Campbell peach festival making historic impact
CAMPBELL, Mo. (KBSI) – The sights and sounds of the Campbell Peach Festival as it all started as a one-day event eight decades ago.
The first event was hosted by the American Legion back in 1944 it is now a ten-day fair hosted by 15 peach fair board members.
Ron Huber remembers coming to the fair in the 70s when he was just a boy. He says it was the best way to wrap up summer before school starts.
“We come just about every year,” said Huber. “It’s always the biggest event on the northern part of Dunklin County.”
Locals bring their families to enjoy food, watch pageants, play games, and have fun with some of the best tasting peaches around.
“Actually, we got a pass through the state legislature of Missouri that Campbell is the peach capital of Missouri.”
I got to meet with a special board member who has been on the board for the peach fair the past nine years and has been coming to every single one for the past 80 years.
Mary Lou Hill gave me some of these tasty peaches and said that no other peach tastes like this one and it’s because of the dirt that helps grow these on Crowley’s Ridge.
“It’s the dirt on Crowley’s Ridge that affects the taste of the peach. There’s no other state that has the same taste.”
Not only has Mary Lou Hill been going to every peach fair since she was two, but she says it is special to her because her dad was a board member and then her husband and now her.
“I’m 82 so since my dad was instrumental, I have been to all of them and like I say as a kid, I remember I couldn’t wait for the carnival to come to town. It was just like icing on the cake.”
Miss Hill says the special ingredient to this fair isn’t just the peaches but it’s the people.
“There was a woman who was on the board for several years and she made the peach pies every year. She would make it. Everybody came to get Miss Orb’s fried peach pies and last year the peach fair was in August and in September Miss Orb passed away. This year in a tribute to her in the middle of the book, there’s a picture of Miss orb and her fried pies.”
The Peach Fair is a ten-day event in Campbell.
