Q 01/05

In which month is the Iowa State Fair held each year?

A) June

B) July

C) August

D) September

Answer · why

C) August

August. It wasn't always a summer event: the first fair, in 1854, ran for three days in late October.

Q 02/05

The fair's famous Butter Cow is displayed in a refrigerated case inside which fairgrounds structure?

A) The Varied Industries Building

B) The Horse Barn

C) The Agricultural Building

D) The Livestock Pavilion

Answer · why

C) The Agricultural Building

The Agricultural Building. It opened for the 1904 fair as a showcase for Iowa farm produce, which is why the butter cow stands there in a 40-degree co...

Q 03/05

What do contestants hurl as far as they can in the Iowa State Fair's Cow Chip Throwing Contest?

A) Baked corn chips

B) Dried manure

C) Strips of cowhide

D) Dried corn cobs

Answer · why

B) Dried manure

Dried manure. Each thrower gets a single try, and a foot over the line or a chip out of bounds means disqualification.

Q 04/05

In 1929, thousands of Iowa children sent in nickels and dimes to help the Iowa State Fair buy which animal?

A) A giraffe

B) An elephant

C) A camel

D) A grizzly bear

Answer · why

B) An elephant

An elephant. More than 20,000 children turned out at the fair to meet Baby Mine, the young elephant their coins had helped buy.

Q 05/05

The first Iowa State Fair, in October 1854, was staged in which town?

A) Muscatine

B) Oskaloosa

C) Fairfield

D) Keokuk

Answer · why

C) Fairfield

Fairfield. The fair spent its first decades rotating between towns, mostly in eastern Iowa, so that more Iowans could reach it.