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New Book Explores the History of the Alameda County Fair

Victoria Christian's book "Alameda County Fair" includes never-before-published photos covering nearly a century of fair history.

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 Christian's new book, Alameda County Fair, she unveils the history of 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, part of the Northern California land grant Rancho Valle de San Jose.

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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 to turn 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.

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In 1939, leaders sought to form a modern fair and the Alameda County Fair Association was established as a 501(c)3 private, non-profit 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 Western Fair Associationʼs (WFA) Louis B. Merrill Award, named for WFA's founder, for its canine attractions at the 2010 Fair: seminars, shows and the opportunity to adopt rescued dogs at Puppy Party Palooza.

Christian was approached by Arcadia Publishing to take on the comprehensive task of exploring the fairgrounds' history after she published her first book, Images of America: Sunol, in 2007. Victoria contacted , , for assistance.

Christian said April Mitchell, the Alameda County Fairgrounds marketing manger, gave her access to the fairgrounds archives, where she 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 untold stories she discovered.

On May 23, 2011, Victoria Christian's book Alameda County Fair, from the Images of America series, made its debut on store bookshelves. The book is filled with classic black and white photos dating back to late 1800s.

Victoria Christian is a long-time resident of Sunol. She is the new editor-in-chief of the Sunolian newspaper. 

Images of America: Alameda County Fair can be purchased locally at ,  and the.  The book can also be purchase online through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

The 99th Annual Alameda County Fair runs from June 22 to July 10. Victoria Christian will be at the fair signing her book during the weekends: Fridays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays starting between 10 a.m. and noon and ending between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.

She'll also be there on opening day from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and on Monday, July 4, from 10 a.m. to noon and from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

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