History
In 1897, N. H. Gentry of Sedalia persuaded the Missouri Swine Breeders Association to request the Missouri General Assembly to establish a state fair. In 1899 a resolution for the fair was introduced by C.E. Clark.
The state considered locating the fair in Centralia, Chillicothe, Marshall, Mexico, Moberly and Sedalia. Cities made offers of land which they would commit to the fair.
After ten ballots, Sedalia received the majority vote; it had bid 150 acres (0.61 km2), the most amount of land of any city to be devoted to the fairgrounds. The Van Riper family, who had set land aside for the location of the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City, Missouri, also donated the site in Sedalia.
The first Missouri State Fair was held September 9–13 in 1901. One of the most distinctive aspect of the early fairs was the "white city": the 24 acres (97,000 m2) of tents, each for rent by exhibitors.
The Missouri State Fairgrounds are now used year round and generate revenue in every season, for more than 350 days out of the available 365. Off-season usage includes camper rallies, livestock shows, organized athletic leagues and tournaments, auto races, craft shows, and youth rallies.
Read more about this topic: Missouri State Fair
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
—John Adams (1735–1826)