Editing Fair Grove, Missouri (section)

==Arts and culture==

The most notable event that takes place in Fair Grove each year is the Fair Grove Heritage Reunion. This always takes place the last full weekend in September. This [[List of festivals in the United States#Arts and crafts festivals|festival]] has its roots with the original Fair Grove Fair in the early 1900s and 1910s, and more recently with the Fair Grove Arts and Crafts Festival which started in 1978. Dan and Betty Manning organized a gathering of 12 local craftsmen to sell their wares on the square.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Missouri State University |title=Fair Grove Heritage Reunion History |url=http://www.missouristate.edu/rls/fair_grove_heritage_reunion_hist.htm |access-date=2006-09-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060911222233/http://www.missouristate.edu/rls/fair_grove_heritage_reunion_hist.htm |archive-date=2006-09-11 }}</ref>

That first year, Granny Poke, in a bedraggled cookshack, fired up her wood stove to cook a batch of [[Common bean|brown beans]], [[Pokeweed|poke greens]], [[Cobbler (food)|homemade fruit cobbler]] and [[cornbread]]. A short parade began the two-day event, with a small crowd attending. A few men of the town gathered at the mill to learn [[Wooden log|log splitting]] and [[Shake (shingle)|shingle riving]], and [[Sassafras|Sassafras tea]], [[Asimina triloba|pawpaws]] and [[Hickory|hickory nuts]] were available, just for the asking.

Since those early years, the organizers of that first festival have seen many changes and improvements. Today, the crowd estimate during the Fair Grove Heritage Reunion is 40,000 to 50,000 on Saturday and around 30,000 on Sunday. The number of booths have increased to almost 400, with many featuring demonstrations, such as [[weaving]], [[bobbin lace]] and [[Soap|soap making]]. The two-day event still includes a parade and a church service in front of the historic mill.

Activities abound throughout the show area. Some of the favorites include corn grinding in the Boegel & Hine Flour Mill, working draft teams, an antique tractor rodeo, [[horse]] and [[mule]] obstacle course and [[Threshing machine|wheat threshing]]. [[Internal combustion engine|Primitive gasoline engines]] and [[steam-powered]] engines are furnished through the Early Day Gas Engines and Tractor Association, Branch 16 and The Ozark Steam Engine Association. Demonstrations of corn shredders and a corn shellers also occur throughout the day.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://fghps.org/reunion_history.html |title=History of Fair Grove Heritage Reunion |access-date=2007-10-12 |last=Smith |first=Marilyn |publisher=[[FGHPS, Inc.]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090111234144/http://fghps.org/reunion_history.html |archive-date=2009-01-11 }}</ref>

The 2012 the festival had an estimated 80,000 attendance. In 2007, the festival parade was the longest ever (over 3 hours long) in celebration of the festival's 40th Anniversary.