NEZPERCE — For 100 years, the Lewis County Fair — the last such event in the area of the season — has been a chance for people to take a breath following the grain harvest and put some of their best work on display.

“Oh, it’s a wonderful time for people to show their talents and what they’re best at and to share it with the public,” said Rosalea Figgins, the fruit and vegetable superintendent in the Baldus open class exhibit hall.

The frost that frequently ruins home gardens by this time of year has held off so far, and Figgins said there is an amazing display of tomatoes, pumpkins, peppers and summer and winter squash.

“The crops are mostly in and people are winding down and it’s kind of a sigh of relief from everybody,” Figgins said. “I know I can kind of breathe easy. I don’t have to get out there at 5 in the morning and start watering my flowers and my vegetables.”

Lewis County has always been one of the smaller fairs in the region, but University of Idaho extension agent Ken Hart said there are probably twice as many youngsters involved in the 4-H program than there were a century ago.

He attributes that to good leadership from people in the community who are trusted and respected, valuable leadership training and the fact that it is one of the only youth development programs in the county. Hart estimated that nearly half of all the students at Highland in Craigmont and Nezperce belong to a 4-H club, and in Kamiah the number is about 20 percent.

Even though it’s small, however, Lewis County has always promised a quality showing of the county’s agriculture and homemaking base.

The Sept. 15, 1921, Lewis County Register reported: “It is proposed to make this the biggest and best fair ever held in Lewis County. Special features will be the blooded stock that the prairie farmers are now fast becoming interested in, and it is intended that the fair will be an incentive to better stock and more of it.

“The display of grains will be as fine as any in the world, no place can beat Lewis County, but being so common will not receive the attention it would get other places.”

Friday was a good day for Beau Wilkins, 11, of Kamiah, whose bearded dragon turkey, Penelope, won the grand champion prize in the poultry quality contest.

This is the first year Wilkins, who is a member of the Big Butte Buckaroos 4-H club, has entered a turkey. He also has a pig project.

“When we looked at the list (of potential projects), I saw turkeys so I thought I just wanted to do something different,” Wilkins said.

He and his cousin are the only two turkey exhibitors in the fair. Wilkins said he loved raising Penelope and probably enjoyed her more than the pig.

“Well, you have to have a lot of time to go out and mess with it every day, but I think turkeys are way more fun to play with (than pigs) and I feel like it’s a way better experience,” Wilkins said.

This also was 12-year-old Colton Thompson’s first year to enter a beef project and he was busy tending his “bucket calf,” Rusty, during Friday’s events.

Rusty has been bottle-fed almost from birth because his mother was unable to feed him, Thompson said.

It takes a lot of time and patience to raise a calf that way, he acknowledged, but there were benefits. Rusty is a lovable bovine.

“We kept him in a pen and we would let him out to pasture, but he was tame enough because that’s the only food he would get because he couldn’t eat grass,” Thompson said.

Raising cattle is something Thompson said he thinks he’d like to do as a career when he grows up.

“Well, you get to spend time with animals and you get to tame them down,” he said.

Fair activities continue today, beginning with breakfast at the American Legion Hall from 7-9 a.m.; swine, sheep and goat quality judging beginning at 8 a.m.; the fair parade at 11:30 a.m.; a show and shine at the tennis courts on Oak Street at noon; a soup kitchen at the American Legion Hall at noon; a livestock auction at 5 p.m.; and a barn dance from 9 p.m. to midnight at the livestock barn.

On Sunday, Chaos on the Camas, featuring grain truck races, trailer races and a demolition derby, sponsored by the Nezperce Lions Club, at the Cecil Hill arena starts at 1 p.m.

Hedberg may be contacted at kathyhedberg@gmail.com or (208) 983-2326.