Fifty years ago, a quiet little town in Adams Co. Ohio was about to be turned upside down, literally. Peebles, OH, with a population of 1800, was a rural town dotted with quaint family farms. It was a self-contained village with all the businesses uptown that the residents needed. For many of those in Adams County, there was never a need to live the county. But this little town was about to become known world wide as the home of the World Plowing Match and Conservation Expo.

Work began for this enormous event some three years earlier. Since there were different types of plowing such as sod or stubble, contour or flatland, crops had to be rotated to make sure the right crops were in the right areas by 1957. Sixteen farmers all had to come together to agree to have this event held on their property.

The town had one restaurant, one police officer and no motels. Over a quarter million people were expected to gather to witness this historic event. The entire town pitched in to make everything run as smoothly as possible. Hundreds of workers came into town and local residents offered up their homes to guests. One resident housed as many as fifteen people. It became a village-sized bed and breakfast.
When it was all over, 453,000 people attended the 4-day event. Seven-hundred-fifty boy scouts helped with parking, running errands and helping in the first aid station. There were 20 food vendors serving 26 tons of hamburgers, 3 miles of hot dogs, 24,000 gallons of coffee, 20 tons of ice and 33,000 pies.
Admission was 50 cents, which most people paid in quarters. Money was taken out in a Brinks truck and loaded on a plane. When the pilot asked how much his payload weighed, no one could answer him. The plow match treasurer then had to call the US Treasury Department to ask how much a $1000 worth of quarters weighed so they could figure out how to load the plane so it could take off.

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