JUMPING MULES TO HIGHLIGHT `BEST LITTLE FAIR IN LAND'

ALTENBURG -- The board governing the "Best Little Fair in the Land" has taken steps to make sure traffic is under control this year when the East Perry County Fair gets in full swing today and Saturday.

The traffic jams in Altenburg for the East Perry County Fair last year resulted in cars sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic Saturday afternoon in what may have been the biggest traffic jam ever in that little town.

The fair board doesn't want anyone staying away for fear of traffic so it bought 2.7 acres and built a new road to relieve congestion, said Fred Eggers, publicity chairman for the fair.

The worst jams occurred last year when exhibitors were leaving with their livestock and fairgoers were still arriving. This year, Eggers hopes those leaving with livestock will use the new half-mile road from Maple Street to the parking lots allowing the other traffic to flow freely.

Otherwise, the fair this weekend will follow the same formula its regulars find so satisfying: free admission, locally-run rides and games, good food, livestock exhibitions, free music, antique tractor pulls and, the most popular event: the jumping mules contest.

Eggers said the jumping mules contest came out of a local variant of raccoon hunting. "People that hunted raccoons at night started riding mules instead of walking," he said.

When they came to a fence, they'd put a blanket or a tarp over it and get the mules to jump over it. "Then they started getting competitive and they'd try to see whose mules could jump the highest," Eggers said.

This year, the mules are scheduled to start jumping at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. The fun, he said, is not so much how high the mules jump, but with "the mules being stubborn as a mule," watching them as they decide whether to jump at all.

As usual, bands will play each evening. Little Rock, a country rock band will perform on Friday and Country Touch, a country band will play on Saturday evening.

In addition, the Saxony Hills Community Band will play at 2:30 p.m. Friday. The band is a true community band with grade-school children, retired folks and all ages in between represented. In keeping with the heritage of the region, they'll play some German tunes along with standard band music, Eggers said.

The first East Perry County fair was held in 1919, but the annual tradition stopped in the 1920s. It picked up in 1938, stopped again for World War II and has been held continuously since 1946.