History Comes Alive

Practically every fair offers a living-history lesson, as stately pavilions designed more than a hundred years ago testify to all the transitions that the tradition has experienced over the decades. When you visit the fair, you'll see where your state has been, and where it's going.

In the Midwest, that legacy usually revolves around farming. "The fairs are popular in the Midwest, because we haven't lost our agricultural roots here," says Rick Frenette, general manager of the Ohio State Fair. "Even though our state has a lot of big cities, agriculture is still our biggest business." (For example, Ohio leads the nation in the production of Swiss cheese -- one of the countless lessons you can learn at the fair.)

After Michigan launched the country's first state fair in 1849, the early festivals were gatherings of farmers: celebrating the harvest, trading tips on growing crops and raising livestock. Pony rides for children, and monkeys dancing to minstrel tunes were big hits at the Ohio State Fairs of the 1850s, while Iowans during that same period marveled at "female equestrianism" (women riding horses).

Today, livestock exhibitions and blue-ribbon pies remain integral to the fair experience, but so are auto races, rock concerts and (in Minnesota at least) a skateboard park. As Time once assessed a Midwestern fair, "The people who go to the fair are Iowa itself, in all its friendliness, power, vulgarity and genius." Like the region it reflects, the fair is perennially changing, but no one seems to want to see it change too much.

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