The Ozark Arts and Crafts Fair Association was incorporated in 1957 as a non-profit organization to manage the operations of the fair. Currently known as War Eagle Fair, the fair began as a meeting of the Northwest Arkansas Weaver’s Guild in 1954. Founded by Blanche and Lester Elliott, owners of War Eagle Mills Farm located near Rogers in Benton County, the first fair was held in their living room as a way to allow artists and craftsmen to display and sell their wares. The Elliotts' daughter, Shirley Elliott Sutton, succeeded Blanche as executive director of the fair, serving in that position for twenty-two years.

In addition to Blanche Elliott, incorporators of the association included Hank M. Spruce, Ruth Dilly, and Helen Jackson. The fair grew rapidly, and in 1962 a second fair, the Back-in-the-Hills Antique Show and Collector’s Fair, began being held in the Spring. By 1970 the fair began sponsoring an annual seminar in June in which artists and craftsmen gave how-to workshops to members of the general public. The fair proved to be lucrative enough that, by the 1970s, the fair association was able to sponsor annual scholarships in the names of Blanche Elliott, Lester Elliott, and Edsel Ford at the University of Arkansas, as well as an art scholarship for the Fort Smith [Arkansas] Arts Center.

The fair received the support of several prominent politicians, including governors Winthrop Rockefeller and David Pryor; Senator J. William Fulbright; and Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt. In addition, former governor Orval Faubus was a long-time friend of the fair, having a table as late as 1991.

The fair also attracted the support of other notable Arkansans, including poet Edsel Ford. In 1960 he met Spruce, and the two men quickly became inseparable friends and business partners. A regular contributor to the Ozarks Mountaineer in which he frequently wrote about the fair, he volunteered to serve as fair publicist. Sharing a booth with Spruce, a batik artist, he sold copies of his poetry as well as his home-made jellies and jams. Unfortunately, Ford died suddenly in 1970; that year’s fair was dedicated to his memory. Spruce would be serve as president of the fair association several times in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Reporter Ernie Deane also took an early interest in the fair. It became a regular feature in his newspaper pieces, most notably his “Arkansas Traveler” column in the Arkansas Gazette. Like Spruce, in the 1980s Deane served as the fair association’s president.