No State Fair This Year, Army Using Fairground for Tank Training, 1918

From the Hickory Daily Record, Aug. 29, 1918 

There will be no State Fair at Raleigh this fall. The government has accepted the offer of the North Carolina Agricultural Society to least the Fair grounds for use in connection with the tank training camp The lease also carries an option to purchase

Active work is underway for this big tank camp. It will be made the largest in the country, and 15,000 acres north and west of the Fair grounds are being leased for the purpose. The tank camps at Gettysburg and another northern city are to be moved to our milder southern climate, to escape the rigors of the northern winter.