Fair comes to Superior

SUPERIOR – All the sights, sounds and smells of an old fashioned county fair were in Superior last weekend as residents from across the region gathered for the 2014 Mineral County Fair.

From arts and crafts to 4-H shows and rodeo, hundreds of people spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday combing the fairgrounds, enjoying displays, kids games and talent shows during the day and live music and rodeo at night. While the evening activities drew the largest crowds, the fair was mostly centered around 4-H participants.

The primary judge for this year’s 4-H competition, Travis Standley with the Montana State University Extension Office, said his job was not only to rate the quality of the animal and their handlers but also to educate the young participants.

“The real strong part about 4-H is it’s all about education,”Standley said. “The education the kids receive from this fair is above average. What we want to teach the kids is know your animal and how to present it.”

Standley said there were two main parts to the 4-H judging process. He said one deals with the human element and one with animals as they are at the moment and with their potential in the future.

“They show in two major divisions,” Standley said. “One is showmanship which is them showing off their animal to the best of its ability. You don’t necessarily have to have the best animal or have the grand champion animal to win showmanship. You just have to be the best showman.”

The second division, according to Standley, deals with the animals themselves. He said what he was looking for in this division is how well the animal would be for the market or for breeding.

“Market animals are being sold for harvest,” Standley said. “They will go into a consumer product and it’s strictly based on the animal and what it is today. The breeding animals will go toward breeding stock that the kids raise. You look at longevity, balance, volume and overall uniformity of that animal and how it’s going to do in a breeding type setting.”

Kevin Chamberlain of the Montana State University Extension Office said all of the 4-H events including the stock auction sale went very smoothly. He said the long hours contributed by the kids, parents and other volunteers paid off in another successful fair for 4-H.

“Things went really well,” Chamberlain said. “There is a high level of support for 4-H in the community. The people are the ones that really make this happen. 4-H is a big part of the rural way of life. The kids put in a lot of hours feeding and caring for their animal. They learn how to manage the money they make and invest in their future.”

One prominent member of the community of Mineral County showed his support by making two purchases during the stock auction. Mineral County Sheriff Ernie Ornelas bought a pig and a cow, ensuring his freezer would be full for the foreseeable future.

Ornelas said because 4-H is such an instrumental part of Mineral County, by supporting it, people were in fact supporting the community itself.

“It supports a tradition of agriculture that we are losing in this country,” Ornelas said. “It keeps alive that agricultural base for the kids of the area. These kids spend a lot of time working with these animals. It provides something constructive for them to do. It’s a great program.”

Mineral County Fair Chairperson Carole Johnson said overall, everything at the fair went smoothly this year. She said, while exact numbers weren’t immediately available, if the turnout at the rodeo was any indicator, numbers were consistent with previous years.

“The rodeo sold out on Saturday,” Johnson said. “We were very pleased. It was hot but people still came out and enjoyed the fair. The fair was a great success this year.”