A lifetime of fair prizes

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. — Like many rural farm kids of his generation, the local fair served as the backdrop for many of Lyman Benson’s favorite memories.

Benson grew up on his family’s dairy farm, just west of Chippewa Falls. As a farm kid in the 1950s, Benson began exhibiting at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair in Chippewa Falls with his family. These few days each year stand out among his childhood memories.

“I started showing here over 75 years ago, in 4-H,” Lyman Benson said. “We started out bringing two or three, then over the years we’d bring a few more.”

The fair was a family event for the Bensons, and later a time for socialization with friends, Lyman said. Decades later, it remains a family affair, as Lyman and his wife, Arlene, attend to watch 4-H members show goats owned by his nephew, Jason Benson.

“When I was very young, my folks, they’d bring a picnic dinner that we’d all enjoy,” he said. “Then, later on, there was the midway, which was always fun. You had to go through that. One of the highlights for me was the Joey Chitwood show — a car stunt show. Then they had a motorcycle show, where they would ride around the walls of a silo-like structure. You’d watch them do tricks from the top.”

As much as the fair meant fun and friends, Lyman recalled the importance of competing in the show ring.

“I had an aged cow, a purebred Holstein, her name was Montvic,” Lyman said. “She won several grand champion titles here in the late 1950s and early 1960s.”

Montvic went on to be named reserve grand champion of the Wisconsin State Fair in West Allis, Lyman said.

“I had lots of good times here at the fair, lots of good experiences showing cattle,” Lyman said. “I met my wife here at the fair, over 60 years ago. She’s probably the best prize I ever won at the fair.”

The Bensons will celebrate 58 years of marriage July 29.

“We were all friends at the fair,” Arlene said. “Jason’s mother was a friend of my sister; they went to school together. I was introduced to Lyman by my mother. He was their milk tester.”

Lyman started his career as a Dairy Herd Improvement Association milk tester and continued on the job for 16 years before spending another 55 years as an A.I. technician.

“I started breeding cows with Midwest Breeders Cooperative before moving out to California to breed cows with Excelsior Farms in the Chino Valley,” Lyman said. “At one time (I believe) the Chino Valley was the highest cow-concentrated area in the world.”

With the volume of cows he was servicing, Lyman racked up the statistics, his nephew, Jason, said.

“He had 100,000 first services when guys back here were reaching 10,000,” Jason said. “He reached those numbers way before most of his contemporaries did.”

Lyman agreed.

“I hit 100,00 about 1984, but it wasn’t a fair comparison,” Lyman said. “I bred a lot of cows. I was recognized for 150,000 first services, but I bred a lot more cows.”

Lyman and Arlene spent 15 years in California before returning to the Chippewa Valley, where Lyman continued breeding cows for Select Sires Inc. Although he retired from the company, he continues to breed cows for two herds near Boyd.

“I did embryo transfer work, too,” Lyman said. “In California we did the flushing and everything. Back here I just implanted embryos.”

For the 15 years they lived in California, the Bensons missed the presence of the Northern Wisconsin State Fair in their lives, and they said they were happy to return when they moved back to Wisconsin.

“It’s changed a lot, mostly for the better,” Lyman said. “Look at these new buildings. The old show barn was really a hazard in more ways than one, especially a fire hazard. Back in the old days, if we spent the night at the fair, they had a place where you could sleep upstairs, above the show arena.”

The 4-H dairy show has dwindled, too, Lyman said.

Even in his retirement, the Northern Wisconsin State Fair continues to impact his life, Lyman said.

In 2023, while admiring the new show building, Lyman accidentally walked into the new glass doors, injuring his head. Bleeding, he went to the first aid station for care and was advised to visit the emergency room to check for additional trauma. There, doctors discovered his thyroid was enlarged. Early the next year, his thyroid was removed, along with a baseball-sized goiter that had been impacting his breathing. Doctors also learned his thyroid was cancerous, prompting a round of radioactive iodine pills that required him to sequester in his basement for five days because of radioactivity.

“I owe this fair a thank you note, not just for their glass doors, but for all the good times in my life connected with it,” Lyman said. “If I hadn’t been at the fair, admiring the new building, if I hadn’t walked into those doors, who knows how long it would have taken to find the thyroid trouble, and what that outcome might have been.”