Star Tribune
Why is the Minnesota State Fair 12 days?
The Wisconsin State Fair is 11 days long. So is the Iowa State Fair. In North Dakota, the event lasts nine days. In South Dakota, just five.
So how did Minnesota come to outdo its neighbors, with a get-together running a full 12 days?
Reader Jasmine Snow asked Curious Minnesota, the Star Tribune’s reader-powered reporting project, to figure out why the Minnesota State Fair is so long. Snow, a former Star Tribune intern, said the question came to her while she was working at the newspaper.
“I’m from South Dakota, actually, and so the state fairs that we have here aren’t as cool,” Snow said. “And looking into it, I hadn’t found other state fairs that were as long.”
(Yes, the State Fair of Texas is 24 days long — that’s another story.)
Minnesota didn’t have a 12-day State Fair until 1975. Until that year, the fair lasted between three and 11 days, said Keri Huber, an archivist with the Minnesota State Fair.
As the fair’s popularity grew, so did the length of the event.
“There was a request for more and more days to extend it, especially for it to last two weekends,” Huber said.
The Minnesota State Fair began as the Minnesota Territorial Fair in 1855, and lasted two or three days until 1857. The fair was governed by the Minnesota Territorial Agricultural Society and included agricultural exhibits such as grain, vegetables and livestock, as well as competitions. About 2,000 people attended each year, Huber said.
At that time, agriculture was just getting established in Minnesota, said Kate Roberts, director of exhibits for the Minnesota Historical Society.
“It was important for the movers and shakers of the Twin Cities to try to convince immigrants and folks to move to Minnesota because it is a great place to be a farmer,” Roberts said.
Over time, other features were added to the fair, including live entertainment, retail, rides and other attractions.
But agriculture is still featured throughout the fairgrounds, in spaces such as the livestock barns and the Agriculture Horticulture Building, which hosts the popular crop art competition.
“I think the key to the fair’s success over time is that it has stayed true to its roots,” Roberts said. “But it is also adapted as trends changed over time.”
After a one-year hiatus due to a lack of funds in 1858 — the year Minnesota became a state — the fair returned in 1859 as the Minnesota State Fair. In 1885, the first year it was held at the permanent fairgrounds in Ramsey County, the fair ran for six days. Over time, the length gradually increased until it reached 12 days.
The fair didn’t end on Labor Day until 1939. Huber said that having the fair last until the September holiday gave more opportunities for children to attend before heading back to school.
Labor Day weekend has become an increasingly popular time to attend the fair, and Huber said it’s the “unofficial end of the summer for Minnesota.”
Although there have been requests to extend the fair past 12 days, she said, it isn’t feasible because vendors participate in other state fairs and need time for travel and setup.
The change in the fair’s length has also changed the planning process. Huber said once the fair ends, officials start to look ahead at what to do better for the next year’s fair. From contracting entertainment artists to renting buildings, it takes a whole year to plan the highly-anticipated event.
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Northern State 35, Concordia (St. Paul) 34: Wyatt Block’s 2-yard TD run and the PAT with 10 seconds remaining lifted the Wolves past the host Golden Bears. Block’s touchdown capped an 11-play, 72-yard drive by the Wolves, who trailed 24-7 in the second quarter. Jeff Isotalo-McGuire’s 34-yard field goal with three minutes, 32 seconds remaining gave the Golden Bears a 34-28 lead.
Winona State 31, Bemidji State 28: Cade Stenstrom rushed for two TDs and passed for 150 yards and a TD to help the host Warriors outlast the Beavers. Stenstrom’s 1-yard TD run and the PAT with two minutes, 10 seconds remaining gave the Warriors a 31-21 lead. The Beavers responded with an 11-play, 93-yard drive to pull within 31-28 with 18 seconds remaining but the Warriors recovered the ensuing kickoff.
Div. I-AA
North Dakota State 59, Murray State 6: The top-ranked Bison built a 42-3 lead in the first half and went on to defeat the host Racers in Murray, Ken. CharMar Brown ran for 97 yards and three TDs for the Bison.
South Dakota State 20, South Dakota 17 (OT): Amar Johnson’s 3-yard TD run in overtime lifted the host Jackrabbits to the victory. The Coyotes opened the OT with a 40-yard field goal.
