60-Second NYS Fair: The year of ‘The Big Cheese’

Never underestimate the creativity and ingenuity of man.

In 1921, New York State Commissioner George Hogue was worried that Americans were not eating their daily recommended amount of cheese.

So that year, he hatched a plan to bring attention to New York State’s cheese industry. A big plan.

For the 1921 State Fair, he commissioned the largest cheese ever made, weighing about 12 tons. It was to be made in the tiny hamlet of West Martinsburg, New York, two miles to the west of Lowville.

It would be a Herculean task.

To make the 24,000-pound cheese, it would require 240,000 pounds of milk, the one-day production of 7,600 cows, collected from 30 dairy farms, from a 26-mile radius around Lowville.

Two barrels of salt were needed as well as 160 yards of cloth for bandings. Made inside a steel hoop, the gigantic cheese would be 6 feet, 9 inches in height and 8 feet, 4 inches in diameter.

The plan was originally to bring the cheese south via trucks, but after the state’s bridges could not be reinforced enough to handle the heavy load, the cheese traveled on a railroad flat car.

After a tour of the city, it was brought to the Fairgrounds, where a temporary runway was built which allowed the cheese to be brought into the south entrance of the Dairy Building, over its steps.

Then, 200 men with ropes would haul it into position in time for Syracuse Day on Sept. 12, 1921.

Lt. Governor Jeremiah Wood would cut the cheese into one and two-pound chunks to be sold to Fair visitors.

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