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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.
