2026, Food, Games, gardening, Gatherings, Uncategorized

County Fair

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The last time I was at the MN State Fair was 43 years ago on our honeymoon. It has been even more years since I attended the Rock County Fair. It was always an exciting time, and it got even more fun after I joined 4-H. I did horticulture and sewing projects. When I was in Grade 8 I got Grand Champion on my terrarium project, and that led to my first trip to the State Fair.

Last week Husband, Boommate, and I went to the Rock County Fair. It is held in Luverne. Boommate hadn’t been there for many years as well, and neither of us recognized the fairgrounds with all the new construction and exhibit buildings. There was the same collection of carnival rides and food booths. The Rock County Pork Producers had a stand selling great bacon wrapped pork tenderloin. Like the State Fair, we also have a machinery hill, but on a smaller scale.

I remember my cousins showing their Chester White pigs at the fair, dousing them with baby powder to make them pretty. It was fun to be in the animal barns and see all the livestock up close.

We also toured all the 4-H and open class exhibit building to see all the prize pickles, garden produce, tallest field corn, photography, and 4-H educational projects.

Husband spent more time at the fair than I did since he helped the county DFL group set up their stand in one of the commercial buildings and hand out brochures. . My paternal grandfather was one of the founding members of the Rock County DFL party, and I am tickled Husband is getting involved with them.

Our fair isn’t all pigs and canning. The following photos show what else went on. I thought the cannon display was interesting.

I don’t think we will make it to the State Fair this fall, but the County Fair was a delight and I am really glad we went.

What are your early fair experiences? Were you in 4 -H or similar organizations? Ever been to a tractor pull?

31 thoughts on “County Fair”

  2. No tractor pulls but once, years ago, I attended a horse pull somewhere near Northfield with Robin and my father-in-law. The teams were primarily Morgans and Percherons, I think, and magnificent even when just standing there. For the pull, they were hitched to a sledge upon which progressively heavier loads were piled. The initial pull, when the horses had to get the sledge moving, was very dramatic.

    When I was young, my parents would take me to the Minnesota State Fair. We always entered the fair near machinery hill, so that and a giant pair of overalls (Lee, I think) hanging from a tall frame were the first things we encountered. Machinery hill in those days was a major attraction.
    Once we were inside the fairgrounds, my parents gave me a small amount of money and turned me loose. I headed for the midway. I don’t remember going on any of the rides in the midway by myself but I remember the “freak shows” that lined the midway in those days with their lurid painted canvas posters outside and barkers calling out at the entrance. At one attraction I remember a collection of Mutoscopes- hand cranked flip books of photographs—mostly mildly salacious—that one could view as a crude motion picture for a dime and a turn of the handle.
    In those days, they held stock car races in the grandstand so the predominant sound on the midway was the ear-splitting roar of the cars circling the track.
    I visited the booth offering all the milk you can drink for a dime and usually bought myself a hot dog under the grandstand. I may have gotten myself an apple—always Beacons, an early and not very good variety—in the horticulture building. I don’t remember visiting the animals in those days or the creative activities either. Those became mainstays of the fair when I was older. I think I stayed mostly around the midway. I don’t remember it being particularly crowded.

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  3. Someone from Pipestone brought a pig that gave birth to 13 piglets at the fair. It was an educational display to demonstrate good animal handling and to let people see an animal give birth.

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  5. I remember my first county fair – I must have been 6 or 7, and we lived in Storm Lake IA, in Buena Vista County. All I remember are the rides and seeing all the booths, and the smells and the feel of the place. It felt a little magical.

    Later in Marshalltown, I don’t remember feeling that magic at the County Fair, and I don’t remember a State Fair till I was 29 and in Mpls.
    I wasn’t ever in 4-H…

    I realize this isn’t the State Fair, but from the movie State Fair:

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  6. I come from a long line of city folk. And all of the county fairs and state fairs in Missouri aren’t in the St. Louis area. Even when we lived in Jefferson City, which is close to where the Missouri State fair takes place, we never went. My dad did not like crowds at all, and so that was not the kind of thing we ever did. I was 26 when I went to the Minnesota State Fair for the first time. It was like the curtains opened up on door number three and I have never looked back. Life-changing. But no tractor pulls or 4-H.

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    1. My late, great neighbor also shared this birthday and was tickled pink to share a birthday with Obama. She died 2 days before turning 90.

      I still miss her.

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  8. Happy birthday, VS! I hope you’re doing something grand for your birthday!

