The Central San Joaquin Valley was a budding agricultural giant in 1882, when a group of Fresno businessmen, growers, and ranchers met to form the Fresno Fair Ground Association. The first Fresno Fair opened the following year, and featured a five-day horse race meet, a few small produce displays, and several head of livestock. Betting was legal and mostly on an individual basis, although “pool selling” was mentioned in newspapers the next year. More attractions were introduced as early as the third year when Reuben T. Chandler, Army battalion commander in the final Indian fight near Millerton, was featured by The Expositor.

A grandstand and a $20,000 pavilion were finished a few weeks before the 1888 Fair, the same year Fresno policemen began wearing uniforms, and the first of many baby shows appeared. Agricultural and industrial exhibit halls were erected in 1911, followed two years later by a commerce building. All this promise was dashed because of, “the Depression of the 1890’s, with fairground properties peddled at a foreclosure sale in July, 1895.” Fortunately, the property remained in friendly hands until repurchased by Fresno County in 1901 for $30,000. A period of change and uncertainty followed. For several years there was no Fair, and more than once a “first annual” fair was presented, as different groups managed the organization.

The beginning of a true tradition for the Fresno Fair was inaugurated with the hiring of Clyde Eberhart in 1910. A man of great energy and vision, he was responsible for such spectaculars as the 1919 “Great Train Wreck.” Under Eberhart’s guidance, auto racing, Raisin Day parades featuring movie stars and aero-plane rides all helped showcase The Fresno Fair as one of the top expositions in the country. The glory days began to fade with the end of the Raisin Day parades, after a depression hit local grape growers. Following a race car tragedy, county supervisors withheld funds and the Fresno Fair did not open in 1930. Fortunately, a group of young members of the Fresno county Junior Farm Bureau defied advice from their elders and voted in 1934 to sponsor the Fair. Exciting events were held thereafter until 1942 when the fairgrounds was used for a WWI internment camp, and later as an Army facility.  In 1948, the Fair was reborn and solidly financed under the stewardship of Tom Dodge and the 21st District Agricultural Association. From that time, The Big Fresno Fair has surged into national prominence and emerged as one of the largest traditions of its type in the country.

Today The Big Fresno Fair, the fifth largest fair in the state, has an average daily attendance of 45,000 and last year attracted nearly 550,000 visitors from throughout California. In 2004, the County of Fresno generously extended The Big Fresno Fair land-lease for the next 50 years, allowing the tradition to continue for future generations.  The Big Fresno Fair is one of the biggest events in the Central Valley and people from all over come to see what exciting and new changes the Fair has to offer annually. 

*Information used for “History of The Big Fresno Fair” taken from “Windows of the Past” composed by Liz Laval.