Pig Club travels to Martin County | News, Sports, Jobs

ABOVE: Blake Potthoff leads members of the Happy Pig Collectors Club on a walking tour of the pig statues on Fairmont’s Downtown Plaza on Friday afternoon. The group, which has members from across the country, is here for its annual convention.

FAIRMONT – The Happy Pig Collectors Club comes from all over the country but meets in Fairmont for its annual convention and explores Martin County – and its dozens of pig statues.

Group leader Janet Booth, who calls herself “Head Hog,” is from Nashville. She said this is the club’s 28th annual meeting.

The group was founded in 1995 by Gene Holt, a retired hog farmer from Illinois.

“He collected pigs and had the crazy idea that there might be others,” said Booth.

She explained that there were some members who, like herself, had an agricultural background.

“I grew up on a pig farm in Ohio” said Booth.

However, most members do not have a farming background and all have different reasons why they started collecting. Most members probably have about 1,500 to 2,000 pigs in their personal collection.

She said they used to have over 200 members, but during the Covid-19 pandemic the number has dropped sharply.

“Many of us go to all the conventions. I went to 26,” said Booth.

There are now about 40 members, coming from all parts of the world, including Iowa, Massachusetts, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Florida, and South Dakota. They meet annually for their convention at a location of a member’s choosing.

Initially they were held in a member’s home so that the rest of the group could view their collection. Back then they were one-day meetings, but now they last about three days.

“Now we visit more unique places. We’ve been to Toronto, Maine and Kentucky.” Booth said about their meeting locations.

When asked how they ended up at Fairmont this year, Booth said: “Before the conventions last year, one of our members sent me a newspaper article that said all about Fairmont and the pigs.”

She said they had planned to hold the convention in Missouri this year, but after Booth did some research on Fairmont and told other people about it, they agreed to go to Fairmont.

“We came to see the pigs,” said Booth.

In the past, the group has been to Cadiz, Kentucky, which also has pig statues downtown.

“They were small and run down and there weren’t many of them,” Booth explained.

In 2000, the company also traveled to Cincinnati to “Pig Concert”, large plastic pigs that were raffled off for charity.

“We have seen other statues, but these ones really impressed us,” said Booth.

The Going Hog Wild in Martin County project launched in 2021 and had a twofold mission from the start: to attract visitors to the area and to celebrate Martin County as one of the country’s leading pork producers.

Three years later, dozens of artists have worked on over 100 pig statues representing businesses and organizations across the country, and Going Hog Wild has received national recognition for its unique project.

Jeff Rouse, a driving force behind Going Hog Wild, said: “When we started the Going Hog Wild project, our goal was to create an attraction that would draw people to town. This event definitely shows that we are on track to achieve our goal.”

More than 30 members arrived in Fairmont on Thursday and had dinner reservations that evening at Tami’s on the Ave. On Friday morning they had breakfast at the Ranch Restaurant and then took a tour of some of the pig statues in Martin County. Transportation was provided by Rick DeBoer.

A luncheon was held Friday afternoon at the Red Rock Center for the Arts. While various community leaders, including business owners, were in attendance, Mayor Lee Baarts, City Manager Matt Skaret and Chamber President Kandi Menne thanked the group for choosing Fairmont as their destination.

Lunch was followed by a walking tour of the pigs in the Downtown Plaza led by Blake Potthoff. On Friday evening, the group met at Imagine Martin’s “The Hub” for entertainment and refreshments.

Today the group is taking part in the Welcome Days and is planning an exhibition where members will sell some of the pigs from their collection.

Brittany Hartman, director of Visit Fairmont, commented on what the club’s visit means for the city.

“I think it’s cool because we’re the bacon capital of the United States and our city is the perfect place for their pig fair. I hope they have a lot of fun here and can look at all the pig statues.” Said Hartmann.