Fairs have been held in the North State since 1880, but our interest was in finding out when the first fair was held in Anderson. The earliest records we found indicated the fairs here started in 1919 following the Armistice of World War I signed on Nov. 11, 1918. Steve Roycroft, Charley Lemm, Charles Story, Wm. Logan and Harry Brown financed the fairs of 1919 and of 1920 with the backing of the Farm Bureau. The first fair was held along the east side of the railroad tracks by the old Anderson Cemetery at the site of the Terry Box Factory. Exhibits were set up in box cars and in the Old Terry Mill shed.

From 1921 to 1931, annual appropriations were received from the state amounting to $8,109.78 for the Fair. In 1921, the Farm Bureau Fair Committee consisting of Steve Roycroft, Chas. L. Lemm, Parker Talbot (Farm Advisor), Charles S. Story, J.H. Brown, Mrs. Ina Tormey and Mrs. Leslie Franks, purchased 17 ½ acres of land. Funds and labor were solicited and a permanent building program began on the present fair grounds where the first fair was to be held in the new buildings in 1925.

During the depression of 1931 through 1934, no fairs were held.

In May of 1932, a meeting of the signers of the Articles of the Agricultural Association petition was called to hold a meeting with the Supervisors to elect eight people from sixteen applicants from the Farm Bureau and Pomona Grange and submit their names to Governor Rolph to re-activate the association. The governor confirmed the appointments of Charles Story, S. G. Roycroft, J.W. Kennicott, J.C. Hawes, Marie Adams Jones, Gertrude A. Steger, LG. Robinson, and E. Grover Brown on March 29, 1933 and the 27th District Agricultural Association was re-activated.

Much more information can be obtained regarding the Growth and Directors of the Shasta District Fair Association at the Anderson Historical Society and Museum,

Editor’s Note: Our thanks to two Anderson Historical Society and Museum members, Jim and Retha Carter, who compiled this article based on their research that also included information from a project by Tammy Wait, the 27th District Agricultural Association Fair, Shasta County Historical Association, the local Society and numerous newspaper articles.