Country Fair Cache Traditional Cache
Team Richards: With the new water treatment plant right near by it is time for this cache to closes Thanks to all who visited.
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Size: 
(regular)
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The cache is a med size lock n lock container full of balls, toys, and a few
items for the four-legged cachers. The fair grounds is open dawn to
dusk. There may be Muggles. The kids who live next to the race
track often play in the woods behind the grounds.
The following information was taken from the New Gloucester Fair
Grounds committee book - “New Gloucester Fair grounds, Past Present
and Future”.
Around 1890 the Haskell farm on the banks of the
Royal’s river was purchased and a racetrack was built, soon
followed an exhibition hall, cattle and horse shed.
From the fall of 1891 till the mid 1940’s the New Gloucester and Danville Agricultural fair was held here on fifty two acres of land.
The fair was a place of friendly competition between neighbors and friends.
The exhibition hall was full of the town’s people’s handy work. The ladies displayed knitting, crocheting, tatting, jams and jellies and other foods. The men brought their garden produce.
Who would have the biggest pumpkin this year? In some ways fairs haven’t changed a lot. Like fairs of today there were sideshow acts and food vendors, games of chance and rides. The horse racing was always a big hit as were the town league baseball games.
In 1924 a dance hall was built, and used for dances two nights a week for forty-six years. In 1935 the fair disbanded but continued to have dances, baseball games, and track racing.
The summer of 1946 was a big change, the fair grounds were purchased and turned into a sports park. The park featured a penny arcade, merry-go-round, boating, kiddies Park and an outdoor movie theater.
The park also had races; there were motorcycle, horse and car races. Other special attractions included a Miss Cheerleader of Maine competition, a rodeo and the Anderson & Tramer Circus.
The park ran until the early fifty’s. The racetrack continued to be used to train hoses and horse trainers. In 2003 the town bought the land back, the land had been broken up and is now 32 acres. The town is restoring the grounds and holds a community fair one day a year in October. There is a skating rink in the winter and special activities through out the year.
Another historical event that started in the forties at the fair grounds was the start of a business that is still in New Gloucester today. Mrs. Reardon came from Ohio with a frozen custard machine, she had been made to believe the fair grounds was the place to start her seasonal
business. Mrs. Reardon ran the business for a year, offering only vanilla custard. In 1945 Mrs. Reardon was concerned that the fair grounds were in trouble and would no longer hold fairs so she sold the custard machine to the Hodgman’s who lived in the farm next to where she was rooming. The Hogman’s ran the business for 10 years, and it was closed for 7 years due to poor health. It was then that
Ken and Joyce Hodgman started running the business and with two of their children they are still running it today. The Hodgman’s frozen Custard is located on RT 100 and open from Mother’s day to Labor Day, closed Monday and Tuesday.
If you would like to visit the coordinates are, N43 59.808 W070 17.477 My favorite flavor of custard is pumpkin,
I wonder what your favorite flavor is?
Thank you for visiting our cache, we hope you enjoy it.
Team Richards
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