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Centre Daily Times August 22 2005
With races, county fair got off to quick start
By Rich Kerstetter; rkerstet@centredaily.com
"As the tent and motorhome city at Grange Park in Centre Hall begins to fill for the annual Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair, few people -- other than historians and postcard collectors -- recall another county fair held just north of Bellefonte in the early 20th century.
"The Centre county fair movement is going on with quite a rush," the Keystone Gazette proclaimed in October 1894. "The meeting held in the court house Thursday evening of last week was well attended and those present seemed to mean business."
They did, indeed, mean business and purchased land near the McCoy-Linn dam for their exposition.
An October 1900 issue of the Keystone Gazette proclaimed:
"New grounds of surpassing natural beauty have been acquired, the course of Spring Creek has been changed, a splendid half mile race track has been constructed, an exhibition building, grand stand, ample racing and livestock stables and pens have been erected and all is now in readiness for the people of Centre county and Central Pennsylvania as well to flock to Bellefonte from every quarter to join in the re-opening of this worthy public enterprise."
A week later, the Gazette declared the fair to be a success, with thousands attending.
The main attraction of these early fairs, historian J. Thomas Mitchell explained, was racing.
"Many of the contests excited intense interest among our citizens," Mitchell wrote in "A Glimpse of Local History," a collection of his Keystone Gazette columns. The year 1905 marked "the first automobile race held on its track and also the appearance of professional 'bookmakers' at the horse races."
Organizers soon discovered another problem.
"One of the great drawbacks to the location," Mitchell reported, "was that outsiders could view the races from the hill of the Yocum property," thereby avoiding the 25-cent admission fee.
But racing was not the fair's only drawing card. The official program for the 1900 fair featured, among other forms of entertainment:
A "Live Bird Shoot by the members of the Sportsmen's League of Centre county for the championship of the League."
A "Foot Ball game between the Bellefonte Academy and the State College Preps."
"Prof. Lew Lavelli in his Burial Act."
And, in perhaps the most intriguing event of the entire fair, "Mlle. Louise Wrence in her daring Balloon Ascension and Parachute Descent."
As the years progressed, the entertainment became more thrilling -- and riskier.
In 1914, according to the centennial history "Bellefonte: Fountain of Governors," "an aviator named Bonney had been engaged by the Fair management to provide daring exhibitions for three days. Bonney arrived in a French monoplane equipped with a 5-cylinder 50-hp engine."
Problems cropped up from the beginning, however, as the first day's show had to be canceled when propeller bolts where sheared off while Bonney was turning the motor.
New ones were made at the nearby Central Railroad shop, however, and "Bellefonte: Fountain of Governors" continues the story:
"The next afternoon he took off from a field near the Tom Beaver home, climbed to mountain-top height and then swooped toward the Fairgrounds. Drawing admiring cheers from those at the Fair, Bonney then climbed high and westward preparing for another dive toward the crowd. But a thin elevator wire snapped at that point and the pilot had virtually no control as the plane plunged toward the ground. Just before it crashed on top of Halfmoon Hill, the plane burst into flames. It was a miracle he escaped."
That 1914 fair was the last at the Bellefonte grounds.
"The management decided that the struggle to make a profit had proved itself too much to conquer," according to "Bellefonte: Fountain of Governors."
Mitchell attributed the event's demise to two successive years of rain and described the fairground's eventual fate.
"Abandoned for some years the flats finally became the location for the Bellefonte sewage disposal plant, which seems to be its permanent future."
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