47 Fun Facts About State Fair

Which state held the first U.S. state fair, back in 1841?

New York held the first U.S. state fair in 1841, a two-day show of speeches, animal exhibits and a plowing contest; for the next half-century it toured 11 cities before getting a permanent home.

The New York State Fair roamed for decades before settling in 1890 on the edge of which upstate city?

Syracuse won the fair for good in 1890, after a local land company donated a 100-acre tract in neighboring Geddes; rail lines crossing the site made hauling exhibits easy.

State fairs were originally created in the 1800s to promote what?

Agriculture was the purpose: early state fairs were competitive livestock shows and farm-product displays meant to spread better farming methods, and the rides, concerts and fried food came much later.

The State Fair of Texas, home of Big Tex, runs for 24 days each fall in which city?

Dallas has owned the fairgrounds since 1904, when the struggling fair sold out to the city on condition that a stretch of every fall be set aside for the exposition.

As of 2025, which state fair draws the highest average daily attendance in the United States?

Minnesota packs about two million visitors into a twelve-day run at Falcon Heights ending on Labor Day, which gives it the highest daily average of any U.S. state fair.

Big Tex, the 55-foot cowboy who towers over the State Fair of Texas, booms which greeting at visitors?

Howdy, folks! is Big Tex's line, though he stood silent at his 1952 debut: the fair added a voice and a swinging jaw a year later.

The figure that became Big Tex was built in 1949 to lure Christmas shoppers to Kerens, Texas, as a giant what?

A Santa Claus, 49 feet tall with a beard of unravelled rope, was the town's gimmick; when the novelty faded, the State Fair bought it for $750 in 1951 and rebuilt it as a cowboy.

What happened to the original Big Tex on October 19, 2012?

He was destroyed by a fire that started in electrical wiring near his right boot and consumed the statue within minutes; a rebuilt Big Tex debuted in September 2013.

Fletcher's, a State Fair of Texas fixture for decades, is famous for which food?

Corny dogs are the Fletcher family's claim to fame: brothers Carl and Neil Fletcher were selling the battered hot dogs at the fair by 1942, one of several rival claims to inventing the corn dog.

The Red River Rivalry, played each year at the Cotton Bowl during the State Fair, pits Texas against which school?

Oklahoma has faced the Longhorns at the fairgrounds every year since 1929; the Cotton Bowl sits inside Fair Park, so fans walk past the midway and Big Tex on the way to their seats.

Which politician told a 1901 state fair crowd to "speak softly and carry a big stick"?

Theodore Roosevelt, then vice president, used the proverb in a state fair speech on September 2, 1901; four days later William McKinley was shot, and within two weeks Roosevelt was president.

Which creation won Most Creative at the State Fair of Texas Big Tex Choice Awards in 2010?

Fried beer won Most Creative in 2010: inventor Mark Zable sealed Guinness inside pretzel-style dough pockets and fried them so the beer stayed liquid inside.

Which state holds its state fair in Sedalia, Scott Joplin's ragtime town?

Missouri picked Sedalia in 1899, where the Van Riper family donated 150 acres for the grounds; the first fair opened there two years later.

What happens to the Iowa State Fair butter cow's butter after the fair?

Reused is the answer: about 600 pounds of butter are layered over a wood, metal and wire frame, and much of it is saved to sculpt the cow again for up to ten years.

The first Iowa State Fair, staged in Fairfield in 1854, was run on what budget?

$323 was the entire budget, yet an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 people crowded onto a six-acre fairground in Fairfield for the three-day event.

Which newspaper runs the Iowa State Fair's Political Soapbox for presidential hopefuls?

The Des Moines Register gives each speaker 20 minutes on its Soapbox stage; candidates come because Iowa's caucuses have historically opened the presidential race.

Iowa's Butter Cow Lady, Norma 'Duffy' Lyon, also carved a butter version of which artwork?

The Last Supper, done in butter in 1999, was among her boldest pieces; after more than four decades at the fair she handed the butter cow to her longtime apprentice, Sarah Pratt.

In the 1932 novel State Fair, what kind of animal is the Frakes' prize entry Blue Boy?

A hog: Abel Frake bets the local storekeeper five dollars that his Hampshire boar Blue Boy will be grand champion, and comes home from the fair to collect.

Which song from the 1945 musical film State Fair won the Academy Award for Best Original Song?

It Might as Well Be Spring won Rodgers and Hammerstein the 1945 Academy Award; Jeanne Crain's Margy sings it (dubbed by Louanne Hogan) while moping around the farm before the fair.

Who played farmer Abel Frake in the original 1933 film version of State Fair?

Will Rogers played Abel Frake, with Janet Gaynor as his daughter Margy; in 1935, censors had a bedroom scene cut before the studio could reissue the film.

Which state holds its state fair in Hutchinson rather than its capital or largest city?

Kansas named Hutchinson's fair the official state fair in 1913, after Reno County voters overwhelmingly backed a bond issue to buy land and improve the fairgrounds.

What do Princess Kay of the Milky Way finalists do with their butter busts?

Take them home: each finalist poses for hours in a rotating, glass-walled cooler while a 90-pound block of butter is carved into her likeness, then keeps the bust when the fair ends.

Sweet Martha's, a legendary state fair stand in Falcon Heights, sells what by the bucket?

Chocolate chip cookies are Sweet Martha's whole menu: baked fresh all day and sold in cones or overflowing buckets, they made the stand the fair's highest-grossing vendor for years.

The New York State Fair's Dairy Products Building has a bar that pours 25-cent cups of what?

Milk, white or chocolate, is what the fair's Milk Bar pours; when the fair closes, the butter from the 800-pound sculpture nearby is converted into energy.

