Mattoon emerged as a railroad center where routes from the northern plain and the deltas of cotton and cane met, and around the turn of the century train crews worked wood-burning and later coal-burning locomotives whose smokestacks blackened the sky and nearby buildings as they steamed through town. The city became the first in Illinois to hold free street fairs, and at the first fair in 1897 organizers built twelve blocks of booths along Broadway and Western Avenues for livestock exhibits, band concerts, trapeze acts, culinary and floral displays, and horse racing; from 1897 to 1902 the fairs drew hundreds of thousands of people each October. From the beginning, families farmed the rich land surrounding Mattoon and began raising broomcorn around 1860 because it tolerated dry weather and could be planted later and harvested earlier than other crops; migrant workers and "Johnnies" usually provided the labor to harvest and bale it, and by 1879 Coles County led the nation in broomcorn production with more than four million pounds. Expanding railroads also spurred Mattoon's early businesses, bringing demand for goods and services and helping entrepreneurs establish clothing stores, drug stores, bakeries, groceries, banks, and saloons, with commerce centered on and around Broadway and Western avenues.