Newton County Fair - Kentland, Indiana

Located in Northern Indiana, is the town of Kentland, Indiana, home of the Newton County Fair.  The fair is known as the “Pun’kin Vine Fair”.  Kentland is also the home of track announcer Lynn Wilfong and his wife, Barbara.  Yes, Lynn has been announcing the races at Kentland since he was asked by the Kentland Speed Superintendent and the Fair President at the annual Fair Convention held in Indianapolis, when Harness Racing was revived at the fair in 1981.  At the time, Lynn was President of the Indiana Trotting and Pacing Horse Association (ITPHA).

Shortly after the fair began in 1921, the racetrack was built.  Since the beginning of the fair, racing has been held in all but twelve years.  Over the past fifty years the fair dates have been gradually pushed forward, with the harness program generally held in mid-July.  Many years ago, when the races fell a little later in the fair season, Kentland was a venue for horsemen to “tune-up” their horses just prior to the Indiana State Fair races.

Local Kentland insurance man Tom Kindall, an avid race fan and prior owner of harness horses, recalls going to the fair with his Dad as a young boy.  “It was quite an event, lasting several days,” says Kindall.  School would actually shut down and the school buses would bring people from town out to the fair.  (Today, the only place closing down schools for a county fair is the Delaware County Fair in Delaware, Ohio on Little Brown Jug Day.)  Kindall recalls lots of betting occurring around the “betting tree” and back in the scenic wooded areas of the fairgrounds.

A fun feature during the races in the grandstand nowadays is the “Pick The Winner” contest.  The fans have chances to pick the winner of each race by dropping their name in the appropriate bucket.  After each race, one name is drawn from the bucket representing the winning horse.  The winner receives prizes donated by the USTA, Harness Horse Youth Foundation, and Hoosier Park.  Also, a delicious brunch is served early in the morning before the races.

Just recently, the harness racing program was awarded a page in the newly designed Historical Coloring Book, published by the Newton County Historical Society.  Barbara Wilfong drew the grandstand, depicting racing at the fair as one of the books’ 40 pages.  The book includes three other pages of illustrations about the fair.  These books are given to each fourth grade student in the county.

The fairgrounds in Kentland, IN can claim several notable firsts over the years.  The Newton County Fair was the first county fair in the Midwest to present an outside Ice Show; the first fair to have the Radio City Rockettes on its stage, and lays claim to having George Gobel make his acting debut on stage.