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Illusion Farm is located on Cornshop Road in
Fryeburg, Maine 04037. With access to all of Maine and New Hampshire’s scenic
wonders, the clean lakes, the gemstone county, and to many local cities,
Fryeburg is one of western Maine’s nicest communities. Laying peacfully in New
England’s famous Mount Washington Valley, Fryeburg is home to Fryeburg Academy,
all of which is surrounded by rivers, lakes, and over seven hundred and fifty
thousand acres of national forests.
Fryeburg is also known for the Fryeburg Fair. They
came in horsedrawn vehicles, sometimes riding and sometimes leading their
livestock, and the journey took many hours, undertaken as soon as the morning
chores were done, in the "old days" of Fryeburg Fair.

Later, the railroad came, swelling attendance
at the much-anticipated event, and a period when fairgoers could journey to the
fair from town on Fryeburg's horse drawn railroad.
Men of over a century ago put their money where their mouths were,
gambling on a venture, a nonprofit venture; which would benefit the agricultural
community that was West Oxford County of the Pine Tree State and reach out to
nearby New Hampshire as well. Little did those long-ago citizens realize that
the fair they conceived and sponsored would steadily grow in size, scope, and
duration, from a one-day exhibit to eight days of jam-packed excitement.
How those long-ago overalled farmers (no status labels on their rumps!)
and petticoated, sunbonnet wearing farm wives would marvel, could they attend
Fryeburg Fair in the year 2000!
The first so-called "permanent" site of the Fair was a
parcel of land no bigger than the portion now occupied by the Fair's midway! Now
over 180 acres, on both sides of Route 5 about a mile outside the village area,
are available to the West Oxford Agricultural Society's annual event.
"One hundred and fifty; whew! That's a long time," someone
is bound to remark, seeing the proud sign at the main gate of the fairgrounds,
but then the crowds, the sights, the smells, the sounds; the overall excitement
will take over, for who can dwell on the past, when the present is so enticing?
(From "Fryeburg Fair From Day One" by Janet Hounsell)

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