The question is what did people do for entertainment in Blacksburg over the ages? Well, the answer will be revealed below as we gather this information.

“Blacksburg, Va., October 25 – Cooperation and advertising are the two most important factors in the development of a county, and in these Montgomery has been sadly lacking in the past. The people themselves hardly realize the vat mineral, timber and agricultural resources that lie at their doors. The attention of outside capital has never been drawn in this direction to any extent and the people of the several sections of the county have not been afforded opportunity to get together, except on “sham battle day” at V. P. I., which is a day more for pleasure than for real profit. To give them a chance to get better acquainted, to learn of the natural resources that lie undeveloped about them and to give those from outside a chance to learn by seeing, the first fair was held at Blacksburg the past week and proved a success in every way. So successful did it prove that a permanent organization has been effected, the preparations for a bigger and better fair in the early fall of 1914 will begin long enough ahead to give everybody a chance to compete, and it is more than probably that Montgomery will hereafter be one of the counties in the circuit of agricultural and school fairs in Virginia.

The attendance on all three days exceeded the hopes of the most optimistic, the weather conditions were of the best, there was a spirit of interest and enthusiasm that helped wonderfully, and those from other parts of the State said they had never seen a more attractive program of amusements and attractions.

The military exhibitions of the college cadets were watched with interest: the crowd that greeted Hon. H. C. Stuart himself, and until the last note of the carnival siren-horn died out Saturday night, the crowd was large and enthusiastic, and with very few exceptions, orderly and satisfied.

The college auditorium, a very large building, was lined with the credible exhibits in all the ten departments these representing the products of housekeeper, the arts, the artists and farm, garden, orchard,  the skill of the needle-worker: in fact, everything usually seen at a country fair, and these of the very best. The exhibit of the Blacksburg public school attracted most favorable comment, and the principal, Miss Emma Yerby, has been asked to send this exhibit to the meeting of the State association in Lynchburg. The twelve-dollar plow, offered by Luster, Henderson Company of Blacksburg, went to Murphy Keister, the fourteen-year-old son of A. T. Keister, for his display of farm products, and the second prize – a ten-dollar plow, given by Christiansburg Hardware Company, as second premium in this – went to R.H. Price, of Long Shop, Montgomery County. A little twelve-year-old girl, Janie Price of Luster Gate, was presented with a special ribbon and premium by the management of two pictures, she having painted these without ever having taken a lesson, and from her own ideas of art.”

“At a recent meeting of the directors of the Blacksburg Fair Association, it was decided to invite exhibitors from Craig and Giles counties, to join in competition with exhibitors of Montgomery county.” 1914 – Roanoke Times, Flashback: tracking NRV history.

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