One of the main reasons county fairs were created was to showcase the county’s agricultural excellence, products and way of life.
Floral halls were filled with 4-H and FFA exhibits, Homemakers’ creations and lots of quilts, jams and jellies, and flowers.
The livestock barns were filled with cattle, sheep, hogs, 4-Hers, and purple-and-gold-clad FFA members.
For a while, county fairs were in jeopardy of disappearing as farmland turned into subdivisions, factories, mega-churches, and schools. Small family farms were bought up by corporate giants. Raising tobacco was highly discouraged and, it too, became profitable only for the mega-farmers.
In Logan County, another factor was that the long-time members of American Legion Post 29 were aging and passing away. They had provided not only the land and buildings to make the fair a big extravaganza but had also volunteered along with members of their auxiliary to provide many of the chores needed to make a fair a success.
The much appreciated four-laning of U.S, 68-80 took some of that land and required the razing of some of the key fair buildings. Othar factors played a role in the Logan County Fair becoming just a beloved memory for a few years.
Then a new group of public-minded volunteers and some government/university employees banded together to work toward reviving the Logan fair. The marvelous and ever-growing campus of the UK Ag Extension Complex, which is located on the Northern Bypass of Russellville, provided the ideal site for the revived fair.
The work of this group and those who have followed it has proved to be a success, as the Logan County Fair grows and improves each year. In fact, it has become so big that the 2024 Logan County Fair—like the Tobacco & Heritage Festival—is now a multi-week operation. The difference, at least this year, is that there will be a break between the two weeks of the fair.
All this week, the fair has featured animal shows. Today’s emphasis is on hogs with swine shows at 10 this morning and 6 this evening.
Tomorrow, Ag Week culminates with a lineup that will greatly resemble fairs of old. Saturday morning’s events begin with the Farmers’ Market from 7:30-noon, as is true every Saturday through October, in the pavilion behind the Extension Office.
Also scheduled are 4-H Entrepreneurship Projects, 4-H Cloverville Exhibits, Open Fair Exhibits, a Quilt Show, Bouncy Houses, a Petting Zoo and more.
Also scheduled are the Frog Jumping Contest at 9 a.m., the pie eating contest at 1- and the ice cream eating contest and June Dairy Day Celebration at 11.
For more information, call the Extension Office at 270-726-6323 or Logan County Tourism at 280-726-1878.