At last census, fewer than 1000 people called the Borough of McClure in Snyder County home. Yet it is home to an official state fair each year, organized around bean soup. Back in 1883, a group of veterans of the Civil War met in a blacksmith shop to organize a Grand Army of the Republic post. Those posts were fraternal veterans organizations that popped up around the end of the Civil War.
They often served soup during their meetings, but it wasn't until 1891 that they invited the public to their Civil War bean soup dinners. Ever since, each September, war veterans and citizens of McClure have carried on the tradition making bean soup in large iron kettles over a wood fire, stirring and stirring and stirring. Today, the McClure Bean Soup Festival and Fair remembers its military beginnings and celebrates Pennsylvania's agricultural heritage.
