1969 - 1988: A brief history

In 1969, Jock Stevenson, Jim MacPherson, and I were the agricultural committee in the Bearspaw Lions Club. We held a meeting at Jim MacPherson's in the spring to decide what we should do. Jock suggested we put on a community fair. We thought that was a good idea, but after considerable discussion, we felt a fair would be a little more that the Lions Club could handle. It was decided to hold a meeting in the Bearspaw Lions Hall and invite representatives from the Glendale Women's Institute, the Bearspaw Red Cross Society, and the Bearspaw 4-H Club to elect officers and organize a community fair to be held the Saturday before the long weekend in August. Jim MacPherson was elected president. The first five fairs were held in Rudolf riding arena south of 12 Mile Coulee. In 1974, the fair was held in the Cochrane arena and has been held there ever since. For the first six fairs, I was Chairman of the hay and grain sections. 1976-77 I was Treasurer. 1978-79 I was Vice President, and elected President in 1980-81. In 198(?) I looked after the hay and grain and in 1984 became the Family Award Coordinator. The two years I was president, Leigh Blackwell was Vice President, Helen Kidd was Treasurer, Ken Canning was Secretary for the first year and Kay Smith for the second year. In 1980 Fran became Chairman of the display on the mezzanine floor and she held this position for three years and then in 1983 she became chairman of the hobbies and crafts section. In 1985-86 she was Chairman of the hay and grain section. 

In 1984 the fair was switched from a Saturday to a Sunday which seemed to go over well with the fair being better attended.

[A list of the Bearspaw Fair Association Officers can be found here]

The Bearspaw Fair has show a profit every year although when it was organized, the intention of the association was to only make enough money to pay our expenses. There have been no serious accidents, the few that have happened were of the minor scratch and bump type. There have been no major problems that we were not able to overcome. In 1987 we were locked out of the concession kitchen in the arena, the minor hockey association own all the equipment and didn't allow anyone to use it. This made it rather awkward for Linda Sanden who was looking after the concession, but by setting up tables in the concourse and using the kitchen upstairs she was able to manage.

By: Tim Bancroft
Written c. 1988. Click here to see a copy of the original document.