In Meigs County's agriculturally rich area, county fairs became a long-standing tradition. The Meigs County Agricultural Society held its first fair in Middleport on October 22, 1851, and its second at the Rock-Spring Hotel on October 31, 1852. Fairs were later held at various places around the county until March 14, 1868, when the first section of a permanent site was bought from Leonard and Jane Carleton near Rock Springs and became the Meigs County Fairgrounds. The nearby natural springs, including the historic stone-carved springhouse, once supplied water to the grounds and community. Later improvements included enlarging the one-third-mile racetrack to a half-mile in 1889, building the distinctive curved grandstand in 1890, reconstructing the 1829 Foster-Jenkinson log cabin on the grounds in 1987, and retaining in use a single barrack from the Civilian Conservation Corps camp of the 1930s.