County fairs have been favorite regional events way back into into the yonder days. If you’ve ever read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Farmer Boy, you should remember the excitement and thrill of Almanzo’s family when they went to their county fair and took their best work for the exhibits. Almanzo took a milk-fed pumpkin, and won a beautiful blue 1st place ribbon. The Black Hills county fair season is just about wrapping up. What a fun time of year! The Custer County Fair is definitely Hermosa’s biggest event of the year, and the Central States Fair in Rapid City certainly stirs things up in town. Rodeos with packed grandstands, music festivals, livestock shows, other equine competitions, pig wrestling…It’s a big two-week-long event. Mom, Sarah, and I had some entries in the Custer County Fair, and we were tickled with the results! Mom got 3rd place in portrait drawing, and Sarah got 1st AND 2nd place in portraits, AND Best of Show! How exciting! I entered a jar of chokecherry jelly, which won 1st place in its division, and I entered a crocheted shawl, which won 1st and Best of Show. I also got Best of Show in photography! Ironically, the Best of Show picture was taken with a little broken point-and-shoot. County fair open class exhibits are a fun way to see what other area artists and craftspeople are up to, to get ideas and to get feedback on one’s own work. There are so many talented and skilled artists in this region!

Country fun at the county fair.