PEORIA MAGAZINE July 2023

An early tractor pull at the Heart of Illinois Fair

T he Heart of Illinois Fair isn’t the same as it was when I was a kid.” That phrase has per sisted as the Heart of Illinois Fair heads into its 74th year this month. The Heart of Illinois Fair at Exposition Gardens remains a not-for-profit that, today, is primarily run by a volunteer board made up of everyone from pig farmers to local small business owners, from those in leadership positions at Peoria’s top employers to members of the Farm Bureau. The mission of the fair is still the same as it was at its inception: It is a celebration of our community and its citizens and their achievements in the areas of agriculture, livestock, garden ing, floriculture, food and textiles and some good old-fashioned family fun. A COMMUNITY COLLABORATION The vision for the Heart of Illinois Fair at Exposition Gardens was unofficially created in 1945 through the fundraising efforts of the Peoria District Fair. The community responded well, with more than 24,000 people contributing. By April 1948, enough had been collected in donations to purchase and break ground on 160 acres of farmland owned by Walter Poppen waaaay out in the county. The city of Peoria grew around Exposition Gardens as the years passed, with Richwoods High School sprouting up on half of the original property (but more on that later).

“

The terrain was rough and rugged and needed to be made more usable for a regional county fair. So where oh where would a blue-collar town that was home to a global tractor company’s headquarters ever find the resources to take on the task of leveling all that dirt? OPERATION EARTHMOVER With the assistance of more than 100 volunteer workers, a quarter of a million cubic yards of dirt were moved in slightly more than 40 hours! How was that even possible? The soil-shifting feat went down on April 24-25 of 1948, and 150 earth-moving machines donated by a variety of contractors, county highway departments, private industry and leading equipment manufacturers leveled the 160 acres in record time, even garnering national attention from Time and Life magazines. It was a global record at the time and a beautiful show of community support and care! Volunteer workers, including those from Local 649 International Union of Operating Engineers, still in operation today, worked alternating six-hour shifts around the clock to move enough dirt to make a pile as high as a 51-story building! It was a feat that attracted quite a few lookie-loos. According to an article writ ten by the late Peoria journalist and his torian Norm Kelly, who was one of them, Northmoor Road was blocked off, and a total of 65 state troopers handled what little traffic they were allowing through.

Longtime Fair board member Phil Salzer was there, too, as a young boy. Salzer’s father was part of the 649 Operators Union. Flash back to 1979, the year Salzer became a part of the Fair Board as a director. Through the years he was at the helm of many tasks, including transporting the big name fair talent, including Tiny Tim, Jan and Dean, Connie Stevens, Tanya Tucker, Leann Rimes, Charlie Pride, Glen Campbell, Eddie Rabbit, and Gloria Estefan — who asked for an ironing board and ironed her own clothes! Due to financial issues, the big-name acts in the Grandstand would come to an end in 2003. There was an attempt to pivot by putting bands under a tent on the fairgrounds and in the Opera House. That did not quite live up to past successes. Entertainer Jerry Van Dyke performs at the fair with his trained monkey

JULY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE 65