July 29, 2010:
Games, competitions, workshops and craft projects abound at this year’s fair.
Kids can learn how to make popsicle stick bombs and kites at the Kids’ Stage or jump around in a new, larger bounce house. Adults can race in a half-marathon, become a high-striker or try a bungee run jump. Bingo, horseshoes and a fisherman’s rodeo also are on tap.
Melee fighting will be on display Saturday at the Horse Arena. Members of the Shire of Earngyld will demonstrate medieval fighting using shields, swords, staves and other weaponry.
“It’s a recruiting tool for us,” said Nate Webb, the only Haines resident in the Juneau-based shire, a chapter in the international Society for Creative Anachronisms. “I’d like to get a group in Haines going.”
In addition to fighting, the group educates people on medieval history and culture.
For the fleet of foot, the Haines Hustle starts at 8 a.m. Saturday. There is a trail half marathon, a five-kilometer and ten-kilometer race. The races leave from Dalton City.
July 25, 2013
Your dog needn’t be lovable to win a prize in the fair’s Most Lovable Dog Contest. There are also awards for Best in Parade, Most Alaskan, Biggest Dog, Smallest Dog, Best Trick, Lookalike with Owner, Only a Mother Could Love, and Best Dressed. “Last year’s Best-Dressed went to a dog dressed as a sheriff and its owner dressed as a prisoner,” said coordinator Steve Vick of Haines Animal Rescue Kennel. “It was a riot.”
All participants must meet at the firehall at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday to register their dogs for the contest and to walk in the parade. “We ask to have leashes on all dogs during the parade,” said Vick.
Random spectators will serve as judges in the parade category. Immediately after the parade, dogs and their owners continue to Tlingit Park for the remainder of the contest, judged by out-of-towners.
Three visitors to town are asked to serve as judges. “We want to keep the contest fair,” Vick said. The three top finalists in Best Trick, Look-alike, and Best Dressed advance to the Main Stage in the fairgrounds at 1 p.m. where the audience will choose champions.
Prizes offered include dog food, dog biscuits and cash prizes. Volunteers equipped with “pooper-scoopers” and extra leashes will assist the owners.
August 7, 2003
Haines’ young equestrians will show off their riding skills beginning Thursday at the 33rd annual Southeast Alaska State Fair Horse Show.
Organizer Jeanette Heinrich said the three-day event won’t include any Juneau or Whitehorse participants, but that’s OK.
“We kind of prefer it that way. This is more fun; it’s kind of a learning show; there’s less tension. It will be a little bit bigger than last year.”
Heinrich said up to 18 riders are expected to turn out for Thursday’s 4-H show, which involves Western and English saddle events.
This year’s show will be judged by Annie Mabry of Anchorage. Mabry is renowned as a teaching judge, and is fresh off a stint as coach of the United States Special Olympics equestrian team that just returned from competition in Ireland.
On Friday, the show opens to all comers in peewee, junior, intermediate and advanced divisions. The competition includes Western and English equitation, in which the riders’ performances are judged, and pleasure events, in which the horses’ performances are evaluated.
August 10, 2000
Athletes are gearing up for the annual Sam Donajkowski Memorial Triathlon.
The event usually draws about 10 individual competitors and 12 teams, said coordinator Ellen Larson. “We have a good turnout. We recommend that if someone hasn’t been working out that they sign up with a team,” she said.
The course involves swimming one-third mile, biking 14 miles on the Haines Highway, and running three miles around town. Teams of three as well as individuals can compete. “Some teams do all the segments with just two people,” Larson said.
“We have a whole spectrum of competitors: People who are out to have a good time and get a little recreational exercise and people who are serious athletes and everything in between,” Larson said. Youth teams sometimes split the bike segment between two competitors to make the leg more kid-friendly, she said.
Master’s divisions are available for more serious competitors, and single-sex and mixed teams have their own categories as well. “Basically there are categories for everyone,” Larson said.
Coordinator Chip Lende said he expects a competitive race this year. “Especially in the women’s race. There are a lot more women in town who are athletes. I think the women’s race is the one that’s going to be exciting to watch,” he said.
Larson said the event typically is laid-back and fun. “It’s great the way everyone cheers each other on.”
July 21, 2005
Workers at the fairgrounds like to say the fair’s new Ferris wheel is “just like a bicycle wheel on a fork.”
But for most of the summer, it’s been even less than that: piles of cable, rods, brackets and wheels stacked up under Payson’s Pavilion, recognizable as a carnival ride only by its ten, two-seater gondolas. The workers, busy last week grinding and painting some of its hundreds of pieces, are confident they can assemble its iron skeleton.
The 40-foot amusement came second-hand and without instructions, so they’re working from photos of it in one piece.
“Most of it’s common sense – plus some group thinking,” said Benjamin Feldman, undaunted by a two-week deadline to get the ride up and going. “We still have 12 days.”
The wheel came from Juneau mechanic Dave Grafton who bought it online and hauled it to Alaska from western Pennsylvania about five years ago. Powering it with a backhoe, Grafton brought the wheel to Haines for the fair in 2000 and also operated it at Juneau’s Gold Rush Days celebration and in front of a department store. He sold it to buy a simulated roller coaster.
Grafton said the wheel was built in 1976. He bought it looking for an amusement that people of all ages could enjoy and said he expects it will fit in well with the old-fashioned amusements at the Haines fair. “I’m glad to see it’s going to have a good home. It needs a place where it can stay set up.”