Back in 2022, Meyer Sign teamed up with the Skagit County Fairgrounds and Don Wick (Mr. Skagit County himself) to launch an experiment in Magic Skagit oral history. On the first day of that year’s Fair we gathered a group of local dignitaries together for a ribbon cutting on what has become an annual Skagit County Fair exhibit: the Meyer Sign Fair History Booth — a place where people can revisit and relate their memories of Fairs past.

The initial concept of the Meyer Sign Fair History Booth was to display old scrapbooks that the Fairgrounds has collected over a period of several decades. We thought that people for whom the Fair has been an integral part of their lives as Skagitonians would enjoy a trip down memory lane while noshing on corn dogs and cotton candy, and as a brief respite between carnival rides, stage entertainment, and all the other attractions our Skagit County Fair has to offer. In addition, Don and I conducted podcast interviews with folks who had memories to share, as well as interviews with 4H and FFA kids, exhibitors, and entertainers. Our hope was to capture and archive a wide range of Fair experiences that, thanks to the mystery of cloud computing, could be listened to decades from now as a way of remembering the way we were.

This year, Don and I will be celebrating our third year as the Meyer Sign Fair History Booth hosts — but we’ve changed things up a bit. For starters, you will now find the Meyer Sign Fair History Booth in a much more visible location: the Evergreen Classic Pavilion (we are located just inside the east entrance to the Pavilion, directly across from 4H Archery Exhibit. We’ve also partnered this year with the Skagit County Historical Museum, who will exhibit three sets of panels with old Fair photos that they are asking people to help identify. Don and I will be engaged in a similar project with an entirely new set of Fair scrapbooks. As folks peruse these scrapbooks, we hope they will be able to identify people, places, and events that are currently missing descriptions. Between these two efforts, it is our goal to fill in missing pieces of Fair history that will add to our knowledge and appreciation of the Skagit County Fair’s contributions to our communal lives.

And, of course, Don and I will continue to do our daily podcast interviews with a variety of people, young and old, who make the Fair the Magic Skagit’s greatest annual venue for celebrating who we are. At the end of each day, I will compile these interviews and broadcast them on Meyer Sign’s Tales of the Magic Skagit podcast site (available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts). We’ve had some amusing and heart warming interviews to share over the past two Fairs, and with your participation we’ll have even more to share this year. 

So here’s the deal, folks: stop by the Meyer Sign Fair History Booth and say “howdy” to Don and me. Look over some old scrapbooks and see if you can add anything to our “Fair Identification Form” or the Skagit County Historical Museum’s displays. And if anything triggers a memory you’d like to share for posterity, sit down to a quick podcast interview. In return, you can walk away with a coveted Tales of the Magic Skagit t-shirt and/or a colorful Tales of the Magic Skagit sticker. You’ll be the envy of your friends and neighbors.

See you at the Fair…and keep it magic, y’all!