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    • Bears, sharks and monkeys played a role in previous Tennessee Valley Fairs
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    Bears, sharks and monkeys played a role in previous Tennessee Valley Fairs

    Eira Gwyneth Posted on

    Agriculture has been a focus of the Tennessee Valley Fair since the early days of the annual event, and some animals – award-winning and otherwise – have made quite an impression over the years.

    Cows, horses, sheep and chickens were not the only remarkable animals on display. Chimpanzees, snakes, bears and sharks fascinated and enchanted visitors who joined in the fun every September.

    With the opening of the Tennessee Valley Fair in 1916, agriculture became the focus of the fair for the first time. At that time, prizes were awarded for exemplary livestock breeding and horticulture for the first time.

    According to the fair’s website, an official petting zoo was added to the fair’s offerings in 1971, but animals of all kinds had been there long before that.

    “A quartet of bear cubs playing madly at tag, a litter of raccoons wrestling, sleepy screeching and barn owls, a bald eagle coldly eyeing a hissing bobcat and a 50-pound catfish ignoring it all. That’s a preview of the Wildlife Show at the Tennessee Valley Fair Sept. 11-19,” the Knoxville News Sentinel reported in 1964.

    Some wild animal made a former governor… hungry?

    When Governor Buford Ellington visited the Tennessee Valley Fair in 1962, he admired the Tennessee Game and Fish Commission’s wildlife exhibit. He was particularly taken with the turtles.

    “Man, those soft-shelled turtles are great to eat,” he told the News Sentinel in 1962. “I’ve eaten a few turtles in my life. They’re great fried, and turtle soup is mighty tasty.”

    He was also fascinated by the other creatures in this year’s exhibit, including snakes, birds, fish and a black bear cub named Pogo, the News Sentinel article said.

    “The whole exhibit is just great and I hear there’s more coming… We may have to try it out next week at the State Fair in Nashville,” Ellington added.

    When mules fly

    An exhibit that debuted in 1962 was perhaps even more unique. In 1971, Johnny Rivers’ “High-Diving Mules” performed at the fair three times a day.

    The mules jumped from a thirty-foot-high platform at the northern end of Chilhowee Park Lake into a twenty-foot-wide and seven-foot-deep water tank.

    “The thing I do is just let the mules loose at the bottom of the ramp. They take turns diving and climbing,” Rivers told the News Sentinel in 1971.

    Some animals explored the fair unsupervised

    Some animals caused a stir after escaping from the fair. In 1962, a water snake with 30 babies was an exciting part of the wildlife exhibit on Wednesday, September 11.

    But by Thursday, the babies were missing, and according to a News Sentinel article that same day, officials were searching the fairgrounds looking for them.

    “The snakes were so small that they had no trouble at all crawling through the wire,” the News Sentinel reported.

    Ben, a 300-pound black bear, escaped from the 1970 Tennessee Valley Fair wildlife exhibit. No one was hurt, but the bear’s brief forays caused a commotion.

    Ben escaped from his cage when Ed Konig, an exhibit attendant, opened it for cleaning. He was free for about 15 to 20 minutes, the News Sentinel reported in 1970.

    “Poor old guy,” said Harry Williams, enforcement officer for the Tennessee Game and Fish Commission, upon Ben’s return. “He’s pretty messed up.”

    Other notable creatures

    Monkeys thrilled fairgoers by racing against each other at the “Monkey Speedway” in 1966 and performing acrobatic stunts in 1957.

    A chimpanzee named Micky left the fair to delight some people who needed much more entertainment than the fairgoers: the staff of the News Sentinel. During one visit to the newsroom, Micky banged away on a typewriter and shook many hands, the News Sentinel reported in 1955.

    In 2001, the fair featured sharks, allowing visitors to pet them in a touch tank to enhance the educational offerings, the News Sentinel reported.

    Hayden Dunbar is the storyteller reporter. Email: [email protected].

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    Eira Gwyneth
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