Big Things Happen at the Minnesota State Fair

The Minnesota State Fairgrounds is a pretty photogenic place, even when the crowds aren't there. Back when I attended the university, I lived not far from the fairgrounds. Every late August to early September, the grounds would become a beehive of activity and our entire neighborhood would smell like frying grease for 2 weeks. Yum! The rest of the year, The Fair is open to through traffic, meandering, people learning to drive, and so on. While we were in Minnesota recently, we stopped to take some pictures.


The Gopher is the official mascot and always smiling a welcome!

Less well-known is the Pronto Pup, actually an Oregon invention of a hot dog in pancake mix that is deep fried. Don't confuse the Pronto Pup with the corn dog, please.

This nice statue commemorates Women of Minnesota in the first 100 years of Statehood, 1858-1958.










The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, a coalition forged by Hubert Humphrey, has a pavilion at the fair. I can only imagine what a party name like that does to the likes of Sarah "I tried being a governor for a while but I didn't really like it that much, ya know" Palin. Part of the great socialist takeover of the country...





Here's a place to dine if you want to understand the meaning of food, I guess. The Fair has a lot of good, solid, farmer-type places to get too much food for not too much money. I remember turkey dinners served up with all the trimmings for a couple bucks. Minnesota is the top turkey producing state in the country according to Minnesota Turkey. They report 250 "family" farms produced 49 million turkeys in 2008. Let's see, 250 into roughly 50 million, why that's almost 200,000 gobblers per farm! Hard to believe that's a "family" farm...

The Fair has not yet succumbed to the poutine rage sweeping North America, as you can see by fries and curds being sold at separate, but adjacent stands. I noticed that there was room for a narrow gravy stand between the two buildings, providing the vital connection.











I think a stand called "Jack's Can-O-Gravy" would be just the trick!


All-in-all, it was fun to visit The Fair, even if it wasn't fair time.