T-R PHOTO BY MIKE BURVEE Animal exhibits and judging were part of the activities during the 2017 Central Iowa Fair.

Another successful year is in the books.

Though attendance wasn’t recorded there were good turnouts for all days of the fair.

One event that brought in many residents was the crowning of Little Miss Princess (Lauren O’Neal) and Queen (Kaitlin Wiley). The two will hold their titles until next year’s crowning and will be seen representing Marshall County at the Iowa State Fair in August.

With the crowning complete the fair was officially under way.

Several other events brought in handfuls of spectators each day. After a torrential rain Wednesday night Mother Nature was nice by providing near perfect weather.

“I think the fair was very nice this year,” said fairgoer Patricia Kouba. “The weather helped bring people out.”

Thursday was devoted to veterans, many of which came from the Iowa Veterans Home. The Heart of Iowa Chorus came in and sand patriotic songs, thanking the veterans along the way. Before they headed back to the IVH, three men from Skydive Iowa displayed their honor by landing with the American and POW flags.

A different audience was prevalent on Friday, focusing on agriculture and the role it plays in daily life. Over 100 kids from various groups got a chance to see livestock up close and also learned about 4-H with the Iowa State Agriculture Outreach program.

Farmers also had their cattle evaluated by a panel of judges in the FFA Beef Show.

The day ended with JJ Ace performing on stage, which drew a fair number of listeners.

The final day didn’t have a particular focus, other than continuing to offer various forms of entertainment for all ages.

Highlights included two presentations made by the Science Center of Iowa, one focusing on weather and the other on making things go Boom.

The fair fan favorite appeared to be a crash simulation, which was organized by fair promoter Mike Nablo.

He was in charge of four events this week in organizing the Veterans Day, crash simulation, model airplane flyer display and finally lining up the JJ Ace performance.

“We’ll have EMS, fire crews, police and Lifeflight here,” Nablo said prior. “I think people will enjoy it.”

As the scene unfolded more and more people joined in the crowd, some parking their vehicles just to watch.

The simulation comprised of two victims in a three car crash, badly injured. The jaws of life were brought out to cut away the roof in order to get access to the second victim.

The scene was so realistic and one resident even asked what had happened.

Afterwards spectators had the chance to approach the scene, inspect the equipment and vehicles in addition to asking respondents any questions.

To cap off the fair country music duo Taylor and Presley took the stage on Saturday night.

“The fair gives provides a good representation of Marshalltown and Marshall County,” Kouba said. “It’s nice because people can come here and see what’s happening with our schools and organizations like 4-H.”