Minnesota State Fair Trivia
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8correct to beat the crowd
This MN State Fair trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers the Great Minnesota Get-Together from its territorial beginnings in 1854 to the two-million-visitor Augusts of today. It takes in the fairgrounds in Falcon Heights and how they were chosen, the six years the fair was cancelled, Teddy Roosevelt's big stick, Dan Patch Avenue, the Princess Kay butter heads, Sweet Martha's cookie buckets, Pronto Pups and cheese curds, the Giant Slide, Ye Old Mill, the Space Tower, the Grandstand and its cat video festival, Machinery Hill, crop art, Fairchild and Fairborne, and the bull that charged a fire hydrant. Early questions are for anyone who has stood in a Sweet Martha's line. Later ones are for the people who go every one of the twelve days: what the fair used to be called, when it stopped taking state money, and where the old carousel ended up. Use it for a Minnesota trivia night, a State Fair road-trip warm-up or a classroom unit on the state. Every answer has been checked against a documented source shown under the explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the fair's famous slogan?
The Great Minnesota Get-Together
Known as "The Great Minnesota Get-Together," the fair is the largest state fair in the United States by average daily attendance, drawing well over 100,000 visitors on a typical day.
Q 02The fairgrounds sit in which small city between Saint Paul and Minneapolis?
Falcon Heights
The fairgrounds lie in Falcon Heights, a small Ramsey County city; the site was chosen in 1884 as politically neutral ground between rival Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
Q 03The fair runs for twelve days each year and always ends on which holiday?
Labor Day
The fair always closes on Labor Day; since 1975 it has opened on the Thursday twelve days earlier and run straight through the holiday Monday.
Q 04The record annual attendance, set in 2019, was roughly how many people?
2.1 million
The 2019 fair drew a record 2.1 million visitors (2,126,551 over twelve days), topping the previous high set a year earlier.
Q 05The first state fair was held in 1859. What had happened the year before?
Statehood was granted
A Territorial Fair had already been held in 1854, five years earlier.
Q 06Before its 1885 permanent site, the fair had been held in which of these Greater Minnesota cities?
Rochester
Rochester hosted the fair in the 1860s, as did Red Wing, Winona and Owatonna, before the 1885 move to a permanent site.
Q 07The permanent fairgrounds chosen in 1884 had previously been what?
The Ramsey County Poor Farm
The Ramsey County Poor Farm, about 210 acres of county land, was selected in 1884 and hosted its first fair in 1885.
Q 08Which vice president first said 'Speak softly and carry a big stick' on 2 September 1901?
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt, then vice president, delivered the "big stick" line at the fair on 2 September 1901; twelve days later McKinley died and Roosevelt became president.
Q 09The main entrance road from Snelling Avenue is named for Dan Patch. What was Dan Patch?
A champion pacer horse
The horse never lost a race in open competition from 1900 to 1909 and set a mile record of 1:55 in 1905.
Q 10Why was the fair cancelled in 1945 and then again in 1946?
Fuel shortage, then polio
Fuel shortage, then polio: wartime fuel rationing scrapped the 1945 fair, and a polio epidemic cancelled the 1946 edition.
Q 11The fair's sixth cancellation, its first since 1946, came in which year?
2020
The 2020 fair was cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic; a drive-through food parade of fair vendors on the fairgrounds stood in for it.
Q 12What title goes to the winner of Minnesota's statewide dairy ambassador competition, crowned at the fair?
Princess Kay of the Milky Way
"Princess Kay of the Milky Way" is crowned the evening before the fair opens from a field of county dairy princess finalists and spends a year promoting Minnesota dairy farmers.
Q 13Each dairy finalist has her likeness carved from a 90-pound block of what?
Butter
Butter: each finalist sits in a rotating glass-walled cooler while a sculptor carves her likeness from a 90-pound block, a tradition that began in 1965.
Q 21The fair's oldest existing ride, opened in 1915, is a 'tunnel of love' style boat ride called what?
