The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

At 10 a.m., this morning, the gates were opened and our 2011 Wahkiakum County Fair festivities and livestock shows began! The Fairgrounds is filled with still life exhibits, 4-Her’s showing their animals, food vendors, game vendors, business vendors and vendors selling fun , good quality products.

I hope you saved the flyer that I sent out with The Eagle newspaper last week, it will help you know when the entertainment you would like to watch is happening. We have a pretty busy schedule of entertainment already, but I was able to add another great show to the list. The Lower Columbia College Fencing Club will be demonstrating their skills using swords and foils. This event is tentatively planned for Friday at 11 a.m. & 4 p.m., Saturday 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. This will be an exciting action event to watch!

On Saturday, the Fair Board is again serving up a barbecued salmon lunch at noon. The Wahkiakum County Fair Board would like to thank Art Pedersen for catching and donating the salmon which will be cooked over alder wood on our huge open pit BBQ by Jerry Ledtke, Phil Vik, Kevin Vik, Blair Brady and Neil Beerbower. Thank you, Art for supporting the Fair BBQ!

Entertainment stage? Yes! It’s built and ready to use. Mark Crary Construction has done an amazingly fast and good job of putting this stage together for our Fair. We thank Mr. Crary and his crew for taking on this project so late in August!

With the stage done, we quickly put good soil around the foundation, some typar weed barrier on top of the soil, filled the beds with a small assortment of flowers and added some cedar shaving to complete the project for now. The stage is a wonderful addition to our Fairgrounds and in the future we plan on landscaping this area to the max.

Be sure to get a fair pass this year, with entertainment like Ted Vigil, Brownsmead Flats and DeNada it is well worth coming to the Fair each day.

Last week, Carrie Shofner and Mike Backman built a water piping system that pigs can’t destroy in the new pig barn. Thank you, Carrie and Mike.

This community is full of resources and people willing to donate or help when we need something for our Fair. The BBQ racks needed some work, local businessman Ben Elkinton had just what we needed to make the repairs. Ben donated to the Fair enough expanded steel to replace some problem areas and he also gave us enough to rebuild all the BBQ racks for future BBQs. Thank you, Ben!

Once more I am reminding everyone of the Fair Contests: The Grays River Grange spelling bee contest will be held tomorrow (Friday) at 2 p.m. There will be two divisions, grades 3 through 5 and grades 6 through 8. The winner in each division will receive $75, second place will receive $50 and third place will receive $25. If you would like to participate, call the fair office or stop by and sign up.

The horse shoe contest is at 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning. The cost is $5 a person and the winners receive the prize money collected for the contest! Sign up at the Fair Office.

Saturday at 4 p.m., there will be a cribbage tournament. The cost is $5, a signup sheet is in the fair office. Mike Backman is in charge of the tournament and will have a nice prize for the final winner. Bring your own cribbage board.

The horse riding arena will be closed August 15-20 to the public, as we prepare the Fairgrounds for the 2011 Wahkiakum County Fair. See you at the Fair!

If you need to gain access to the Fairgrounds, contact Fair Manager Becky Ledtke at 360-560-0371 or call the Fairgrounds Office at 360-795-3480.