St. Louis County Fair Celebrates 130th Year

CHISHOLM - For more than a century, Northlanders have enjoyed the St. Louis County Fair. From fried foods, to rides, to animals, the fair has a little something to offer everyone."There's games, there's rides, if you're thinking about remodeling a room in your house you can check out the commercial exhibits, if you just want to eat that once a year bad food, or 'sin food' I call it," said St. Louis County Fair secretary/manager Bettie Valley.The amount of "sin food" at the fair is endless."It goes from like deep fried pickles, we have deep fried cookie dough, chocolate chip cookie dough," said Valley.Other than the food, many rides catch the attention of fair-goers."I like the caterpillar ride and I love going on roller coasters," said Trinity Gallagher of Balkan, "we're going to wait until it gets dark so it can glow."A children's barn keeps kids busy feeding baby animals and Trinity planned ahead just for the little goats."Well I love seeing all the cute little animals because I'm a big fan of animals," said Gallagher, "that's why I brought quarters, so I can feed them."Families fill the fair to get in on the five best days of summer."You know one of the most rewarding things about doing this is when you open the gates and you see the little kids come in and they're just full of wonder," said Valley.The fair started in Duluth in 1884 before it moved to Chisholm.Last year, the fair hosted more than 30,000 people."This is a good sized fair, not the biggest, but it's a good sized fair and it's a good fair. That's the most important thing, it's a good fair," said Valley.The 130th Annual St. Louis County Fair runs through Sunday.