Benson Road and North Urbana Lisbon Road (SR 54) in Champaign County was the site of the 1950 National and Ohio Plowing Matches and the National Association of Soil Conservation Districts Field Days. The three-day event drew nearly 75,000 people and was headquartered in the woods of the Edwin (Ned) Kirby farm a quarter mile north on Benson Road. Sponsored by the National Association of Soil Conservation Districts, the national matches had first been held in Mitchellville, Iowa, in 1939, continued until the start of World War II, and resumed in 1945. Champaign County's 1950 Union Township event was the first national plowing match held outside Iowa. Fourteen Buck Creek Valley farmers served as hosts, and Urbana's two-time world champion Dean Wilson competed for a third title. The event also introduced "Wagon Trains," in which Union Township host farmers used 125 wagons and tractors to carry crowds to the plowing matches, demonstrations, and conservation projects spread across 2,200 acres on 10 farms. It also included five parking fields covering 200 acres and an airfield along the south side of SR 54 next to Benson Road for "flying farmers" who demonstrated seeding, fertilizing, and corn borer control.