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Article: Lake County Fair had many homes before Grayslake.(Neighbor)(Lake County Discovery Museum)
- Article from:
- Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)
- Article date:
- July 25, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Paddock Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Diana Dretske
This week marks the 152nd anniversary of the Lake County Fair.
The fair's beginnings go back to nurseryman Robert Douglas, who began his nursery business in Waukegan in the 1840s. By the 1870s he was the largest grower of pines and spruces in the United States. Some of Douglas' trees still grow at the Illinois Beach State Park in Zion.
Douglas held arbor and floral exhibits at the county courthouse in the early summer, and his project soon developed into the Lake County Agricultural Society, which in turn became the Lake County Fair Association. In 1852, the time of the first Lake County Fair, 80 percent of all Americans ...