Arkansas Apple Festival

Lincoln is a small town lying 20 miles southwest of Fayetteville on U.S. Highway 62, and about 8 miles from the border of Oklahoma. The roots of Lincoln are historically tangled with the roots of the apple trees that fostered it. In other words, Apples made the town.
W. G. Vincenheller was the first big-time apple-buyer in this part of the state and was not only the Director of the Experiment Station, but also president of the Arkansas State Horticultural Society. He built a cold storage plant on the old Mark Bean Farm with walls three feet thick.
Apples were either dried in a fruit evaporato,r barreled and shopped by railroad or peddled out west. http://www.arkansasapplefestival.org

Sacks of dried fruit were loaded on wagons, the children sat on top, and the whole family got to go to town that fall. Thee sales of apples were depended upon to clothe the family and provide most of the commodities for another year. It was a staple food, but also a staple crop not unlike cotton.

On our nations bicentennial Lincoln decided to begin annually celebrating the fruit that founded their town. It was an easy decision to make. Activities include an apple core throwing contest, a beauty pagent, live dulcimer music and of course local apples.