The Danbury Fair (also known as The Great Danbury State Fair) was a yearly exhibition in

Danbury, Connecticut Danbury is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2022 was 87,642. It is the seventh largest city in Connecticut. Danbury is nicknamed the "Hat City ...

. It was begun in 1821 as an

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

fair, but did not have a regular schedule until 1869 when hat manufacturers Rundle and White helped form the Danbury Farmers and Manufacturers Society. From then until its closing, the fair was open for ten days every October. The fair took up 142 acres (0.57 km²) of what Rundle and White had hoped would be a Danbury Pleasure Park. Admission was 25 cents for adults and 15 cents for children. The fair offered everything from tobacco, pears, and home-brewed wines to hats, boots, saddles, carriages, wagons, churns, and stoves. In 1895, more than 1000 people were employed by the fair. In 1932, a race track was built on the fairgrounds for the

midget car Midget cars, also speedcars in Australia, is a class of racing cars. The cars are very small with a very high power-to-weight ratio and typically use four cylinder engines. They originated in the United States in the 1930s and are raced on most ...

and

stock car Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It ori ...

races that had replaced the earlier harness races. When the fair's owner John Leahy died in 1974, the organization fell into disarray. The last day of the fair was October 12, 1981, with an estimated 400,000 people having attended that year. All of the rides, attractions, and holdings were auctioned off. The

Danbury Fair Mall Danbury Fair (also referred to as Danbury Fair Mall) is an upscale shopping mall located in Danbury, Connecticut. As of 2011, it is the second largest shopping mall in Connecticut, as well as the fifth largest in New England. It is located off of I ...

was built on the fairgrounds by the Wilmorite Corporation. Photos of the fair and original signs used to be found in the mall's food court. The fair featured large fiberglass sculptures of characters such as

Uncle Sam Uncle Sam (which has the same initials as ''United States'') is a common national personification of the federal government of the United States or the country in general. Since the early 19th century, Uncle Sam has been a popular symbol of ...

and

Paul Bunyan Paul Bunyan is a giant lumberjack and folk hero in American and Canadian folklore. His exploits revolve around the tall tales of his superhuman labors, and he is customarily accompanied by Babe the Blue Ox. The character originated in the or ...

. Many of these were purchased after the fair was closed, and continue to exist
Photo of Uncle Sam at Magic Forest in Lake George, New York
. The sculpture of Uncle Sam is 38 feet tall and is claimed to be the tallest Uncle Sam in the world. The Uncle Sam statue was recently returned to its home in Danbury Connecticut in 2019 and is located at the Railway Museum. The sculpture of Paul Bunyan was manufactured by International Fiberglass, which mass-produced identical sculptures to sell to stores such as tire or muffler shops (thus the sculptures are generally referred to as

Muffler Men Muffler men (or muffler man) are large moulded fiberglass sculptures that are placed as advertising icons, roadside attractions, or for decorative purposes, predominantly in the United States. Standing approximately tall, the first figure was a ...

). The Danbury Fair Paul Bunyan was eventually painted like a "

hippy A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

" and moved to Max Yasgur's Farm in

Bethel, New York :''This is the article about the Sullivan County, New York town. For the Dutchess County, New York hamlet, see Bethel, Pine Plains'' Bethel is a town in Sullivan County, New York, United States. The population was estimated at 4,255 in 2010. T ...

(home of annual Woodstock reunions).Sightings of the Hippie Muffler Man
/ref> It has since returned to Danbury.

References

{{reflist

External links

* https://www.danbury-ct.gov/uncle-sam-dedication/
Article on history of fair from Danbury Public Schools
1821 establishments in Connecticut Agricultural shows in the United States Danbury, Connecticut History of Connecticut Festivals in Connecticut Carousels in Connecticut