ALTOONA, Iowa — This weekend, Altoona is celebrating the end of summer and ushering in the harvest season with the Fall Family Festival.
It caps off the summer CORNival, which celebrated Iowa’s agricultural history by highlighting the 100th anniversary of the planting of the first acre of commercial hybrid seed corn which farmers said innovated agriculture production.
"We know how important hybrid seed corn is for Iowa and America, so we decided why not go all in and celebrate?" said Rachel Simon, one of the event organizers.
In 1923, Iowa State University organized a corn yield test, according to Altoona city officials.
The experimental yield test was done by George Kurtzweil and Henry A. Wallace on the Kurtzweil family farm in Altoona.
Wallace later went on to become the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and Vice President of the United States.
Altoona officials said while Kurtzweil and Wallace didn’t win the yield test, “the two of them signed the first-ever commercial contract for hybrid seed corn production in the U.S. “
That partnership led to the formation of the Hi-Bred Corn Company, which was later renamed Pioneer Hi-Bred.
Now, in the fields where those first seeds were planted, community members can celebrate all things fall.
"It's a great honor to be here today and have the corn maze on the property and be part of such a rich history of agriculture," said Noah Wendt of Intrinsic Ag.
The CORNival Fall Family Festival is a free event happening Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Intrinsic Ag (102 1st Ave N) in Altoona.
The event will feature an 8.5-acre corn maze planted by Intrinsic Ag, an inflatable, pumpkin painting, food trucks and a farmer’s market.
All activities are free outside of food and vendor items available for purchase.
Also on display will be the CORNival CORNvoy, 20 corn statues unveiled over the summer. The statues were decorated by artists and spent the summer moving around to multiple locations and events to help educate people about agriculture history.