If you are new to the Lahontan Valley, just visiting, or have yet to have an opportunity to learn much about how the Cantaloupe Festival and Country Fair came to be, this is your chance. Travel Nevada recently wrote that Fallon has some of the state's “best produce, meat and dairy, and award-winning grain-to-glass estate distilled spirits, though the heralded juicy, always-flavorful Hearts of Gold Cantaloupe may be Fallon's crown jewel.” Many Fallonites would agree.
According to the Festival Association, the highly anticipated event now draws over 20,000 visitors annually. And while there may be a host of attractions and events, the heart of the festival is rooted in Fallon's rich soil and agricultural history.
The Hearts of Gold Cantaloupe saw its start in the Swingle Bench area of Churchill County in 1911, with the careful experimentation of crossbreeding by a local man, O.J. Vannoy, who had used cantaloupe seeds that were originally developed in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
These luscious melons were planted and grown here in abundance in the 1920s and 1930s as the demand for them in the Eastern U.S. increased. It has even been rumored that the Fallon Hearts of Gold were served in the White House. The hard rind made this variety ideal for cross-country rail shipments, and the high price per crate made it worth the risk to the Fallon farmers.
Unfortunately, the market crashed in the late 1930s, and the festival's namesake almost met its extinction. The once prosperous melon crop was replaced by crop by alfalfa, which remains the valley’s largest production crop. The melons were only kept in production by a group of six Chinese immigrant families. Thankfully, the Hearts of Gold survived, and a few local families revived the vine back to its former glory, even though it never replaced alfalfa as the area's largest crop.
In the 1980s, the country experienced a resurgence in the local food movement and the growth of farmers' markets across the nation. In 1985, a group of locals saw the opportunity to bring back our beloved melon as well as to create a festival to fill the gap left by the absence of the Nevada State Fair and Country Fair. Que a "Golden Return" and the start to what has become one of Fallon's favorite events bringing fun and excitement to the community every harvest season.
Today the Fallon Cantaloupe Festival & Country Fair holds the title of one of Nevada's longest-running agricultural festivals. The 2015 merge of the Fallon Cantaloupe Festival & Oasis Stampede & Country Fair has brought together a strong group of volunteers whose goal is to provide the best program of activities to Fallon each year, focusing on the educational and entertainment values of the festival.
The Festival & Country Fair, now Nevada's premier agricultural festival, offers something for everyone. Visitors can look forward to a carnival, live music, unique entertainment, fair exhibits, old-fashioned country fair games, competitions, and vendors with delicious treats, crafts, and merchandise. And most of all, remember to try a slice of ice-cold cantaloupe or cantaloupe ice cream.
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