Alameda County Fair Author Victoria Christian

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 Victoria'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.

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 of turning 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.

In 1939, leaders sought to form a modern fair and the Alameda County Fair Association was established as a 501(c)3 private, nonprofit 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 the WFA's founder. The award is given to individuals, businesses or organizations that demonstrate outstanding vision, innovation and leadership. Only one Merrill Award was issued this year throughout the United States and Canada.

The Alameda County Fair received the award for its exceptional canine-featured attraction last year that provided educational seminars, sessions, shows and the opportunity to adopt rescued dogs at Puppy Party Palooza.

Victoria was approached by Arcadia Publishing to write the history of the fairgrounds after she published her first book,  Images of America: Sunol  in 2007. Victoria contacted the Alameda County Fairgrounds manager of markerting, April Mitchell, for assistance.

She was warmly welcomed by Mitchell, Victoria said, and was given access to the fairgrounds archives. Victoria 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 stories she discovered.

On May 23, Victoria Christian's book Alameda County Fair, from the Images of America series, debuted on store bookshelves. The book is filled with classic black-and-white photos dating back to the late 1800s.
Victoria, a longtime resident of Sunol, is the new editor-in-chief of the Sunolian newspaper.
Images of America: Alameda County Fair can be purchased locally at Towne Center Books, Berry Patch and the Museum on Main. The book also can be purchased online through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

The 99th Annual Alameda County Fair runs from June 22 to July 10. Victoria will be at the fair signing her book Fridays from 5  to 8 p.m.. She'll also be there Saturdays and Sundays, starting at 10 a.m. some days and noon on others, ending at 4 p.m. some days and at 6 p.m. on others.

Look for her also on opening day from 5 to 8 p.m. and July 4 from 10 a.m. to noon and 2 to 4 p.m.