50 Fun Facts About Minnesota State Fair

What is the fair's famous slogan?

By average daily attendance it is the largest state fair in the United States, and by total attendance second only to Texas, whose fair runs twice as long.

The fairgrounds sit in which small city between Saint Paul and Minneapolis?

The site is next door to the University of Minnesota's Saint Paul campus and was chosen partly because it was politically neutral ground between the two cities.

The fair runs for twelve days each year and always ends on which holiday?

It has been twelve days long since 1975; it ran only six days from 1885 to 1918.

The record annual attendance, set in 2019, was roughly how many people?

The single-day record of 270,426 was set on the second Saturday in 2018.

The first state fair was held in 1859. What had happened the year before?

A Territorial Fair had already been held in 1854, five years earlier.

Before its 1885 permanent site, the fair had been held in which of these Greater Minnesota cities?

Owatonna and Winona also hosted it, and in the 1870s Minneapolis and St. Paul ran rival fairs.

The permanent fairgrounds chosen in 1884 had previously been what?

An area around Minnehaha Falls was also considered; the site has grown from 210 acres to 322.

Which vice president first said 'Speak softly and carry a big stick' on 2 September 1901?

Twelve days later McKinley died of an assassin's bullet and the speaker became president.

The main entrance road from Snelling Avenue is named for Dan Patch. What was Dan Patch?

The horse never lost a race in open competition from 1900 to 1909 and set a mile record of 1:55 in 1905.

The fair has been cancelled only six times since 1859. Which pair of reasons is right for 1945 and 1946?

The 1893 fair was skipped because of Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition, and 1861-62 for the Civil War and Dakota War.

The fair's sixth cancellation, its first since 1946, came in which year?

The fair manager said it would run unchanged or not at all; a food parade of vendors was held that October instead.

What title goes to the winner of Minnesota's statewide dairy ambassador competition, crowned at the fair?

The name was picked from more than 10,000 entries in a 1954 contest.

Each dairy finalist has her likeness carved from a 90-pound block of what?

The princess sits for hours in a rotating glass-walled refrigerator; the head-carving tradition began in 1964.

Unlike many state fairs, Minnesota's has never featured which classic dairy attraction?

It sculpts the twelve dairy finalists' heads instead, one per day of the fair.

Sweet Martha's, the fair's biggest vendor, sells its chocolate chip cookies in what?

The stand can bake 44,000 cookies every 12 minutes and took in $4.6 million over the 12 days of the 2023 fair.

Sweet Martha's was first turned down as a fair vendor in 1979 because the fair already had what?

Three weeks before opening day the Olsons were allowed to open a cookie booth instead.

The Pronto Pup, a fair staple since 1947, was invented in which state?

George and Vera Boyington started batter-dipping hot dogs at Rockaway Beach in 1939 after rain spoiled their buns.

What are fresh cheese curds nicknamed because of how they feel against the teeth?

The same curds top poutine in Quebec.

Which classic Minnesota casserole was first put on a stick at the 2006 fair?

The following year's novelty was spaghetti on a stick.

The 2008 fair introduced two bacon novelties: 'Big Fat Bacon' and what chocolate-covered treat?

'Big Fat Bacon' was a quarter-pound slab glazed with maple.

The fair's oldest existing ride, opened in 1915, is a 'tunnel of love' style boat ride called what?

It sits near the Food Building; the haunted house on Judson Avenue dates only to 1977.

On the Giant Slide, riders slide down the fibreglass hill sitting on what?

The slide, the Skyride gondolas and the Space Tower are among the fair's permanent rides.

The Space Tower rotates as it lifts fairgoers roughly how high?

The gyro tower gives views across the whole Twin Cities.

After a 2003 remodel, the Grandstand's seating capacity for concerts is about how many?

Until 2002 it also hosted stock car races on a small oval track.

Starting in 2012, the Grandstand hosted which unusual annual event organised by the Walker Art Center?

The top prize was the Golden Kitty, and guests included Grumpy Cat and Lil Bub.

For decades Machinery Hill held the world's largest annual display of what?

It is being rebranded as 'The North End' and now leans toward cars, hot tubs and motorbikes.

The fair's crop art competition requires artwork made from what?

Lillian Colton of Owatonna dominated it for decades with seed portraits of Prince, Princess Diana and Willie Nelson.

