When Elbert County Fair Queen Shawnah Royston and Princess Macazlayn Brinkworth presented themselves before the BOCC to announce the Elbert County Fair last Wednesday, they were following a tradition begun in 1934 by the 4-H and Extension Agent, Max Grandy, who founded the Fair as a continuous summer occasion and the feature of the 4-H year.
Max Grandy assembled six children, ages 6-14, before the Commissioners in July, 1934, and asked them to tell the BOCC all about what was going to happen at the three-day Elbert County Fair in Kiowa. They spoke of sewing projects, displays of machinery, and animals that would be penned on the hill behind the Courthouse. There would also be a rodeo, barbecue and a dance.
And the reason the tradition of announcing it to the BOCC was begun was because for the first time, the County had spent money to fund it and the announcement served as a stamp of approval for the event and expenditure.
In spring, 1933, shortly after Roosevelt took office, the USDA was granted funds to “stabilize agriculture” in the midst of falling prices, and a number of counties in Colorado were beneficiaries of these funds. Elbert was initially granted $3,000.00 for corn and hogs, but with the $3,000.00 was the proviso that an Extension Office would be set up and a part of its funding would come from the County.
So Max Grandy, USDA agent, operating through the Colorado School of Agricultural and Mining (Colorado State University, now), helped determine the wisest expenditure of the USDA funds, toured the County from farm to ranch and town to town, and set up 4-H, with the promise of a County-wide Fair in Kiowa in summer, 1934, where the 4-Hers could display their projects and their parents could participate in the Open Classes.
There had been at least two fairs previously in Elbert County, both in Elbert, in 1903 and 1911, each connected with a celebration of dryland farming. The photos on the second floor of the Courthouse in Kiowa show dairy products and horse racing. That’s really about all that is known about those two fairs.
Grandy not only knew that he could interest the entire county in doing something for the Fair; he knew enough about setting up events and displays so everyone could participate. An added bonus: if he had a 4-Her raising a sheep or a pig or chickens, he could train the child in the most useful and hygenic practices in the keeping of the animal; knowledge he knew would transfer to the parents. Part of the job of an Extension Agent is education in best agricultural practices.
Elbert County had an agricultural agent during the late 1890’s who had tried to start a 4-H program. It probably went belly up because the agent tried to educate more quickly or forcefully than was acceptable to County citizens.
The first 3-day Fair and Rodeo was quite successful, attracting most of the County’s 3,900 citizens. The barbecue was provided by the Elbert-Douglas County Livestock Association and supervised by longtime Sheriff Roy Brown. Awards, mainly ribbons, were given to the best in each category, and even before it was over, Max Grandy was planning for the next, pushing to have barns put in on the Fairgrounds, pushing for a permanent Arena, pushing for display areas.
Grandy left Elbert County for another posting in the 1940’s, but the Fair was a permanent thing by then and it continued to grow in projects and awards. The 1955 Fair Book is chock full of “household arts” and “dairy” and “mechanical arts” and any number of projects that were appearing then and appearing now. The County has had up to eleven 4-H clubs and its membership has been fully one-third of the County’s youth.
The job of announcing the Elbert County Fair and Rodeo has fallen to the Fair Royalty, who first appeared in 1955 and have continued the tradition, usually in company of the Extension Agent.
Nowadays, the County Fair has grown to nine days because of the tremendous number of shows and because of all the projects on the Fairgrounds and in the Presbyterian Church just west of them.
