County fair Queen Pageant replaced with Youth Talent Show

HANCOCK — The Houghton County Fair continues in Hancock. There is certainly a lot to see and do at the Houghton County Fair. Skerbeck Entertainment has brought roughly 20 new rides this year for all ages and thrill levels. But there are many other attractions as well.

Kids got to get up close and personal with live sharks at the Shark Encounter. The fair also includes fan favorites such as the Open Horse Show, and motocross lovers, saw the first of many off–road events held in the Main Event Arena. New to the fair this year is free remote control car racing.

9–year–old Zach Oselo of Wisconsin won one of the races. Zach said, “I’ve been to a NASCAR Race when I was like one or two (years old), and I really liked it and my dad knows a lot about cars and teaches me about them.” Replacing the Fair Queen Pageant was the Youth Talent show, featuring the areas best in song and dance.

11–year–old John Naasko of Toivola was the winner in the 12 & Under Category. John said, “I was thinking that juggling is pretty darn awesome, so I thought I was going to get second place. When the second place was given out, I was super excited. I’ve put a lot of hard work into dancing.”

Rock Camp attendee and Houghton resident Daphne Maki won the 13 and Up category. She said, “Whenever I’m stressed, I usually write songs or play music or listen to music. It kind of just helps cope with a lot of emotions—if you’re sad, it helps you feel better. It helps me with a lot of things. It makes me happy.” A full list of winners can be found on our website. The fair runs through Sunday.


The Houghton County Fair continues today. The first day of the fair saw nice crowds out to enjoy the new rides and attractions. Among those is free remote control car racing, with one race won by 9-year-old Zach Oselo of Wisconsin.

Skerbeck Entertainment has brought roughly two dozen new rides for all ages and thrill-levels.

Kids got to get up close and personal with live sharks at the Shark Encounter. The fair also includes fan favorites such as the Open Horse Show, and motocross lovers saw the first of many off-road events held in the Main Event Arena.

New to the fair this year–the Youth Talent Show, replacing the Houghton County Fair Queen Pageant. The contestants were broken up into two classes, with John Naasko from Toivola dancing his way to first place in the 12-and-under category.

Cora Lee Doherty from Marquette was second and Annie Song from Houghton placed third. In the 13-19 age category, Daphne Maki from Houghton sang a song she wrote herself and won first prize.

Second place went to Vanessa Dulong and Brianna Foreman finished third.

Here is a full list of all the winners of the talent show:

8-25-2016 Houghton Co Fair Youth Talent Contest Winners

Class 1: ages 12 and under

1st Place: John Naasko from Toivola
2nd Place: Cora Lee Doherty from Marquette
3rd Place: Annie Song from Houghton
4th Place: Karl Raoutiola from Chassell
5th Place: Jenna Sulisz from Houghton
6th Place: Sara Neva from Hancock
7th Place: Marjorie Miller from Pelke

(prizes were given up to 8 places in each category but class 1 only had 7 participants)

Class 2: ages 13-19

1st Place: Daphne Maki from Houghton
2nd Place: Vanessa Dulong from (not provided)
3rd Place Brianna Foreman from Hancock
4th Place: Maddie Rajala from Calumet
5th Place: Curt Rogan from Calumet
6th Place: Riley Foreman from Dodgeville
7th Place: Stephanie Hadden from Pelkie
8th Place: Lily Thompson from Hancock

Other prizes awarded at the fair include:

Sheyenne Waisanen for Best in Show for Youth Rabbit
Ray McClellan, Best in Show for Open Rabbit
And Alexus Rule for Youth Fitting & Showing Rabbit

    Best In Show for Poultry went to Jewel Laux in Youth and Shannon Bevan in Open, who also received the Matt Manderfield Award.
    Kathy Abbott received Best in Show for 8×10 Photo and Glen Perrow received Best in Show for 5×7 Photo.
    Gary Palosaari’s Field Corn was named Best In Show in Agriculture.
    Lynette Borree’s Antique Telephone won Best in Show for Antiques.

In Needlework, Best In Shows went to Cathy Isaacson for both Sewing and Crochet, Michelle Jarvie for Knitting and Yvonne Kauppila for Quilting with a quilt that has 1,685 two-inch squares. Belinda Bloomfield won for Stitchery and Karen Labell for Other-Weaving.

Judy Albee’s Green Pepper won Best of Show for Horticulture.

In the Youth Department, Seniors, Joni Anderson won for Folk Art with manmade material, Anna Irene Dijkstra for Needlework, Maria Naasko for Folk Art—Paper/Holiday, Sofia Deycaza for Fine Arts, Mariah Hupp for Creative Writing, Gregory Naasko for Youth Culinary Arts and Gabrielle Olson for Youth Photography

Among Juniors, Cassidy See for Youth Photography, Marguerite Goldman for Folk Arts—Jewelry, Connor Laitala for Folk Arts—manmade material, Augustus Hamlin for Folk Arts, Henry Lounibos for Horticulture, Ally Etelamaki for Youth Culinary Arts, Giselle Wiitanen for Folk Arts—Mechanical and for Folk Arts—Natural Materials and Aili Narhi for Floriculture.

More results will be posted here as we receive them.

This looks like a fun fair! Check out these images captured today. There are a lot of new attractions. We have results and a full list of winners at abc10up.com/?p=8309754

Posted by ABC10 & CW5 UP on Friday, August 26, 2016