The Southwest Washington Fairgrounds unveiled its newly updated Dairy and Beef Pavilion Friday evening, May 2, at this year's Lewis County Spring Youth Fair, which runs through Sunday.
The new stalls have been in the works for about two years and will allow the pavilion to host around 240 beef and dairy cattle during this weekend's event.
That's a record for both the Spring Youth Fair and the week-long Southwest Washington Fair in August.
“This barn has never seen that many animals for August fair or youth fair,” said Eric Richardson, beef superintendent for the Spring Youth Fair and Southwest Washington Fair. “So that alone is a testament to how many animals we can fit in the barn. We would have had to cut off entries a long time ago when we hit a cap on the old system. We're gonna be full. We're gonna be packed. But we were able to house a lot more cattle.”
The project first started when Richardson announced the effort to fund the creation of new stalls at the 2023 Spring Youth Fair.
The Lewis County Board of Commissioners provided the first installment when they approved $10,000 in funding later that year.
The new stalls, half of which were completed and installed during last year's fairs, cost between $80,000 and $90,000, according to Richardson's estimates. Other than the county's contribution, the project was entirely funded by donations, including a major donation of $30,000 from the Save the Outdoor Pool (STOP) group. The money was donated after the Pearl Street Pool was officially closed for good and filled in with dirt in 2023.
Richardson said the goal for the updated facilities was to make things safer and allow for more entries. What finally spurred action was a loss of exhibitors due to the outdated and potentially dangerous feed mangers, which the fair used for more than 40 years.
“Those feed mangers … had deteriorated so bad,” Richardson said. “We would replace the lumber on them and stuff like that, but the concrete bases — the rebar was showing. Animals could stick their foot in there, and pretty soon you have a liability risk. So it was becoming a danger to the exhibitors, to the livestock. So the overall goal was to, No. 1, create a safer environment, No. 2, house a lot more cattle.”
The new stalls were not purchased outright, but designed by fair officials and other local participants based on facilities at other big livestock shows in the country, such as those held in Denver, Colorado, and Reno, Nevada. Much like the funding, the actual construction of the new stalls was an example of the community's support for the fair.
According to Richardson, the fair sourced the steel for the project through a former fair participant and exhibitor, and another former exhibitor worked on the fabrication.
The new stalls are made of large steel pipe with wooden panels that slide nicely into place with some brackets on the floor before being chained together for good measure. While the stalls are certain to be a long-time fixture on the fairgrounds, they aren’t bolted into the ground and can be set up or taken down with a tractor in the offseason.
Part of the new design also includes custom racks that will hold the stall pieces securely without taking up space.
The fair is still accepting donations for the new stalls, hoping to put some money in the bank dedicated to future maintenance of the new equipment. Richardson also hopes the project and funding effort will translate into continued investment in updating other parts of the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds.
Some updates and additions for the fairgrounds are already underway with funding from state grants through the Washington state Department of Commerce and the Washington state Department of Agriculture Fairs. The Lewis County Board of Commissioners recently approved one contract to develop designs for a new Southwest Washington Fairgrounds Equestrian Center and another for repairs to the roof structure of the fairgrounds 4H barn.
Spring Youth Fair
The annual Spring Youth Fair began on Friday and extends through Sunday at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds.
The fair opened Friday, May 2, with an unveiling of a new sign above the Expo Hall officially dedicating the building to the memory of Lee Coumbs.
The fair will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
The cost of admission is $5 for adults and children over 13 and $4 for children ages 6 to 12. Children 5 years old and under get in free. Parking costs $5.
For more information on the Spring Youth Fair, visit https://www.springyouthfair.org.
