Editor’s note:This article is the first of a two-part series to celebrate the Morrill County Fair’s one hundred year history at its current location.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Morrill County Fair at its current location, we look back at the development of the County Fair Association, also known as the Morrill County Fair and Stock Association, among other similar names, how the fairgrounds came to be in use, and how the current grounds have been further developed throughout the years.
In 1912, the group that came to be called the County Fair Association held an organizational meeting and appointed a committee. They met with businessmen and townspeople, agreeing that a county fair “with a permanent association with an assured fair every year is vastly preferable to the fall festival” as quoted in the July 19, 1912, Bridgeport News-Blade. In late August, a mere five months after the devastating fire that wiped out much of the downtown Bridgeport area, the Morrill County Fair and Stock Grower’s Association committee adopted a constitution and by-laws for a county fair, with six hundred dollars in purses to be distributed among the contestants.
