“Always Labor Day Week.”

That was a familiar slogan for the Maine State Fair about 60 years ago. At that time, the week-long event was an occasion of excitement and wonder for a preteen boy such as me. Our Echo Farm on the North River Road in Auburn was directly across the river from the Lewiston Fairgrounds and the racetrack announcements and carnival sounds filled the air for several days and nights.

I’m reminded of the Maine State Fair in Lewiston every time I walk out to our old barn in Auburn and look up at a cluster of multicolored prize ribbons tacked high on a rafter many years ago. There are red ribbons for second place recognition, yellow and white for third and fourth, and more than a few blue ribbons for first place honors.

They hang there because my grandfather was very proud of the opportunity each year to exhibit the garden products of Echo Farm.

Anticipation of “Fair Week” began long before Labor Day. My father and grandfather had their eye on potential prize-winning squash and pumpkins throughout the summer. One of my grandfather’s tactics for promoting their growth was to water the plants with lots of surplus milk from the dairy barn.

They took special care in preparation of garden entries. It was serious business and they selected only the best ears of corn and the most perfect tomato and potato for display. Flowers were also cut and arranged. Often, the vase was a simple milk bottle, but the colorful late-summer bouquets captured their share of prizes.

Every year, my grandfather hoped to come up with a spectacular sunflower specimen, and his entries came from plants that approached 12 feet with seed-filled flowers the size of turkey platters.

My grandmother entered her needlework every year, too. I remember her beautiful hand-sewn quilt with postage-stamp-sized squares that won her a blue ribbon.

The World of Mirth and its mile-long midway played in Lewiston over many years at the fairgrounds and other locations. In 1957 and 1958, the show was paired with the Maine State Fair.

Thousands of fun-seekers passed beneath a towering orange gate advertising the “Largest Midway on Earth.”

In its heyday, The World of Mirth arrived in Lewiston on 50 railroad cars.

Agricultural fairs were held in Lewiston as early as 1837. The events known as State Fairs were sponsored by the Maine State Agricultural Society. That organization began holding a state fair annually in 1855 and rotated them to venues around the state until a park was built in Lewiston.

The first fair to use the grounds next to the railroad tracks on upper Main Street in Lewiston was in 1881. Visitors jammed the Twin Cities from all over New England during the week of the fair.

Many area residents don’t remember the Lewiston Fairgrounds, which is now the site of the CareerCenter, the local office of the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and a couple of restaurants. The original site had entrances at Main Street and on King Avenue.

Local businesses pasted posters on fences near the gates, and some of the names that can be seen in early photos are Novelty Cloak Store, Olfene & Homes, Heath’s Music Store, Auburn Marble and Monumental Works, and Doyle’s 5 Cent Store.

The harness racing track is gone and the large grandstand is only a memory.

There was a big exhibition hall near the Main Street entrance and for many years Charles Meade of Auburn was the exhibition hall superintendent. That hall was one of the first important elements of the fairgrounds to disappear. It was lost to fire around the middle of the last century.

It’s unfortunate that the Maine State Fair at the Lewiston Fairgrounds is only a memory, but the good news is that fairs around the state have not changed all that much. You can still spend a great day at the Skowhegan Fair, the Fryeburg Fair and many others. Much of that old-time atmosphere still exists in the livestock barns, the pulling rings, the harness racing, the exhibition halls and in many other features that still survive beside modern additions to the fairs.

Dave Sargent is a freelance writer and a native of Auburn. He may be reached by e-mail at [email protected].