The first Danbury Fair was held under a borrowed tent in 1869. Over the next 112 years, the fair expanded to a ten-day event, earning a national reputation for its themed villages, giant figures, grandstand shows and wildly popular stock car races. The twelve formal venues for music and entertainment on the fairground included the World of Mirth Theater and the Orange Bowl Stadium. Under the management of oil magnate John W. Leahy, the fair retained its great hometown appeal as city dwellers flocked to the fair by the thousands. Venture back to the autumn days of zany ostrich races and Zembruski's polka music with Andrea Zimmermann as she explores the beloved bygone tradition of the Great Danbury State Fair.

Connecticut consists of a rich mixture of culture, history, sport, ingenuity and agriculture and the Danbury Fair drank deeply from its roots. Under the influence of John W. Leahy, the last owner and manager of the Fair, it grew into much more, while remaining true to its heritage. His story is captivating, as shared by those who knew him best.

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.

The Great Rememberingis an activist's exploration of what land means to our culture. In three chapters, "The Extinction of Experience," "Dissent and Defiance," and "Building a New Commons," the author traces the roots of our disconnection from place and from meaningful stories about our lives. He discusses what he terms the "ethics of enough"--the growing trend to slow down and place the quality of our experiences over the quantity of our possessions. It is through preserving land and rebuilding the relationship between land and people, he argues, that our culture can not only restore natural habitats, but revitalize human communities as well. In his introduction to the book, the Trust for Public Land's president, Will Rogers, writes, "The time has come for some hard questions and new approaches to land conservation. . . the pace of development and the impact of often poorly conceived growth on the American landscape have accelerated. . . How can we rethink our work as conservationists to change how our society approaches not just land use, but also our relationship with each other, our sense of community, and our responsibilities of citizens of a rapidly shrinking world?" Whether we are conservationists or citizens concerned about the quality of our lives and landscapes,The Great Rememberinghelps us begin to answer these questions and to work toward restoring a vital, interdependent, whole-land community. Trust for Public Land's companion book,Our Land, Ourselves(1999), gathered together a diverse collection of readings on the many themes of people and place. Peter Forbes' introductions to those readings suggested a new way of viewing land conservation as the process of building values and shaping human lives. InThe Great Remembering, he goes a step further, arguing that land conservation has the power to transform the heart and soul of our communities and to restore a set of values to a society that is increasingly fragmented and individualistic.