Community Corner
From Horse Racing to Funnel Cakes: Author Chronicles History of Alameda County Fair
A new book from Victoria Christian includes never-before-published photos covering nearly a century of fair history.
The Alameda County Fair is just around the corner and will bring an estimated 400,000 visitors to its annual festivities.
While attendees enjoy rides, deep-fried delicacies, and July Fourth celebrations, few will know the grounds' rich history. Author Victoria Christian hopes to bring to light the long-forgotten stories that still echo throughout the 270-acre campus.
In Christian's new book, Alameda County Fair, she unveils the untold history of the property in what began as a ranching family's Sunday pastime of horse racing. The original racetrack was built in 1850 by the Bernal family on their 52,000-acre ranch, which was part of the Northern California land grant, Rancho Valle de San Jose.
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Today the track is the oldest one-mile track in America.
In the early 1900s, businessman Rodney G. MacKenzie approached a group of county businessmen and ranchers with a proposal to hold a county fair on his property in hopes to turn a profit on his newly acquired racetrack. The first Alameda County Fair ran from Oct. 23 to Oct. 27, 1912 making next year the Alameda County Fair's centennial anniversary.
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In 1939, leaders sought to form a modern fair and the Alameda County Fair Association was established as a 501(c)3 private, non-profit corporation.
Today the Alameda County Fair is the largest county fair in Northern California and the largest public event in Alameda County.
This year, it received the coveted Western Fair Associationʼs (WFA) Louis B. Merrill Award, named for WFA's founder, for its 2010 canine-fthemed seminars, sessions, shows, and the opportunity to adopt rescued dogs at Puppy Party Palooza.
Christian was approached by Arcadia Publishing to take on the comprehensive task of exploring the fair grounds history after she published her first book, Images of America: Sunol, in 2007.
Christian said April Mitchell, the Alameda County Fairgrounds marketing manager, gave her access to the fairgrounds archives, where she found a treasure trove of vintage newspaper clippings, photos and fair memorabilia. It took her more than a year and a half to sort through the dozens of boxes, organize thousands of photos and research the history behind the untold stories she discovered.
On May 23, 2011, Victoria Christian's book Alameda County Fair, from the Images of America, series made its debut on store bookshelves. The book is filled with classic, black and white photos dating back to late 1800s.
Victoria Christian is a long-time resident of Sunol. She is the new editor-in-chief of the Sunolian newspaper.
Images of America: Alameda County Fair may be purchased locally at , and the. The book can also be purchase online through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
The 99th Annual Alameda County Fair runs from June 22 to July 10. Christian will be at the fair signing her book Fridays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays, starting between 10 a.m. and noon and ending between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. She'll also be there on opening day from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and on Monday, July 4, from 10 a.m. to noon and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
