The county fair is a national institution and every summer nearly 2,500 county fairs are held to celebrate agriculture, promote youth exhibitors, and bring people together.

For nearly 200 years, people in all walks of life have enjoyed county fairs, beginning with the first fair held in Massachusetts, in 1811.

Since its inception, Americans flock to county fairs all over the nation to win blue ribbons, make deals and in general enjoy themselves.

With a nation of people where less than three percent are directly involved in agriculture, the draw to county fairs seems to be the good old American values of family, innovation and hard work.

People also feel the need to be together, and county fairs offer that fellowship. The crowd is not age bias; county fairs join the young with the middle aged and the elderly into one enjoyable event.

The earliest county fairs held horse races and baby shows, but today’s competition centers mostly around 4-H and FFA participants who have worked at great length to get their respective projects to the annual event.

Leatherwork is tooled, lambs are shorn, steers are combed and cakes are iced, all for the big week of county fair.

Often for the youth exhibitors, county fair is the last big “hurrah” before the beginning of school, so it is anticipated even more.

However, ribbons are not the only attractions at a county fair, there are midways with vendors, entertainment on stages and nightly rodeos to attend.

Food is another asset of county fairs; corn dogs, cotton candy and snow cones are always a big hit among the masses wandering from exhibit to exhibit.

For a week each year, the empty fairgrounds transform into their own exciting village where friendships are rekindled or new ones are made, hobbies are shared, food eaten and gossip is revealed.

County fairs are a place for parents and grandparents to beam with pride, children to learn responsibility and maybe get a taste of success, but mostly county fairs are for the millions of visitors who feel a sense of community just by stepping on the fairgrounds.

This week is the Carbon County Fair in Rawlins.

Whether you are a participant or a spectator, remember that while you are there, you are part of a larger community. A community that is assembled once a year as evidence to all that America is still good and the “family” does still exist.