Ye Old Mill
Ye Old Mill, built in 1915 by the Keenan family, floats riders in flat-bottomed boats through a dark tunnel and is the fair's oldest operating ride.
Q 22On the Giant Slide, riders slide down the fibreglass hill sitting on what?
Burlap sacks
Burlap sacks are handed to riders at the top of the Giant Slide, a fixture since 1969, to speed them down the wavy fibreglass hill.
Q 23The Space Tower rotates as it lifts fairgoers roughly how high?
Over 300 feet
Over 300 feet: the Space Tower, built in 1965, is a 330-foot gyro tower whose rotating glass cabin offers views across the Twin Cities.
Q 14Unlike many state fairs, Minnesota's has never featured which classic dairy attraction?
A butter cow
It sculpts the twelve dairy finalists' heads instead, one per day of the fair.
Q 15Sweet Martha's, the fair's biggest vendor, sells its chocolate chip cookies in what?
Buckets
Buckets of warm chocolate chip cookies, heaped over the rim, made Sweet Martha's the fair's top-grossing food vendor, with annual sales above $4 million.
Q 16Sweet Martha's was first turned down as a fair vendor in 1979 because the fair already had what?
A frozen yogurt stand
A frozen yogurt stand already had the contract, so the Olsons' 1979 yogurt application was refused; three weeks before opening they were offered a cookie booth instead.
Q 17The Pronto Pup, a fair staple since 1947, was invented in which state?
Oregon
Oregon: George Boyington began batter-dipping hot dogs at Rockaway Beach on the Oregon coast after a rainstorm ruined his supply of buns.
Q 18What are fresh cheese curds nicknamed because of how they feel against the teeth?
Squeaky cheese
Squeaky cheese is the nickname for fresh curds, whose springy protein network squeaks against the teeth; the same curds top poutine in Quebec.
Q 19Which classic Minnesota casserole was first put on a stick at the 2006 fair?
Hotdish
Hotdish on a stick, a deep-fried skewer of tater tots and meatballs, debuted at the 2006 fair; the following year brought spaghetti on a stick.
Q 20The 2008 fair introduced two bacon novelties: 'Big Fat Bacon' and what chocolate-covered treat?
Pig Lickers
Pig Lickers were chocolate-dipped bacon strips with sea salt from Famous Dave's, debuting in 2008 alongside the maple-glazed slab called Big Fat Bacon.
Q 24After a 2003 remodel, the Grandstand's seating capacity for concerts is about how many?
17,000
17,000 is the approximate concert capacity of the Grandstand after its 2003 remodel; until 2002 the venue also staged stock-car racing on a small oval track.
Q 25Which Walker Art Center event did the Grandstand host in 2013?
The Internet Cat Video Festival
The Internet Cat Video Festival, begun by the Walker Art Center in 2012, moved to the Grandstand in 2013 with Grumpy Cat among the guests and a Golden Kitty as top prize.
Q 26For decades Machinery Hill held the world's largest annual display of what?
Farm equipment
Farm equipment filled Machinery Hill for decades in what was billed as the world's largest display of it; the area was later redeveloped as The North End.
Q 27The fair's crop art competition requires artwork made from what?
Plant matter that grows in Minnesota
Plant matter that grows in Minnesota, mainly seeds, is the only permitted medium; entries are mosaics of glued seeds, and celebrity portraits are a staple of the contest.
Q 28The fair's mascot Fairchild is what kind of animal?
A gopher
A gopher suits the Gopher State: Fairchild, named in a 1966 contest, wears a straw boater and striped jacket like an old-time midway barker.
Q 29Fairchild was named in a 1966 contest in honour of Henry S. Fairchild, who had done what?
Advocated the Poor Farm as the permanent site
Advocated the Poor Farm as the permanent site — Henry S. Fairchild, a Saint Paul civic leader, pushed that choice in 1884, and the mascot took his name in 1966.
Q 30The fair has not accepted government funds since which year?
1949
Since 1949 the fair has taken no government money; the Minnesota State Agricultural Society runs it and reinvests revenue in the grounds and the next year's fair.