The Othello Fair
Our History
The Grange Hall in Othello was formed many years ago. A. O. and Bess Hampton along with Harvey Bailey put together the community fairs. It was held in several locations over the years until A. O. Hampton gifted a piece of property to the Grange in the event it should be used for a permanent fairgrounds Eventually the Grange disbanded and the members met with the West District Adams County Fair Board. After a couple of months, October of 1979 several meetings ensued and in January 1980 the property that was originally owned by A. O Hampton officially became "West District Adams County Fair.
In August of 1966, Mr. Hintze gathered a meeting of people from Ritzville, Washtucna, Lind and Othello to start an official Adams County Fair Board. A board was elected for the directors to oversee both the Ritzville and Othello fairs. The two fairs ran their own governing committees, meeting every month, and met with the Adams County Fair Board every 4th month.
The Ritzville fair was referred to as the East Adams County Fair and the fair in Othello was referred to as the West Adams County Fair. The funds from the State Department of Agriculture were given for premium points with 2/3 going to the East fair and 1/3 to the West fair. The West Adams County fair board and members worked very hard to build the exhibit building and restrooms. Soon came livestock pens and horse stalls. Next was the office and organizations such as the Moose and Eagles, J.C's, Rotary, Lions, and LDS church plus 4-H and other groups. Many businesses donated time and material as well as donations. Our fair grew fairly rapidly. Eventually the money was 50/50. After 14 years of this split fair government, in December 1980, the county commissioners chose the West Adams Country Fair as the Official "Adams County Fair".
After hard work and volunteerism from the Othello community, our fair is now a very successful and friendly, family oriented fair.
In 2018 the Fair was renamed to the Othello Fair. Also, after much research, two names kept coming up in the minutes of both the original Adams County Fair Board and the West Adams County Fair minutes and even up to our fair today. This person was on several boards and always very activee at our fair in the animal dept. for many years.
