The 168th Portage County Randolph Fair took place at the end of August with all the customary entertainment that makes the event a success year after year: the junior fair, including 4-H and FFA agricultural shows, rides, food, games, music, tractor pulls and much more.
Chuck Campbell won the champions division at the sheep shearing competition again this year, while Geoff Baldwin jr. had the fastest time in the champions division and Andy Johnson had the cleanest shear.
Chuck Campbell hasn’t missed a sheep shearing competition at the fair since the event was started in 1991 by his dad, Jay Campbell, who was a 4-H advisor and assistant superintendent of the sheep department.
More than a couple of events at the fair were started by fair board and 4-H members who still oversee them or their family.
Truck and tractor pulls coordinator Ernie Rufener, 87, stands out for his dedication to the longstanding tradition of tractor pulling at the fair, as well as serving helping to finance the expansion of the fairgrounds.
On the Portage County Randolph Fair's 100th anniversary in 1958 Ernie Rufener told his dad, Carl Rufener, he wanted to bring tractor pulls to the fair; his dad said he had to be a board member to do that, so Ernie Rufener followed in his dad’s footsteps and became a board member.
At that time, not many fairs had tractor pulls, although pony pulling and horse pulling were already well-established at the Portage County fair. The following year, in 1959, Ernie Rufener succeeded in adding tractor pulls to the pulling events.
Ernie Rufener said the tractors initially pulled dead weight the same way the horses did, with a dead weight sled, but those were later exchanged for a boat sled that people would stand on to weigh down the tractors.
“We went from that [dead weight sled] to where we pulled the boat on a run and people jumped on from each side of the boat, on the sled. The boat was eight feet wide and about 16, 18-feet long. We had people that would get on the boat about every 5 feet. A person got on from one side or the other, until they couldn’t pull it, or they pulled it the full length.”
People were recruited from the stands to ride on the sled, but Rufener said the trouble with that was sometimes a child was called to go home by their parents, at which time organizers had to find another person of the same weight to ride the sled for the remainder of the class, which was a difficult endeavor.
As tractors evolved and gained more horsepower, using people to weigh down the sled became dangerous, so that method was phased out in the 1970s in favor of a weight transfer sled, which progressively increases the pulling load as the vehicle moves down the track, and didn’t require people to stand in harm's way.
“It’s not safe anymore,” Rufener said. “Most tractors at that time were lucky to run four mile an hour, five mile an hour, but tractors now have a couple thousand horsepower. Then, most of the tractors were lucky to have 50. So that’s a hell of a difference. Some of them guys run down there at 25 mile an hour. People got to moving too fast, so they came out with the exchanger, it transfers the weight up onto the sled.”
Another advancement in the mechanics of the tractor pulls was the manner in which the distance a tractor pull was measured. Rufener said in the early days of the event a string was used to measure the distance a tractor pulled, now the tractors are equipped with onboard sled monitors that use sensors to track the distance.
When Ernie Rufener became a board member in 1958, the fairgrounds was much smaller than it is today, about 40 acres. The front of the fairgrounds that borders route 44 was a privately owned orchard, which was used for parking during fair week and was later purchased by the fair board.
Many county fairs are owned by the county, but the Portage County Randolph Fair is owned by Portage County Agricultural Society, a name that the fair board adopted in 1972.
In an effort to expand the fairgrounds, he made a deal with the bank.
“I bought the first 5 acres, Rufener said. “I went to the bank to try to get the money for that and I had to put my farm up for collateral, because the bank said the fair isn’t worth nothing, the fair didn’t own anything. This whole front parking lot in front of the fairgrounds, where you come in now, the rest of that was an orchard, from there down to 44, so we purchased that. The guy that owned the orchard let us park there, because we didn’t have enough room to park. We only had 40 acres to start with, now we got 80.”
Ernie Rufener’s family has been involved with the fair for over a century, dating back to his father, Carl Rufener, who was a fair board member for 42 years, his late brother Carl Rufener Jr. who started the Power from the Past exhibit, and his sister Sharon Eldreth, who was in charge of the draft horses for 20 years, to name a few.
His seven children were also involved in 4-H at the fair, most of whom showed dairy cows, because the family owned a dairy farm.
Although Ernie Rufener’s main job at the fair is as the tractor pull organizer, he believes the fair is mainly about the kids first and foremost.
“The fair is basically around 4-H and FFA, that was the main deal, for the kids to show their wares and what they learned over the year,” he said. “I always figured if we kept one kid out of jail, or out of trouble, we done our job.”