the trained seal "and his little brother" in their own swimming tank; and free chest X-rays to combat tuberculosis. Mason jars were still a popular prize, but so were subscriptions to Handweaver and Craftsman magazine.

A footrace from the fairgrounds to the top of Lazy Mountain ("if weather permits") and back was held. In subsequent years it would be called the "Mt. Marathon Race," leading to confusion with the mountain race in Seward, which started in 1915. The Lazy Mountain run continued to be a fair event at least until 1976.

But the space issue could no longer be put off. The board began searching for a new site in 1965. Some were concerned that they'd pick a place way off in the direction of Wasilla, where many empty acres were available and cheap.

New digs

The Palmer Chamber of Commerce had to be relieved when the corporation bought 221 acres just south of town from the Palmer Raceway Association, the current site of the fair. The gates opened in 1967, a troubled year in many ways. Earlier that summer the Alaska 67 Exposition (or A-67, later Alaskaland and Pioneer Park) opened in Fairbanks as part of the statewide observance of the 100th anniversary of the purchase of Alaska. The presence of the bright new amusement park drew some of the expected fairgoers northward.

But catastrophic rains flooded A-67 in mid-August and it shut down. Precipitation hit Palmer hard, too. Between rain, a series of cold spells and snow at higher elevations, the crowds for the scheduled dates, Sept. 1-4, were pitifully small.

To make matters worse, hooligans vandalized the Fair Train, breaking seats and mirrors and slashing upholstery. Railroad officials announced the fair train would not be continued the following year.

There was some good news, however. The Palmer fair was able to acquire two of the larger rides from the inundated Fairbanks fairgrounds, and perhaps some of the customers as well. To make up for the "rain out," fair officials announced that the rides and concessions would continue for an extra weekend, with admission at half price. The overall 1967 attendance was a respectable 72,000.

Buoyed by that success, the fair decided in advance to run for two weekends in 1968, an 11-day affair. Admission was now $2. Parking was free. A miniature train began hauling passengers around the fairgrounds and cow-pony races were added to the long-standing thoroughbred horse races.

1968 also saw the first burgers served up by Slippery Gulch, reindeer burgers as it turns out. You could also get ice cream, snow cones, Mexican food, corn on the cob and sloppy Joes. A new permanent exhibition hall opened.

Jerry Jeff does Palmer

In the 1970s, construction of the log cabin food kiosks began, as did the relocation of certain historic buildings to the fairgrounds, a process that would take several years. The structures involved are today some of the most noteworthy buildings at the site. They include the Wineck Barn and Log Cabin church.

In 1976, the Alaska Transportation Museum had to leave its condemned facility near Anchorage International Airport after a fire. It wound up occupying three acres on the fairgrounds. Not everyone in the Valley was happy about it. One observer, Bill Hermann, called the "Railroad Museum" — basically a battered locomotive and troop transport cars — an "eyesore" and suggested that Anchorage was just trying to get rid of its junk. In 1992 the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry, as it was later named, moved to its current location north of Wasilla, where it remains a popular repository of antiques from Alaska's traveling past.

A second alliance in 1976 proved more enduring. The fair made land available for what is now the Hermon Brothers Ball Field, home of the Mat-Su Miners baseball team. At this writing the team has an agreement to use the space through 2025.

Attractions that year included pigeon races; a bicycle race to Butte and back; simultaneous chess champion Jude Acres, who was said to be able to play 100 games at once and win most of them; a wrestling clinic with Olympic medalists Ben Peterson and Glen Davis; and music by Jerry Jeff Walker and the Lost Gonzo Band. There may have been some national talent at the fair before then, but most music was home-grown or supplied by military bands from Anchorage. Walker's two shows marked a shift toward big-name acts making the trip to Alaska.

To accommodate the out-of-state (and sometimes well-past-their-prime) performers, the Borealis Theatre stage was built in 1978, then rebuilt in 1979. The amphitheater bowl was created in 1983, the same year that work began on the Farm Exhibit building, the biggest roofed structure on the grounds.

Good roads meant Anchorage visitors no longer planned to spend the night in Palmer. In place of restaurants and hotels, the ads in the 1982 Premium Book came from more general sponsors like Matanuska Maid dairy products, Koslosky's store and KABN, "Radio Free Big Lake," none of which are around anymore.

Bust and recovery

A lot of businesses went under as Alaska slid into recession in the 1980s. Those who stuck it out made jokes about the state's up-and-down finances, and the fair was not immune.

"As a little kid I didn't appreciate how hilarious it was that the old roller coaster on the midway was actually named 'The Alaska Economy,' " Hulbert recollected. The roller coaster is featured in her quilt panel for that decade. The same panel also makes references to the work of her fellow artist and mentor Brad Hughes of Homer, who designed several of the fair posters during that era.

The fair celebrated its Diamond Jubilee in 1996, the year that saw the introduction of items like halibut tacos and salmon quesadillas. The Budweiser Clydesdales entertained the crowds. The following year brought the opening of Pioneer Plaza and Raven Hall, a building the fair now rents out all year long.

The Gold Rush Centennial edition of the fair in 1998 ran for three weekends. It was the only time such a long run was scheduled. Some vendors didn't like the extra days of work, said current director Dean Phipps, but they made money. "That year's still the record for attendance," he said, topping 360,000.

In the early 2000s, adjacent farmland was acquired to serve as a buffer between the fair and housing or businesses development. A railroad station was established on the grounds in 2004 and the Alaska Railroad's fair train was back in business. The train now takes 90 minutes for the trip from Anchorage, compared with six hours at the first fair.

Hulbert's panel for the decade just past shows the "Cabbage Fairies" and farmer Scott Robb, whose 138.25-pound cabbage from 2012 still holds the world record. In 2014 the Gathering Place opened, an area dedicated to Alaska Native culture. The next piece of that project, an enclosed stage, opens this year.

2014 also brought something that would probably astound the muddy-booted fairgoers of 1936 more than all the technological wonders on display — paved walkways throughout the fairgrounds, including the carnival area.

The final panel, in the center of the quilt, speaks to the future, Hulbert said, reflecting the fact that the fair "is a work in progress, pieced and stitched together every year by the efforts of all sorts of people working together."

Phipps puts it a little differently. He calls the center panel "The Work of Many Hands."

A queen-size quilt using Hulbert's design, sewed by Kathy Rockey, will be raffled off during the 2016 Alaska State Fair, which runs through Sept. 5. Proceeds will go to the fair's scholarship fund. The winner will be drawn on the final day of the fair. The quilt can be viewed, and tickets purchased, at the Irwin Exhibits building.

Hulbert's descriptions of each of the panels, their contents and style — along with just about everything else you need to know about the fair — can be found at the Alaska State Fair website, alaskastatefair.org.