How the State Fair’s mascot was inspired by a real-life Fairchild

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In his dapper green striped jacket and straw hat, Fairchild the giant gopher is a friendly and mischievous symbol of the Minnesota State Fair. His nephew Fairborne (in blue stripes) also draws a crowd for selfies.

Reader Brenda Knutson has been going to the fair for decades and can’t remember a time when the furry mascots weren’t there.

She asked Curious Minnesota, the Strib’s reporting project inspired by reader submissions: “How long have Fairborne and Fairchild been mascots?”

The State Fair used a gopher as part of their brand for more than half a century before Fairchild first came on the scene in 1966. Fairchild’s name is actually a tribute to the man who came up with a plan for the fair’s permanent home.

When the Minnesota State Fair began in 1859, Minnesota was already known as the “Gopher State.”

A gopher was used in state fair branding on signs and letterheads as far back as 1910, according to the fair’s archivist, Keri Huber. Before that, the fair would switch up letterhead and typefaces each year. Using the gopher “was really kind of the start of, ‘This is who we are as an organization,’” Huber said.

Fair organizers held a state-wide contest to name the mascot in 1966. The winning name was a nod to Henry S. Fairchild, a 19th century member of the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce who had a big impact on the fair’s success.

Before 1885, the fair used to move from site to site. Fairchild came up with the successful plan to make Ramsey County’s former “poor farm” the fair’s permanent home.

Henry Fairchild was “a pretty active and innovative guy,” said his great grandson, Larry Risser.

“He just thought that the fair didn’t have a chance to represent Minnesota well when it had to travel around,” Risser said. “He thought it would be good to have a sizable acreage that was permanently dedicated to showing the crafts, the animals, the husbandry, all of the aspects of the State Fair.”

The mascot’s name suits him in more ways than one, Huber said: “He is our fair child, so it’s really quite fitting.”

Fair organizers decided to create a second mascot in 1983 named Fairborne “because two is better than one,” Huber said. They gave him a backstory: He’s Fairchild’s little nephew.

“[Fairborne] was just a babe and he could interact with the smaller kids and be more on their level,” Huber said. (These days, Fairborne and Fairchild are the same height.)

Each day of the fair, Fairborne and Fairchild appear in the parade and make a stop at the visitors plaza.

But watch out! They like to pop up behind people.

“They are tricksters,” Huber said. “They like sneaking up on people who are in deep conversation and standing behind them until they turn their head and realize, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s a huge gopher standing next to me!’”

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