Opening day of the 154th edition of the Clark County Fair featured dinosaurs from the past, animals from today, and learning opportunities for the future

Paul Valencia
ClarkCountyToday.com

RIDGEFIELD — For some, the Clark County Fair is more than an event to go on rides, to visit animals, to experience exhibits.

Oh, it is all of that, but so much more, too.

Celia Antonin said her family comes to the fair every year.

“We love it. It brings the community together. Everyone is happy,” Antonin said. “We see everyone we live with, the entire county. We see all the hard work the kids do and their parents and all the vendors. We see all the different activities and organizations you don’t see in your regular life. 

“We can all come together and celebrate Washingtonians.”

The big celebration opened Friday at the Clark County Fairgrounds in Ridgefield, the 154th Clark County Fair. The fair features present-day livestock, and, this year, a lot of prehistoric animals, too.

Antonin and family and friends rushed to the featured exhibit: Dino Encounters.

Within just a few minutes of the opening of the fair, the line for the inflatable obstacle course — for children 12 and younger — reached outside of the exhibition hall to the midway of the fairgrounds. On the other side of the hall, children could sit on a saddle and ride a dinosaur. Yep, that line was long, too.

But no worries, parents. The lines moved fast. 

There are a lot of other activities, as well, within this featured exhibit.

You can make a dinosaur take flight at the “Flying Quetzalcoatlus” post. You can try to secure some dinosaur eggs. Oh, and instead of Angry Birds, this place has Angry Pteranodons. There is also a fossil zone, more rides for children, and a miniature golf course with dinosaur stories on each hole.

Three times a day, there is a live, educational show for families to learn more about everyone’s favorite prehistoric beasts. 

Keri DeWitt owns Dino Encounters and runs the exhibit with family members. They are from Missouri, and they travel the country to fairs and festivals, bringing all things dinosaurs.

“This all started with my own children,” DeWitt said. 

A medical emergency had sent DeWitt to the hospital, and at about the same time, her young son was hoping for a dinosaur-themed birthday party.

“Long story short, I was going to make sure that if that was going to be my last birthday with him, I wanted it to be one he’d remember,” DeWitt said.

So she went big. And then a bigger idea emerged.

She left her career in the corporate world.

“I walked away from all of that, and I started doing dinosaurs,” she said. “Never expecting that I would have this kind of growth or response. Here we are, 10 years later, and we are doing 20,000-square foot, or bigger, events.”

To really make this new career work, though, DeWitt demanded that it be more than just fun and games. The live show, three times a day, is educational by design.

“Dinosaurs resonate with our children. Let’s capitalize on that and help them develop an interest in learning,” DeWitt said. “That spreads to other things, not just dinosaurs.” 

The goal is for children to develop interests and hobbies and motivate them to do well in school.

“That’s really at the heart of Dino Encounters,” DeWitt said.

Getting a chance to ride on the back of a dinosaur is pretty cool, too.

Note: Dino Encounters is open every day of the Clark County Fair. It is located at South Hall 1.