The fair's mascot Fairchild is what kind of animal?

The choice honours the University of Minnesota's mascot; his nephew Fairborne joined him on promotional material in 1986.

Fairchild was named in a 1966 contest in honour of Henry S. Fairchild, who had done what?

The mascot dresses like an early midway barker, with a straw hat and striped jacket.

The fair has not accepted government funds since which year?

It is run by the Minnesota State Agricultural Society and reinvests its revenue in the grounds and the next year's fair.

The Hippodrome, replaced by the Lee & Rose Warner Coliseum, was damaged in World War II while used as what?

The A.O. Smith Corporation ran the plant; the Hippodrome was razed in 1946 and the Coliseum opened for the 1951 fair.

In 2007 an escaped bull at the fair fatally injured itself charging into what?

No people were seriously hurt in the incident on 31 August 2007.

The 4-H building's most popular contest involves dressing up which animals?

About 320,000 fairgoers pass through the building, dedicated in 1939, every year.

The old fair carousel, with 68 hand-carved horses, was saved in 1988 and moved where?

It was bought in 1914 for $8,500 as a sweetener to get a roller coaster approved, reopened in the park in 2000 and is named for donor Gerard Cafesjian.

The children's carnival area between Dan Patch and Wright avenues is called what?

The main Midway across the street holds most of the roller coasters and thrill rides.

The fair's annual 5K 'Milk Run' winds through which neighbouring campus?

The route also passes through the Saint Anthony Park neighbourhood before returning to the grounds.

To make up for the 2020 cancellation, the fair launched a scaled-down spring event called what?

It returned in 2022 after a positive reception.

The J. V. Bailey House on the fairgrounds was for decades the year-round home of whom?

Built in 1911, it now houses the Minnesota State Fair Foundation.

USA Today readers named the Minnesota State Fair the best in the US in 2015 and again in which year?

About two million people attend each year.

Which fair has the largest total attendance in the U.S., beating Minnesota because it runs twice as long?

Minnesota still leads on average daily attendance at just under 200,000 a day.

Why was the 1893 Minnesota State Fair cancelled?

The World's Columbian Exposition swallowed the calendar that year. The other cancellations were the Civil War years, 1945, 1946 and 2020.

The fairgrounds covered 210 acres in 1885. Roughly how many acres were they by the 2020s?

The permanent site opened its doors on September 7, 1885, after a committee passed over an area around Minnehaha Falls.

Fairchild's nephew, who joined him on promotional materials in 1986, is called what?

Both wear the straw hat and striped jacket of an old midway barker. The choice of animal nodded to the University of Minnesota's mascot and the 'gopher state' nickname.

The name of Minnesota's dairy princess title came from a 10,000-entry contest in which year?

The competition was the idea of Lew Conlon of the Minnesota Dairy Industry Committee. Each winner's likeness has been sculpted at the fair by Linda Christensen for nearly 40 years.

In 2019, Sweet Martha's cookie booths took in roughly how much revenue over the 12-day fair?

The operation can bake 44,000 cookies every 12 minutes and up to three million a day. It all started in a 9-by-11-foot stand approved three weeks before the 1979 fair.

The Pronto Pup, the fair's battered hot dog on a stick, is named for what?

George and Vera Boyington started batter-coating hot dogs in 1939 after rain ruined their buns at a Rockaway Beach stand. The Karnis family's Minnesota franchise debuted in 1947.

In 1898 Minnesota's volunteer regiments mustered at Camp Ramsey on the fairgrounds for which war?

Civil War veterans insisted the four regiments be numbered 12th to 15th to continue the old sequence. The camp sat on Machinery Hill.

In 1914 Austin McFadden won approval for the fair's first roller coaster by throwing in what?

For $8,500 he got 30 tons of wood and steel with 68 hand-carved horses from the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. When its owners sent it to auction in 1988, Minnesotans rallied to keep it.

The fair's single-day attendance record of 270,426 was set in 2018 on which day?

Back in 1967 the record day drew about 197,000; by 2016 it was about a quarter-million.

Which Owatonna seed-portrait artist dominated the fair's crop art competition for decades?

She rendered Hemingway, Streisand, Prince and Princess Diana in seeds, then stopped competing after nine purple ribbons and simply exhibited instead.