The Trigg County Country Ham Festival has morphed from a small community gathering to one of the largest county festivals in the state.
The annual festival begins today in downtown Cadiz and continues through Saturday night’s concert and fireworks show.
Prior to the first ham festival in 1977, Cadiz celebrated Farm-City Week with a dinner at the school cafeteria and cooking and baking contests.
The first ham festival was organized through the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Office. Trigg County native David Fourqurean is now the ag extension agent in McLean County. He remembers the early days when his father and others in the extension office got the festival going.
click to download audioThe first festival featured country ham giveaways and the first ham show won by Robbie Flood. There was a public auction with the proceeds given to the Save the Trigg County Hospital Fund.
Tracey Baker was the first Miss Trigg County to be crowned during the festival which also featured a fiddling contest in the courthouse and a square dance on the Bank of Cadiz parking lot.
Several of the first events were agriculture-related and no longer held. They include a hog killing demonstration in the Oak Grove community and a pet show.
click to download audioCadiz Mayor W.J. Hopson, Sheriff Zelner Cossey, State Representative Ramsey Morris, and School Superintendent Tom Vinson raced on a tricycle while chewing tobacco. To no one’s surprise, Sheriff Cossey won the race and never spit his tobacco one time.
Another popular event at the first festival was the rocking chair marathon in the showroom of the Cadiz Motor Company downtown, which is now the Cadiz Baptist Church Annex.
Tim Stevens, Craig Stallons, and Jean Bridges finished in a three-way tie after rocking non-stop for over 12 hours.
Over 500 people attended the kickoff dinner at the school that included over 160 desserts from the community.
