In 2025, the Iowa State Fair will have been at its current home location in Des Moines, Iowa for 139 years, but it did not always live there.
Iowa officially joined the Union and gained statehood in 1846. In 1853, a mere seven years after, a call would be sent out to every county to send a representative to Fairfield, Iowa, in order to brainstorm how best to celebrate and stimulate interest in Iowa agriculture and its advancement. The organizers of this, Judge Thomas Clagett of Keokuk and J. M. Schaffer of Fairfield, were both members of the Jefferson County Agricultural Society – though not farmers themselves – and saw a need for a state-wide agriculture society, especially because Iowa was the only state in the Union not to have one.
Only five counties would send representatives to this meeting, but those few would officially found the Iowa State Agricultural Society and organize the first Iowa agriculture festival in Fairfield, held for three days in late October 1854. Entrance was a mere 25 cents per adult man, while women and children attended for free. 7-10,000 Iowans would arrive on foot and horse to attend between October 25-27. The fair’s primary goal was promoting and celebrating agriculture, with entertainment merely an incidental side effect. The fair would be held again the following year in Fairfield but would spend the next twenty-five years or so moving around the state, finding hosts in temporary structures erected in Fairfield, Muscatine, Oskaloosa, Iowa City, Dubuque, Burlington, Clinton, Keokuk, and Cedar Rapids.
Around 1878, however, it became clear that this constant movement was only hurting the fair, as the cost to put up the structures each year could hardly be offset by sales and attendance fluctuated based on location. And so, the hunt began to find a permanent home for the Iowa State Fair. The state deliberated and declared that whatever city could raise enough money to match the funds allocated by the state would gain the honor of hosting the fair forevermore. A wealthy Iowa philanthropist – whose name is known but could not be found for the writing of this article – claimed to have once stood on a hill, looked upon the valley below him, and had a vision: a great central road running straight to the hill, framed by grand buildings and cheering people. This hill? Capitol Hill in Des Moines, Iowa. He raised the $50,000 needed from Des Moines residents to bring the fair permanently home to Des Moines and the state matched his efforts as promised for a total of $100,000.
While the fair would have a home, it would not yet look as it does today. The fair would move to Des Moines in 1879 and be held in western Des Moines in a park that has since been replaced with a residential site until its current home was procured and cemented in history in 1886. The land for the fair’s forever home would be purchased from a farmer named Calvin Thornton, coming with his home and barn. While the barn remains, though renovated, and is known as Grandfather’s barn, the house is gone. Though the fair had a home, it would continue to live out of wooden buildings and tents until more permanent structures were established in 1886 at the fair’s new permanent location, with electric lights hung in 1888. Of those 67 first buildings built in 1886, only Pioneer Hall still stands. Unfortunately, those early buildings would be showing signs of decay and roof damage by 1902 and would begin needing replaced. The first new structure was the Livestock Pavilion, which still exists today.
The fair would heavily contribute financially to the 1893 10-day street festival hosted by Des Moines businessmen featuring a massive fireworks display meant to mimic the volcano of Pompeii. The fair board hoped that this festival would help bring people to the fair. Unfortunately, it did the opposite, pulling away so many people the fair found itself in debt, swearing that all such future spectacles must take place on the grounds if they were to occur at the same time as the fair.
In 1898, the fair would be closed on account of both the World’s Fair held in Omaha, Nebraska and the Spanish-American War, during which it served as a military camp. In 1899, the fair would come back stronger than ever, with more permanent and grander livestock buildings and for the first time having paved streets. It was also sometime around then that the fair board was forced to realize that people wanted to experience more than education and agriculture at the fair – they wanted entertainment. While entertainment was not foreign to the fair, with earlier fairs having bands and equestrian shows and even a chariot race in 1880, most entertainment was a side notion or an incidental side effect of an intended agricultural display. That would change as the 1900s approached and dawned. The first Midway would be built, and entertainers such as bands and other performers, even once a Burlesque dancer, would become more common. Games of chance also began appearing, though Iowans feared gambling to the point even Bingo was illegal in the state until the 1970s. The fair would also have races and, on multiple occasions, arrange for steam locomotives to crash into each other and explode. One particular time even a live plane crash was arranged to wow fair goers. The central part of the Grandstand was built in the early 1900s, as a way of viewing the finishing line of the races, and expanded in 1927. The full piece was covered that same year in brick as a memorial to Iowans who died in WWI.
The fair would close again in 1942 due to both the request of the War Department and recognition that it would be irresponsible considering rationing. Fire-proof structures would be leased to the government for one dollar to be used for equipment storage and training grounds. The fair would close again in 2020 due to COVID-19, though a virtual program would be presented and various vendors would be on the open grounds several days selling to anyone who showed up.
Today, the fair is a beautiful, thriving occasion. Its 450-acre grounds and 160 acres of the ever-expanding attached campgrounds are registered on the National Register of Historic Places, with most buildings pre-dating WWI and serving as priceless examples of American exposition-style architecture, and it continues to grow. The fair has seen presidents, celebrities, legislators, and all sorts of people of all backgrounds from all over the world. It has its own novel, musical and three movies. It is the second largest fair in the country, one of the most popular, and by far the most famous! The Iowa State Fair has been listed in multiple magazines and books as a must-see place, and it is considered “America’s Classic State Fair.” In 2023 the Smithsonian even sent representatives to gather information and resources for a 2025-26 exhibit on state fair crafts featuring artwork from Iowans entered into competitive events at the Iowa State Fair.
At the fair, visitors can see all kinds of amazing artworks of various media and prize-winning animals of all kinds. There is an abundance of food available! From pork chops “on-a-stick” to turkey legs and BLTs to all kinds of ice cream and frozen chocolate dipped bananas; from noodles to fresh melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chip cookies to apple slices with caramel; and for the more adventurous taste testers there’s alligator “on-a-stick” and even gold dusted lobster and caviar in a bun grilled in duck fat and served with champagne – barbecue, international, classics, and so much more! Find classic fair foods such as corn dogs and funnel cakes or unique options such as sweet corn ice cream and rattlesnake nachos. There are concerts and games, rides and shows, spectacles and many other things to experience! Enjoy a free hard-boiled egg “on-a-stick” or dollar milk from a vending machine. Take a break to stroll through the garden or sit at the DNR. Look at cakes that are gorgeous and cakes that are hideous. Experience the roots of the fair as you watch a horse show or livestock judging and walk through the farm equipment fixed up by students or on sale by agricultural innovators. And of course, there’s the Butter Cow.
The Iowa State Fair has a rich and fascinating history and is just as wonderous and exciting still today. Whatever you want to experience, you can find it at the fair. As they say, “Nothing Compares to the Iowa State Fair.”
MB, Intern
Shelby County Historical Museum
