ABOVE: Blake Potthoff leads members of the Happy Pig Collectors Club on a tour of the hog statues on Downtown Plaza in Fairmont on Friday afternoon. The group, which has members from all over the country, is here for its annual convention.

FAIRMONT–Coming from all over the country but gathering in Fairmont for its annual convention, the Happy Pig Collectors Club has been checking out Martin County– and its dozens of hog statues.

Group leader Janet Booth, who calls herself the head hog, hails from Nashville. She said this is the club’s 28th annual convention.

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

“He collected pigs and he just got this crazy idea that maybe there would be others,” Booth said.

She explained that there are some members, like herself, with a farming or agriculture background.

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

However, most members do not have an agriculture background and they all have different reasons for why they started collecting. Most members probably have about 1,500 to 2,000 pig items in their personal collections.

She said they used to have upward of 200 members but that a lot dropped off during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“A lot of us go to all of the conventions. I’ve been to 26,” said Booth.

There’s about 40 members now who come from all over including Iowa, Massachusetts, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Florida and South Dakota. They gather annually in one location of a member’s choosing for their convention

At the beginning, they were held at a member’s home so that the rest of the group could check out their collection. Back then they were one day conventions but now they span about three days.

“Now we go to more unique places. We’ve been to Toronto, Maine, Kentucky,” Booth said of their convention locations.

Speaking as to how they landed in Fairmont this year, Booth said, “Before last year’s conventions one of our members sent me a news article and it showed all about Fairmont and the pigs.”

She said they were planning on having the convention this year in Missouri but after Booth did some digging into Fairmont and told other people about it, they agreed to go to Fairmont.

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

In the past, the group has got to Cadiz, Kentucky, where the downtown also has pig statues.

“They were king of small and run-down and they didn’t have a lot of them,” Booth explained.

It also went to Cincinnati in 2000 to see the “pig gig,” large plastic pigs that were raffled off for charity.

“We have seen other statues but we were really excited about these,” Booth said.

The Going Hog Wild in Martin County project started back in 2021 and from the start its mission has been two fold: to attract visitors to the area and to celebrate Martin County as a top pork producing county in the country.

Three years later, dozens of artists have worked on more than 100 hog statues that represent businesses and organizations all over the county and Going Hog Wild has been recognized nationally 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 provide an attraction that would bring people to town. This event definitely demonstrates that we’re on the way to reaching our goal.”

More than 30 members arrived to Fairmont on Thursday and that night they had dinner reservations at Tami’s on The Ave. On Friday morning they had breakfast at the Ranch Restaurant and then went on a tour, with transportation provided by Rick DeBoer, of some of the hog statues around Martin County.

Friday afternoon included a luncheon at the Red Rock Center for the Arts. While there different community leaders including business owners, Mayor Lee Baarts, City Administrator Matt Skaret and Chamber President Kandi Menne thanked the group for choosing Fairmont as its destination.

The luncheon was followed by a walking tour led by Blake Potthoff of the pigs on Downtown Plaza. On Friday evening the group gathered at Imagine Martin’s ‘The Hub’ for entertainment and refreshments.

Today, the group is going to Welcome Days and it plans to have a display 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 are the bacon capital, USA and our town is the ideal location for their pig convention. I hope that they have a great time here looking at all of the hog statues,” Hartman said.