In January 1873, a group of businessmen met and organized in Hutchinson, Kansas, to create the Reno County Agricultural Society. Later that year, on September 23-24, that society held a fair in the small wooden livery stable behind the town's only bank. 

The fair's success led the community to raise funds for another one and moved the event to a location southeast of where the fairgrounds stand today. This first Annual Reno County Fair took place in 1875 and was successful enough to prompt another venue change, this time to the north of the Eastside Cemetery.

The society was eventually reorganized and renamed the Arkansas Valley Fair Association. In 1885, 10 years after it had moved, the fair returned to its previous southeastern location, where it would continue to grow through the 1890s, adding new buildings, fencing, a racetrack, and even a streetcar.

Read more on the KEY Apparel blog.