Nicollet County Fair celebrates 150 years

A full 150 years later, a lot has changed, but the Nicollet County Fair has largely stayed the same. Sure, demo derbies have replaced auto polo at the grandstand, and the carnival has more and bigger rides than a century and more ago, but the annual event still brings the rural and city folk together, still teaches kids and adults about agriculture and animals, still entertains our local communities.

“It’s just a great place for everybody in the community to gather,” said Joni Anderson, a Nicollet County resident for 30 years who has been involved with the fair all that time. “It’s not just for a certain age group or demographic; all people are welcome at the fair, and I just think that’s a very special thing. There aren’t really many other opportunities where the whole community can gather.

A brief history

The Nicollet County Historical Society notes that the first Nicollet County Fair took place on Oct. 4, 1871, hosted by the Nicollet County Agricultural Society: “Much like today, fairgoers saw horses, pigs, cows, locally made furniture, fruits, vegetables, flowers, paintings, and photographs. According to an advertisement, even Governor Horace Austin was scheduled to address the visitors.”

The fair was held a few different locations in the early years, according to the NCHS, including in St. Peter, in Nicollet and in Scandian Grove, the latter of which local newspapers reported visitors were pleased with. The fair moved back to St. Peter to its permanent home by 1880.

According to articles and documents compiled by Anderson and St. Peter graphic designer Eileen Holz, the first building at the fairgrounds in St. Peter was Floral Hall, which was constructed in 1870 for $200. That was later replaced in 1901 by a bigger and better Floral Hall at the cost of $1,522.35.

“Floral hall will contain 7,500 feet of floor space, have a secretary’s office, toilet rooms, an open court from the second story and a fountain in the center upon the first floor. It will be a building that will be a credit to the county,” the St. Peter Herald wrote in 1901.

The building would last until 1998, when it was torn down by the tornadoes that struck St. Peter. A total of 12 buildings were destroyed during that event.

Talking about their county fair memories, Jean Annexstad, her mother-in-law Lois Annexstad, Holz and Windy Block all mentioned the old Floral Hall.

“It had a beautiful fountain, and a lot of the open class and gardening and those types of exhibits were held there,” Jean Annexstad recalled. “It had an upper floor where you could go up and look down at all the exhibits.”

“I remember the fish pond in Floral Hall and walking up the balcony in the second level,” Holz said. “There was just an incredible lot to see.”

Over the years, the NCHS found, the Nicollet County Fair offered a variety of activities for visitors to attend. They had horse races with “trotters” and “runners.” Men played baseball games at the fair as early as 1890, and fireworks displays occurred at least as far back as 1900. The 1895 fair program announced that there would be chariot races, horse races, balloon ascensions, and band music. The 1915 Fair promised to have bicycle, motorcycle, and automobile races. Acrobats, gymnasts, and comedians were also listed in the advertisements.

Of course, it was the 4-H clubs that provided the backbone. From animal showings to sewing to baking, there was a long list of ways for kids and teens to get involved. There were, according to a Herald article, 469 exhibits from 555 4-H club members at the 1956 fair. The number of projects was an “all-time high,” according to the article.

Attendance seemed to always be strong, including over 14,000 visitors at a 1920s fair, according to the Herald, and even during the Great Depression, the fair drew over 8,000 people on a given year. Cancellations took place in 1946, as a precaution against polio, and in 2020, as a precaution against COVID-19.

But despite troubling times around the globe, whether it be pandemics, wars or natural disasters, the fair maintained, and, according to old articles and reports, it always seemed to be “one of the best fairs ever.”

An 1894 Herald article said, “As the time approaches, we realize that the coming county fair will excel any fair ever held here or in the valley.” Similar sentiments would be repeated many times over the years.

Memories

The fair has always been an important part of the local Nicollet County experience, and some, like 93-year-old Lois Annexstad, have been attending and volunteering for eight or more decades. Lois has been an attendee, a 4-H exhibitor, a 4-H assistant, a 4-H local leader, a fair board member and a wife, mom and grandma to fairgoers.

Lois’ husband Carl, who died in 2009, was also active with the fair. He and his brother Morris actually won a trip to San Francisco to the World’s Fair through their 4-H project in 1939.

“Can you imagine anything more exciting than two farm kids getting a free trip to San Francisco?,” Lois asked.

She also had success with a 4-H project, winning at the county and state levels with her friend, Jean, on a tomatoes project in 1942. Unfortunately, their trip to national Club Congress in Chicago was cancelled because of World War II.

One of Lois’ earliest memories was at 10 or 11 years old when she brought a steer to the fair: “We had to march him in front of the grandstand, and just as we got in front, the band struck up and my steer ran away.”

Ruth Klossner, 73, who also grew up going to the Nicollet County Fair, had a similar embarrassing story.

“My memory from 1958 has stuck with me all my life, because I embarrassed myself,” she said. “I had a calf that didn’t have a lot of hair on its switch, which is the end of the tail. My sister put braids in the tail with the intention that we’d comb them out and have it look fluffy. In the haste to get out to the show ring, we forgot to take the braids out of the tail, and so I walked out leading this calf named Ginger, and I didn’t get 20 feet in before the judge spotted the braids in the tail. That particular judge was a bit of a sarcastic fellow, and he went to the mic and said, ‘That little girl with the calf with the braids in the tail reminds me of a woman who goes out shopping with curlers still in her hair.’”

She added, “And I don’t think he would’ve given me a blue ribbon, but he gave me the last one in that group, I think because I had been embarrassed.”

Klossner also remembers the old 4-H dormitories at the fair.

“It was in the Quonset Building that was destroyed in the tornado,” she recalled. “The boys were on one side and the girls on the other. We had triple high bunks. It was just a big deal to stay in the dormitory. For some kids, it was scary, because it might be the first time staying away from home their whole life. I remember talking to a neighbor girl and saying to her that she really could stay overnight.”

Special occasion

While county fairs were once considered a new event and are now considered old fashioned, for many, they’ll never go out of style.

“It depends on your attitude, your perspective,” Klossner said. “For those who see the fair as originally intended — they were a showcase for people’s animals and garden produce and things like that — it’s still the main part of the fair.”

Anderson loves the way county fairs bring together different walks of life.

“It brings in the rural area, and it also bring in people not involved at all with agriculture,” she said. “It brings in our population who know nothing about farms and animals, and they can learn about it all. And then there is the carnival, the demo derbies and tractor pulls, the music.”

For Windy Block, a fair board members of over 35 years and a lifetime fairgoer, the county fair is an opportunity.

“To me, it’s just a chance to display your talents, be it gardening or livestock or whatever you do, and also a chance to get together and meet your neighbors,” Block said. “That’s the problem these days. We get so involved in our lives, we don’t know who’s next door to us. The county fair gives us that opportunity to know each other.”