Planning began in 1998 for the celebration of the sesquicentennial of the Knox County Fair, which was to be held in July, 1999. The Knox County Fair Board appointed their treasurer, John Horn, and James Gibson, Director of the Knox County Historical Society Museum, to put together a booklet that would tell the story of the Fair's 150-year history.
The finished 52-page publication featured both color and black and white photographs, newspaper accounts and other highlights from nearly all of the fairs, plus rosters of all fair board and junior fair board directors and members, county commissioners and OSU extension staff for every five-year period from 1849-1999.
A great deal of time and research also went into compiling an original brief written history of the fair from its earliest time, which was included at the beginning of the publication. In recent years, "adapted" versions of this history have appeared here and there online without attribution or authorship.
The original article covering the 150-year history of the Fair as it appeared in the full publication is reprinted below, and the complete 52-page booklet, The Knox County Fair Sesquicentennial: 1849-1999, is available for sale elsewhere on this website.