    I wasn’t in 4H, and I didn’t go to the county fair much, or to the State Fair at all. My parents weren’t interested in the Rice County fair, but they did take us to the Steele County fair once or twice when I was young. I went to the Rice County fair with friends from high school when I was older, but I really didn’t enjoy it much. I do like baby animals, but I don’t like the hot, sticky fair environs, and I prefer to see animals comfortable in their own pastures and barns. Sorry. I’m a fair grinch. That said, the Steele County fair is the best in all the land.

    Also grinch-like: baby powder on the pigs? I never knew. Of course we all know now that talcum powder causes various kinds of cancer. It’s a mineral with microscopically sharp edges. Even though it’s used for irritated skin, it’s actually an irritant on its own. It can cause serious lung problems, and doesn’t actually heal irritated skin. I’m sure it didn’t harm the pigs, but that surprised me.

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    1. Today is about birthday perks and perfect days. Bruegger’s and Caribou for breakfast and now I’m gonna go pick up YA and we’re gonna do My Burger for lunch. Had a nice walk with Freya and filled up the bird feeders. Have a project to work on my studio this afternoon and plenty of books to relax with! Wonderful weather. Just the way I like my days!!

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  9. The 1968 Norman County fair was memorable.
    My cousin Jack and I got addicted to a pinball-like horse race game.
    The winner of the race got a little plastic horse. Turn in 10 and upgrade to bronze. Turn in 10 bronze and upgrade to silver. Turn in 10 silver and upgrade to gold. Turn in 10 gold and win a clock with horses on the ends. 10x10x10x10… is a lot of winning plays. Jack got the clock. Everyone who came by to play gave their winners to us. It was way cool!

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  11. I grew up in Iowa, but have never been to that state fair, but growing up I heard a lot about Minnesota’s from my parents.

    We did have the 4 County Fair (the population is sparse out there) when I was growing up in western Iowa, and I do remember entering competitions for canned goods and decorative table settings. When I think of “my childhood”, those are the days I think of, and it all seems almost foreign now- like something I read about in a book once.

    The s&h never missed a Fair until he moved to Maryland.

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  12. My Uncle Alvin was found out buying produce at the Luverne grocery store to show at the fair since his at home hadn’t done well. This would have been in the early 1930s.

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  13. Hey there.
    I was in 4H, all my older siblings were in 4H, and my parents were adult leaders in 4H.

    Mom and dad stored the American dairy Association “all the milk you can drink” Booth in our shed, and dad worked on the Farm Bureau Booth, and Mom worked in the horticulture building, and then she ran the entertainment stage for many many years, and I get a grandchild to help her for a week every year. She made a lot of good memories with those kids doing that. When I got old enough to do chores and milk, dad joined the fair Board.
    So yeah, we went to the fair a lot. Back when I was maybe 15 to 20 years old, that week of the fair was the place to be. Of course we were usually also trying to combine Oats, and bale Straw, while dealing with the fair. Maybe that’s where I learned how to multitask.

    I never got elected to an office in our local 4H club, the Haverhill Booaters, but it’s where I began to do Theatre in the one act plays. Even won Best Actor a couple of times in our county 4H programs. Really there wasn’t much competition, it’s not that great of an award.

    But I haven’t been to the fair in the last quite a few years. It’s changed a lot, the fairground itself here in the county has changed a lot. I can’t say if it’s for the better or worse.

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  14. happy birthday vs
    today in anniversary day at our house. my mom and dad got married 75 years ago and daughter tara married enver 13 years ago
    obama is an added plus
    emma gets trump
    spencer and tara get einstein and kirby puckett
    devin gets d day
    olivia is feb 27 and is very thankful it was not the 29th
    no 4h

    my parents took me to the fair but didnt love it. i did. hitch hiked there on my own and once i started driving i would take my secret path and park free and go 5 , 6,7 tomes a year. my kids thought everyone did

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  15. Happy birthday VS (and President Obama–sigh). It’s also my parents’ 70th wedding anniversary today.

    There wasn’t a county fair that I was aware of when I was a kid living up on the Iron Range (St. Louis County). If there was, we didn’t go to it.

    But we often spent part of our summers in St. Paul with my aunt and uncle, and made the trip to the state fair several times. I remember many of the same things Bill mentions: entering by Machinery Hill and the giant jeans (or overalls), the endless noise from the grandstand, all the milk I could drink. Lots of dairy farmers and dairy workers on Mom’s side of the family, so in addition to the milk stand we went to the dairy building for cheese sandwiches and shakes, the horticulture building for honey sundaes, and the cow barn.

    We mostly skipped the midway, but I went on the Ferris wheel with my dad a couple of times. And I loved the creative activities building. When I got older and went yearly with my best friend, I spent a bit more time on the midway, but we mostly explored all the other areas of the fair and visited my friends’ farm cousins in the cow building.

    No 4-H or tractor pulls for me.

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