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Where and when was the first West Virginia State Fair?

Photo of people picnicking at Lewis County Fair
Photo of picnic at Lewis County Fair courtesy of the Carpenter Collection, West Virginia State Archives.

The First Annual Fair & Stock Exhibition was held on Wheeling Island,
October 9-12, 1866. The first event to be called the state fair occurred in
Wheeling on February 1, 1881. Today, the fair takes place the last week of
August in Fairlea near Lewisburg.

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