What pastry, sold since 1924, is the Wisconsin State Fair's most popular food?

Cream puffs have been the fair's signature since 1924; the Wisconsin Bakers Association bakes hundreds of thousands each fair and marked the treat's 100th anniversary in 2024.

Which state's fair first displayed a butter cow in 1903, eight years before the Iowa State Fair did?

Ohio's 1903 fair displayed a butter cow and calf sculpted for A.T. Shelton & Company, distributors of Sunbury creamery butter; the cow became an annual tradition, joined by a new companion sculpture each year.

The first Ohio State Fair, in 1850, was held away from Columbus in which city, then the state's largest?

Cincinnati's Camp Washington hosted the 1850 fair after a cholera outbreak forced the planned 1849 event to be postponed; the fair then rotated among cities before settling in Columbus in 1874.

Raleigh's saddle-shaped Dorton Arena, opened in 1952, was the first building in the world to use what?

A cable-supported roof hangs between two crossed concrete arches at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds; architect Matthew Nowicki died in a plane crash before building began, and a colleague finished his design.

Which California attraction opened its monorail in 1959, nine years before Cal Expo built its own?

Disneyland opened its monorail in June 1959, when the ceremonial scissors failed and Walt Disney tore the ribbon by hand; Cal Expo built its own line in 1968, the year the state fair moved to that Sacramento site.

Scott Robb set a world record at the 2012 Alaska State Fair with a 138-pound specimen of which vegetable?

Cabbage it was, at 138.25 pounds; the Matanuska-Susitna Valley's long summer daylight is why the Palmer fair is famous for absurdly large vegetables.

Which state runs two official state fairs, one in Springfield and a second in Du Quoin?

Illinois took over the Du Quoin fair from private owners in 1986, a few years after its star attraction, harness racing's Hambletonian, left for New Jersey.

William Morrison, who co-invented machine-spun cotton candy in 1897, worked in what profession?

Dentist William Morrison teamed up with confectioner John C. Wharton on the 1897 machine; another dentist, Joseph Lascaux of New Orleans, patented a rival machine in 1921.

Under what name was cotton candy sold when it debuted at the 1904 World's Fair?

Fairy Floss was the name Morrison and Wharton gave it in St. Louis; Australians still use it, Britons say candy floss, and Americans took up the name cotton candy in the 1920s.

Before designing his famous wheel, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. worked in Pittsburgh as what?

A bridge builder by training, the Rensselaer Polytechnic graduate ran a Pittsburgh firm that tested and inspected steel for bridges and railroads, and he brought that structural know-how to his giant wheel.

The fairground word 'midway' comes from the Midway Plaisance at which 1893 event?

The World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago put its amusements on the mile-long Midway Plaisance, apart from the exhibition halls, and the name stuck for fairground amusement strips across the U.S. and Canada.

National Corndog Day is held on the first Saturday of what?

March Madness sets the date: the holiday began in 1992 in Corvallis, Oregon, as a watch party for the first Saturday of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, and spread from there.

Funnel cake, a fair staple served under powdered sugar, was developed in America by which group?

The Pennsylvania Dutch brought the dish to America, frying batter poured through a funnel; the modern baking-powder version descends from an older yeast-raised recipe, and the idea traces back to medieval Persian zalabiyeh.

In the 4-H name, the four H's stand for Head, Heart, Hands and what else?

Health completes the set, pledged to better living; some early clubs used a different fourth H, hustle, before the modern four were settled.

The 4-H emblem, designed in 1907, is a white letter H on each leaf of what green plant symbol?

A clover bearing an H on each leaf was O. H. Benson's 1907 design; the youth program itself grew out of the boys' and girls' farm club A. B. Graham founded in Clark County in 1902.

The signature jacket of FFA members showing livestock is made of what fabric?

Blue corduroy began as a band uniform: Gus Lintner had the jackets made for his Fredericktown chapter's band, and the national organization adopted them as official dress in 1933.

At a U.S. state fair, a blue ribbon on a pie or a heifer means it took which place?

First place gets the blue ribbon at American fairs, with red for second and white for third; in Britain the order is reversed, with red for the winner and blue for second.

In Charlotte's Web, what is the last word Charlotte weaves into her web at the fair?

Humble is the final word; Templeton the rat scrounges it from a scrap of newspaper at the fair, and though the pig Uncle takes the top prize, Wilbur wins a special award from the judges.

An Arkansas farm woman's butter bust, Dreaming Iolanthe, drew crowds at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in which city?

Philadelphia saw Caroline Shawk Brooks keep her butter relief intact for months by nesting its pan in a larger one filled with ice; the crowds helped launch butter sculpture as a fairground art.

Which 1960s car's crash resistance got it banned from many demolition derbies?

Chrysler Imperial models of 1964-66 kept a separate, heavily braced frame after the rest of Chrysler's line went unibody in 1960, which made them so tough that derbies barred them.

The original Ferris Wheel, unveiled in Chicago in 1893, was designed to rival which structure?

The Eiffel Tower, star of the 1889 Paris fair, was the target; Ferris's 264-foot wheel fell well short of its height but carried 2,160 riders at a time in 36 cars.

In a fair demolition derby, how is the winner decided?

Last vehicle still running takes the win, since the point is to disable every rival; the format took off at Long Island's Islip Speedway in 1958 after promoters saw fans preferred the wrecks to the racing.

In Charlotte's Web, what does Wilbur carry home from the county fair in his mouth?

An egg sac holds Charlotte's 514 unborn children; too weak to leave the fairgrounds, she stays behind and dies there, and Wilbur guards the sac through the winter until they hatch.