Transcripts

SUBJECT: In those days, the big attraction was horse racing, before automobiles.

INTERVIEWER: Of course, we're talking about horse racing in terms of harness racing, right?

SUBJECT: Yes. Uh-huh.

INTERVIEWER: OK.

SUBJECT: And some saddle horse racing, regular jockey racing, but mostly harness racing. And then when automobiles came in early in 1900, then they became popular. And as time went on, the automobile racing eliminated the horse racing.

And it became very popular and was the big attraction in the afternoon at the State Fair from the early 1900s until just a few years ago. Now, it's a little different. We only have one day of racing. The popularity of racing here is not as great as it was at that time, so we just have one day. And we draw a full grandstand of 20,000, 30,000 people, but only in one day.

INTERVIEWER: OK. Let me ask you, in terms of the State Fair in its very beginnings, I'm assuming it began as an agricultural exposition and then kind of evolved into more entertainment?

SUBJECT: You could say that. Although, in the early days, there was entertainment to draw the people in. It's always been a pretty much of a half and half thing, entertainment, and agricultural, and machinery. Our fair has always been very strong on machinery. And there was a fair in 1860 at Fort Snelling where they showed a lot of early farm machinery.

INTERVIEWER: This is the 126th State Fair. Has it gone on for 126 years straight?

SUBJECT: Well, there was two years that it was called off. I believe it was 1940 and '46. I may missed those dates a little bit. But one year was war transportation, the problem of transporting troops and equipment. And the other year was a polio scare. And so those two years, we didn't have a fair. But on this location, since 1885, they've had one every year, except those two years.

INTERVIEWER: And, of course, you're talking about this location in Falcon Heights.

SUBJECT: Yes. It's not really Falcon Heights. It's a nonentity. The address of the fair is [? Como ?] Station. And its State Fairgrounds, [? Como ?] Station.

Now, some people say St. Paul. Some people say it's in Minneapolis. People say it's in Falcon Heights. It's not in any city or town. It's an entity by itself.

INTERVIEWER: And maybe that's the way it should be. Well, very good. By the way, you are the curator of the museum. And quickly, can you tell us what's in your museum for fairgoers who might want to see it?

SUBJECT: Well, we have what we consider 12 different exhibits. We have a working blacksmith and a working family with antiques in a log cabin. We have a Royal American Shows' carnival coach that they used to bring people in for the carnival. And that has an exhibit of all kinds of carnival things.

We have an ice show railroad car, because the big ice shows started here, and we feature the Shipstads & Johnson show. And then we have a caboose with railroad artifacts, because the railroads brought artifacts and people to the fair in the early days before cars.