The Minnesota State Fair is back this week to remind us what we like about our state and about each other.
Minnesotans, it turns out, really, really like looking at fish.
Every year, crowds gather in the cool oasis behind the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources building. A concrete pond filled with clear water from the fairgrounds well swirls with schools of fish, from silvery minnows to a scaly sturgeon so huge that children mistake it for a shark.
Some of the newest stars and gars of the 2023 fair are swimming in a tank at the state fish hatchery in St. Paul, getting ready for their debut.
"I'm biased, but I think the fish are the best thing at the fair," hatchery supervisor Genevieve Furtner said. Judging by the huge crowds that circle the fish pond throughout the 12-day run of the fair, other Minnesotans agree.
She lifted the lid of a tank and studied some of the fish the staff pulled from the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers last week, looking for a good mix of sizes and species for the exhibit. Carp, smallmouth bass, a sinewy gar.
Some of the fish in the DNR pond have made more trips to the fair than your average Minnesotan. Returning the fish to the rivers after the fair would risk spreading disease, so the fair fish spend the bulk of the year relaxing in a secret DNR pond.
"They like living life without any of our interference," Furtner said. "So that's what we give them."