Youngstown State 41, North Dakota 40 (OT): The host Penguins went first in OT and scored and then stopped North Dakota’s two-point conversion to hold on for the victory. The Penguins sent the game into OT on a 35-yard field goal with 12 seconds remaining.
Div. III
Augsburg 35, St. Olaf 34 (OT): The host Auggies stopped a two-point conversion in overtime to outlast the Oles. The Auggies went first in the overtime and scored on a 25-yard pass from Ryan Harvey to Tyrone Wilson. It was Harvey’s fifth TD pass — the fourth to Wilson. After the Auggies’ PAT, the Oles scored on a 25-yard TD pass from Theo Doran to Braden Menz. But the Oles’ pass attempt for the conversion failed.
After splitting their two-game West Coast trip to begin the season, the Wolves improved to 2-1 with a 112-101 win over Toronto in their home opener. It was a wire-to-wire win that featured some strong bursts of play from the Wolves and other times when their decision-making was suspect. But those moments when they were on, specifically the start of the game and most of the third quarter, were enough to carry them against a shorthanded Raptors team that was without RJ Barrett, Bruce Brown and Immanuel Quickley.
Julius Randle had 24 points while Anthony Edwards had 24 on 21 shot attempts. Donte DiVincenzo had 16 off the bench. Nickeil Alexander-Walker left the game in the fourth quarter and did not return, though he was in the bench area for the final minutes after going to the locker room briefly.
The Wolves’ starting lineup had its best stretch of basketball on the season after that unit started off sluggish in the first two games. Mike Conley, who was 3-for-16 to open the year, hit two early threes to set the tone, though Conley would finish 2-for-8.
Donte DiVincenzo replaced him at point guard halfway through the quarter and continued the hot shooting from the point guard slot with three threes of his own. The Wolves forced five Toronto turnovers and had a 32-18 lead after one.
Coach Chris Finch toyed with some different lineup combinations in the first half as he had Conley and DiVincenzo begin the quarter together while having Joe Ingles run the point later in the quarter. It led to an uneven second, and the Wolves led 56-44 at halftime.
But the Wolves played inspired coming out of the break. Jaden McDaniels, who didn’t take a shot in the first half, had nine points in the opening minutes of the third. Edwards hit a pair of threes as they pushed their lead to 22. The Wolves weren’t sharp closing the night, and the Raptors had the game within right inside of two minutes, but the Wolves had built enough of a cushion.
Rudy Gobert. Gobert had 15 points and 13 rebounds and was the beneficiary of some lobs from his teammates like Edwards, Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Joe Ingles. Gobert also finished with four blocks.
Gobert had two blocks on one possession in the fourth quarter that got the crowd off its feet and Gobert pounding his chest. Gobert blocked D.J. Carton and Jamison Battle.
Star Tribune
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
NOVI, Mich. — Donald Trump further denigrated Detroit while appealing for votes Saturday in a suburb of the largest city in swing state Michigan.
”I think Detroit and some of our areas makes us a developing nation,” the former president told supporters in Novi. He said people want him to say Detroit is ”great,” but he thinks it ”needs help.”
The Republican nominee for the White House had told an economic group in Detroit earlier this month that the ”whole country will end up being like Detroit” if Democrat Kamala Harris wins the presidency. That comment drew harsh criticism from Democrats who praised the city for its recent drop in crime and growing population.
Trump’s stop in Novi, after an event Friday night in Traverse City, is a sign of Michigan’s importance in the tight race. Harris is scheduled for a rally in Kalamazoo later Saturday with former first lady Michelle Obama on the first day that early in-person voting becomes available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% of registered voters. Trump won the state in 2016, but Democrat Joe Biden carried it four years later.
Michigan is home to major car companies and the nation’s largest concentration of members of the United Auto Workers. It also has a significant Arab American population, and many have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza after the attack by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
During his rally, Trump spotlighted local Muslim and Arab American leaders who joined him on stage. These voters ”could turn the election one way or the other,” Trump said, adding that he was banking on ”overwhelming support” from those voters in Michigan.
“When President Trump was president, it was peace,” said one of those leaders, Mayor Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights. ”We didn’t have any issues. There was no wars.”
While Trump is trying to capitalize on the community’s frustration with the Democratic administration, he has a history of policies hostile to this group, including a travel ban targeting Muslim countries while in office and a pledge to expand it to include refugees from Gaza if he wins on Nov. 5.
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