The Fair is Embedded in the Fabric of Rosholt

Les Dobbe

Honorary Campaign Chairman and Donor

The Fair Park was land donated by J.G. Rosholt. The park is known for the huge pines which once covered Wisconsin, and were a source of the origins of Rosholt, that being a logging town.

I know all of this the way you know things when they've just been a part of your life for as far back as you can remember.

I grew up in Rosholt. My folks had a small shop in town. My grandfather sat on the Fair Board for decades, alongside a lot of the other folks born in the early 1900s who seemed to have a permanent place in that office. I'd go with him as he walked the grounds, watching him speak with the Christman ride company, negotiating amusement rides for the next year, talking to the cotton candy vendor. I was just a kid in the 60s and 70s tagging along. I didn't know then what I was seeing.

I moved away in 2002. Came back in 2014. And when I came back, I found something I hadn't fully appreciated until I'd been without it. A foundation. A place with real roots. The Fair is part of that. It's part of the thread of the fabric of my life here in Wisconsin.

Being involved in this campaign is, for me, a continuation of something that started with my grandfather. The ability to give back to the little town where you grew up. To add your layer to something that has been built up over generations.

What do I hope the Fair looks like on its 200th anniversary? I hope you can still stroll through the fairgrounds and hear the chickens and the hogs. Smell the popcorn and the caramel candy. See the Ferris wheel going. I hope the farm kids are still raising their animals and showing up proud of what they've done. I hope life stays simple, and Rosholt doesn't change much. But has this building to take care of the things the community needs.

It's Americana. Red, white, and blue. And it deserves to last another hundred years.