The Merced County Fairgrounds are home to the annual Merced County Fair, the county fair of Merced County, California. The Merced County Fair was first held on September 2, 1891. The first fair was held on 18th Street in Merced and was a joint county fair with neighboring Mariposa County. The Merced County Fair showcases livestock, exhibits, carnival rides, music and fair food each year.

History

Merced County has held a county fair since 1891, except during 1917 and 1918 ( World War I), 1936 (financial issues), 1943 to 1945 ( World War II), and 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first solo Merced County Fair was held on September 14–15, 1929 at the Applegate Park Municipal Baseball Park. Early fairs hosted a

rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working va ...

and

4-H 4-H is a U.S.-based network of youth organizations whose mission is "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development". Its name is a reference to the occurrence of the initial letter H four times i ...

youth organization livestock shows. In 1931, the fair moved to its current site at 11th and G streets, now 900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. In 1937, a parade and a three-day horse racing meeting was added to the fair. The fair closed in 1943 and did not open again till 1946 due to World War II. From 1946 to 2019 & since 2022, the fair has been run by the California Department of Food and Agriculture's 35th District Agricultural Association. The fairgrounds have been used year-round to support other community activities. On the fairgrounds have been the county library branch, a fire station, a school for the mentally handicapped, a preschool program, Merced College, the J. Emmett McNamara Memorial Museum, and Leontine Gracey Elementary School. The fairgrounds are also rented out during the year. In 2020, the fair was scheduled for June 10–14, but was cancelled by the fair board due to "COVID-19 public health concerns." The 2021 fair, the 130th, was set for June 9–13, but it was again cancelled by the fair Board of Directors and CEO on March 8, 2021. Reasons given were the ongoing uncertainty of COVID-19 and restrictions on large public events. In 2021, the local economic benefit lost to the cancellation of the fair was around US$23 million.

The 130th fair finally resumed in 2022, from 8–12 June, following a pandemic-based hiatus.

Merced Fairgrounds Speedway

Chris Windom USAC Midget Angell Park July 2014

When the fair is not meeting the race track is used for the Merced Fairgrounds Speedway. The speedway is a 0.375-mile NASCAR dirt track that hosts

race car Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organi ...

, midget car and motorcycle racing.

Chris Windom Christopher R. Windom (born December 24, 1990) is an American professional racing driver. Windom was the seventh driver to complete a United States Auto Club (USAC) Triple Crown by winning titles in sprint cars, midget cars, and Silver Crown. US ...

won the 2020 National Midget Car Championship at the Merced Fairgrounds Speedway.

Camp Merced

After the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Merced County Fairgrounds was turned into the Merced Assembly Center, a

detention center A detention center, or detention centre, is any location used for detention. Specifically, it can mean: * A jail or prison, a facility in which inmates are forcibly confined and denied a variety of freedoms under the authority of the state as a ...

for those of Japanese ancestry. The center opened on May 6, 1942 and closed on September 15, 1942. Most of those detained were transferred to a permanent camp, Granada War Relocation Center in Colorado. President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the forced relocation of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast with

Executive Order 9066 Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. This order authorized the secretary of war to prescribe certain ...

over the fear of more attacks. Notable people held at the Merced Assembly Center included artist

Emiko Nakano Emiko Nakano (1925–1990) was an American abstract expressionist painter, printmaker, fiber artist, and fashion Illustrator. Biography Emiko Nakano was born on July 4, 1925 in Sacramento, California; her parents were immigrants from Japan. She ...

. The former Merced Assembly Center is a California Historical Landmark, number 934.02.Air Force bases,by Robert Mueller, 1982, Page 398 After the Assembly Center closed, the fairgrounds were turned over to the

4th Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

Air Service Area Command for supplies and training until 1945; during this time it was known as Camp Merced. For three years Camp Merced was used as the headquarters for and to support the Merced Army Air Field and its auxiliary fields that were used for training new pilots needed for World War II. The 802nd Chemical Company and 1914th Ordnance Ammunition Company, Aviation were also trained at Camp Merced before deployment to the

Pacific war The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

References

{{Japanese American internment camps

External links

Mercedian Collection
available a

Fairs in California Annual fairs Annual events in California Merced County Fairgrounds

History

Merced Fairgrounds Speedway

Camp Merced

See also

References

External links