ALTAMONT – A relaxing step back in time may be in order after a day of crowded midways, long cotton-candy lines, and a barrage of game attendants pleading for you to be the next one to win whatever prize is being offered.

The Altamont Fair’s museums can do just that – take you back in time.

From a one-room schoolhouse, to a room full of antique cars, history can be explored at the fair.

Walking past the Blacksmith Shop, you can hear the clanking of hammers and catch a glimpse of bright orange metal fresh out of the fire.

Blacksmithing is an art that has stood the test of time.

It began during the Iron Age, when man began making tools from iron. Today, blacksmithing skills are used to make repairs and replacement parts for equipment and machinery that is made of steel.

Daniel Crowther and Sarah Ritchie are a husband-and-wife blacksmith team that have traveled from Valley Falls to showcase their handiwork at the Altamont Fair.

Ritchie has been a smith for 10 years, Crowther for 17.
"We are professional smiths, but we both still have day jobs," said Ritchie.

They are both members of a blacksmithing group in Valley Falls. Ritchie is the president, and Crowther is the treasurer. The group travels around, giving demonstrations and informative talks about the trade.
Smiths only get about 15 to 20 seconds to work before they need to reheat the metal, Crowther explained. Sometimes, if they’re lucky, they might get 40 or 45 seconds. "You’ve got to strike while the iron is hot. Yes, that is where that expression came from," he said.
"Today I made 114 horseshoe nail rings," said Ritchie.
She explained that, in past years, they would get complaints about not having the rings, so this year they tracked down the materials they needed, and, on Tuesday, she cranked them out. "I hope they sell," she said.

Living history

Edna Kniffen was born in 1924, and brought up in an 18-room boarding house in the Catskills.
She has lived in Ravena since 1932, and is a charter member of the Ravena Historical Society. "That is what got me involved with the museum at the fair," she said.

On Tuesday, she sat on an old sofa in the Farm House Museum, untangling balls of yarn.
It really looks like an old farmhouse, said Kniffen. But, she explained, when you look closely, you notice things that are missing. "We don’t have a match holder, and we don’t have a string holder," she said, "Every farmhouse had those things."

Talking truck

Driving around outside of the Fire Museum on Tuesday was a bright red replica fire truck. Standing just inside the museum, was a man who held the controls, and a recording device to make the truck talk.
One little boy held an animated conversation with the truck before looking over at the man, and saying to his father, "But Dad, I can see the man talking right over there."

Further inside the museum, are old-fashioned hoses, trucks, and photographs – and Guy Comparetta, the deputy fire coordinator for Albany County.

Comparetta explained that the museum has on display a horse-drawn fire engine. It is one of only three surviving water towers that were never motorized.

The museum also has on display an old handpumper truck. The truck was hauled to a fire scene by a team of men that then hand pumped the water out of a nearby stream or lake to fight the flames.

Down on the farm
Just outside the Farm Machinery Museum is a pig-pen. Inside the pig-pen it is hard to miss "Sweetpea," a monstrous pig, who vies for space with a half-dozen or so piglets.

Inside the Farm Machinery Museum, is a plethora of old-fashioned farm machinery. Gears grind, belts move, and a thin trail of smoke rises from a working motor.

History informs the Altamont Fair – from the replica post office and barroom in the 1890’s Building, to the five-piece mechanical musician band in the Circus Museum.