Mineral County Fair offers fun and memories

The Mineral County Fair was held this past week from Thursday, August 5 through Saturday, August 7, and provided an old-fashioned country fair with lots of homespun charm and cowboy spirit.

The fair opened at 7 a.m. every morning with the Methodist's Men's Pancake Breakfast and offered a full schedule of activities for each day.

On Thursday at 10 a.m., 4-H shows began, first up was the horse judging. Gwen Nelda Bones has judged the event for five years and while ribbons are handed out to first place and so on, Bones said the event is really about testing the kid's knowledge.

"The show tests them on what they've learned throughout the year," Bones said.

All the students showed in showmanship in which the handler of the horse is judged. Students could also exhibit in horsemanship.

"This helps them even if they're just messing around with horses for pleasure," Bones said. "The more the horse listens to a rider, the more control they have and that's safer."

Following the horse show, 4-H'ers showed their dogs and rabbits were judged. Dog handlers showed in rally, a pattern course that handlers lead their dog through, and agility.

Cary Chamberlain showed her dog Maddie in the rally course and Aiden Patko showed his trainer's dog, Wicked.

"It's just fun," Patko said. "I really love animals and I really love dogs. It's fun working with them."

Chamberlain agreed.

"I just love being with her (Maddie) and she loves me," she said.

Over at the rabbit judging, Zach Flandreau and his mom, Cassie, were waiting for the judge to show up. Zach was the only 4-H'er to bring any rabbits to the fair this year. He brought both of his rabbits though, Romeo, a boy, and Nibbles, a girl.

"She's (Nibbles) got that name for a reason," Zach remarked. "If you've been touching grass a lot she'll nibble on your fingers."

His mom explained that at first it was kind of cute, but as "the rabbit got bigger so did the Nibbles."

Zach said that he has had Nibbles the longest and said that taking care of rabbits is "easier than dogs." Putting Romeo back in his cage, Zach explained that the rabbit always runs back to the back corner.

Livestock judging got underway on Friday morning. Billy Smith and Tyler Ishler were the two junior exhibitors in showmanship with their steers, following the pigs. Tucker Smith's pig was the grand champion for market hogs. In the junior showmanship class, Billy took first and Tyler took second.

"They both are doing different things," explained Judge Allysia Cahoon. "I told them they both have a few things to work on. "

In the senior showmanship division with steers, Cody Ishler took reserve while sister Lyndi took the title of grand champion. Lyndi figured up it was her seventh year showing a steer at the fair as she cycled through all the names of the different steers she had shown.

"I just love cows," she said. "Cows are my favorite animal.

Lyndi said that she spent time leading up to the fair walking the animal around and touching it as the judge might do. She said she gave her steer plenty of baths and also clipped him up a few days before the fair so he would be presentable.

Dahkota Hayes won the reserve title in the market class. Cahoon said that her animal was finished good, but could have been a bit more proportionate throughout its body. Billy Smith's steer was the grand champion and the judge noted that the animal was deeply muscled and proportionate, calling it "a great steer."

There wasn't much competition for Ally Rust and her lamb as she was the only exhibitor in both showmanship and market classes. Rust gave the lamb a kiss on the forehead after being named champion in both the showmanship and market classes.

Exhibitors also partook in the round robin class in which exhibitors are expected to demonstrate knowledge showing all other animals outside the class in which they won. Tucker, Nicole Stroot, Rust and Lyndi all competed in the class.

David Brink, from the extension office, said that students learn a lot about the responsibility of caring for an animal that is not a pet.

"They're learning how to bring these animals to market quality so that someone will bid and ultimately purchase these animals," Brink said.

The parade on Saturday highlighted the fair's theme, "1910: A Year to Remember," and featured an array of floats, vehicles and people. There were new things this year that included lots of fun bounce houses and a rock wall to entertain the children and music performances took place under a newly built permanent stage, complete with a dance floor.

The 4-H building on the fairgrounds was also filled with exhibits from canned goods, foods, photography, art works, a floriculture show and more. There was also plenty of delicious food and prizes to be won through various raffles. Carol Johnson, fair board chair, said there are two things that she believes makes the Mineral County Fair a unique event, the first being the family-friendly atmosphere.

"One of the things I think that's unique about the Mineral County Fair that you don't find at hardly any of the fairs anymore is that it's a real family oriented event. Everything that we have, the events and exhibits, are all designed to be family friendly."

And also unlike most fairs, there are no parking fees and fees to get inside the fair gates. Plus, all events were free except the bull-o-rama and the rodeo. Many people attended the fair over the three days and expressed that they enjoyed what the fair had to offer.

Lori Bowmen expressed that the food was what brought her out to the fair, while Faye Bowman said that she enjoyed coming out to see all the people. She noted also that the fair has been getting larger every year and thought it was great how they included for the kid's this year.

"It's definitely a smaller fair," Melissa Munden said. "Our fair is a great big giant warehouse, but I do think this fair has a lot to offer. It's nice."

Melissa was visiting from Washington with her mom, Sue Snieder. The mother and daughter have family, Keith Vaughn, who is Sue's dad, residing in the county. Both said that they really enjoy looking at all of the exhibits in the 4-H building and seeing what the 4-H'ers have been working on.

"I just think it's great that the younger generation is putting time and enthusiasm into things," Melissa said as her mom called her over to look at a series of pictures that showed a bird egg until its hatching.

Kayli Schoolcraft chose two simple words to describe the fair.

"It's awesome," she said, watching her sister, Kitty, climb the rock wall with their father, Ron.

Ron said that he enjoys just looking at all the exhibits and seeing everything the fair has to offer. And so did many others.