Union Grove is home of the Racine County Fair for five days at the end of July. The junior fair exhibits are the culmination of a year's work for members of 4-H clubs. The youth buildings display projects ranging from arts & crafts to mechanical projects to clothing and foods. The barns are filled with animals which have been raised, groomed and trained by 4-H and FFA (Future Farmers of America) members.

Adults may enter the open class competition in many of the same categories listed above, plus they display their family antiques and collectibles and hope to be awarded a blue ribbon.

Free grandstand entertainment is included with the admission to the county fair. Audience favorites are truck and tractor pulls, championship rodeo, draft horse pulls, country western music stars, and a demolition derby. Cream puffs and corn on the cob are traditional food treats.

The fairgrounds are also the site of annual events such as the Lions Club Chicken Barbecue and vintage car show on the first Sunday in June, traveling circus or rodeo, consignment auction, company picnic for employees, gem & mineral & jewelry show, and Fall Harvest Days in September featuring antique tractors and gasoline engines.

Great Lakes Dragway has been part of the Union Grove summer scene since 1956, when the quarter mile asphalt track was built one mile south of Union Grove on KR. "Broadway Bob" Metzler has retired, but car buffs still try to beat their competitor and the computer on race days from April-November. Special events on Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend and special car days such as Chevy Sunday and Bugfest bring large crowds.

Fielder's Choice Sports Complex at I-94 and Highway 11 was originally built by Racine native and professional ballplayer, Shane Rawley. It consists of four lighted ball diamonds surrounding a two-story concession and restroom building. Weekday softball leagues are available and youth baseball tournaments are held every weekend.

Apple Holler is an orchard, restaurant, bakery, gift shop, and showplace in a converted dairy barn at the KR exit of I-94. Musical luncheon shows and dinner shows are performed in the Red Barn Theatre. Visitors may pick their own apples from 20 varieties of dwarf trees.

Members of the Racine Astronomical Society operate the Modine-Benstead Observatory in the Town of Yorkville. The main instrument is a 16" Cassegrain-Newtonian reflecting telescope for both direct visual observing and astrophotography. A spring and summer open house is held one Friday per month from dusk until 11:00 p.m.

The Village of Union Grove has seven neighborhood parks, with benches, picnic tables, play equipment, ball diamond, or soccer field. The lighted tennis courts at the high school are available for public use. There are two sand volleyball courts. Racine County parks in the area are Old Settlers Park in Union Grove and Eagle Lake Park in the Town of Dover. Eagle Lake allows boating and fishing, but not swimming. Ives Grove Golf Links in the Town of Yorkville and Brighton Dale Golf Course in nearby Kenosha County offer recreation for golfers.

Union Grove has a 16-lane bowling alley, indoor golf simulator, and indoor archery facility. The Town of Yorkville has trap and skeet shooting club and archery hunters club. Service clubs and organizations include the Kiwanis, Lions, and Lioness, Masons, Eastern Star, Job's Daughters, 4-H Clubs, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

Bixby-Hansen American Legion Post #171 of Union Grove and Gifford-Larsen Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #7924 of Kansasville provide honor guards when veterans are laid to rest. The American Legion places flags on the graves of veterans, provides a brief ceremony at eight cemeteries and leads the procession to the cemetery on Memorial Day. The VFW has built and maintains a memorial in a wayside on Highway 11.

Senior citizen groups bowl on Tuesday afternoons and play cards at the Village Municipal Center on Thursday afternoons. The Harvest Club of a local bank plans parties, theater outings, regional trips, and overseas travel for its senior members.

For more information regarding recreation programs for the greater Union Grove area, please contact:

Jason Morgan - Recreation Director
878-9301 or 878-1818