Our July/August issue includes a feature on the oddities, curiosities and fun traditions at our state and county fairs. Our founder and editor-at-large Bernie Hunhoff has photographed several of them in years past. Here are some of the shots that didn’t make the magazine.
“I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel,” wrote children’s author E.B. White. Colorful games and rides, people of all ages spending time together, laughing, eating, chatting with neighbors. Fairs are exhibits of our culture at its finest.
Late summer gatherings date back to the early years of our United States. Eventually the fairs evolved and became more elaborate. But they’ve always symbolized a last hurrah before school begins and winter comes.
One of our favorites is the Turner County Fair in Parker (Aug. 15-18). This year the fair turns 136, making it the oldest in South Dakota. Once inside the gates (free admission, by the way) you’ll find a fun little pioneer town to tour known as Heritage Park. It has a general store, church, school and millinery. Each is furnished with antiques and open to the public. Outside you’ll find a shaded stage which hosts non-stop music and entertainment throughout the four-day spectacle. If you’re wondering about food, you’re in for a treat. Local beef and pork producers run dueling booths that garner long lines at dinner, but another popular choice is a chislic booth organized by sheep farmer Bill Aeschlimann and some friends way back in 1983. Turner and Hutchinson counties are known as the home of chislic — a Russian tradition of beef, lamb or pork seasoned and grilled over an open fire. (Or, here in America, deep fat fried as we also do with Oreos and cupcakes.)
Other fairs are known for fun and games. The Potter County Fair (Aug. 6-9) in Gettysburg features Cow Patty Bingo. An open patch of grass at the fairgrounds is divided into squares, each of which is for sale. Once the squares are sold, a cow is turned loose on the grass. The owner of the square where the cow first leaves her mark wins the jackpot.
In Aberdeen, at the Brown County Fair (Aug. 15-21), a fair staffer goes out early every morning to hide a stuffed monkey named Casey. The first kid to find Casey wins carnival tickets or another fair prize.
Visit the Corson County Fair in McIntosh (Aug. 12-14) to view turtle races — prizes go to both the fastest and slowest racers. Here’s a hint: painted turtles are faster than mud turtles, in case you didn’t know. Here’s another hint: snapping turtles can be dangerous.
Food competitions are popular attractions at our local fairs. Often attendees get to taste the results. The Custer County Fair (Aug. 11-14) in Hermosa features an ice cream crank-off. Power models are forbidden, guaranteeing an old-fashioned experience for kids who have never had an opportunity to make their own. A chili cook-off is one of the highlights of the Sully County Fair (Aug. 11-14) in Onida. The public can sample all the chili they can eat after the contest, for only $5.
Fairs are a fine way to celebrate our communities, but the food, games and exhibits aren’t as meaningful if people don’t show up to enjoy them. We hope you take the time to visit one of the dozens of fairs in South Dakota this summer.
South Dakota Magazine finished its 2015″Fair Tour” with a Labor Day weekend visit to the South Dakota State Fair in Huron. We met all sorts of interesting people. Here are just a few of them. Photos by Bernie Hunhoff.
South Dakotans wave farewell to summer with the colorful sights, delicious foods and dizzying rides at local or state fairs. This year South Dakota Magazine is travelling to some of our favorite fairs to celebrate the magazine’s 30th anniversary.
We will visit with readers, serve Forestburg watermelon slices and soak up South Dakota’s fair culture. Our schedule began with Parker’s Turner County Fair on Wednesday, Aug. 19, then Rapid City’s Central States Fair Aug. 21-22. Finally, we’ll visit the State Fair in Huron Sept. 6-7, where we will have the honor to be on stage with legendary performer Sherwin Linton. We won’t be singing, but will have some good South Dakota stories for the audience.
Linton has performed for over 30 years at Huron, as well as other fairs around the country. Three times a day on the state fair’s Centennial Stage, fans sit under tall shade trees and listen to Sherwin, his wife Pam and their longtime band “The Cotton Kings.” Linton plays over 250 concerts a year and, amazingly, has never missed a performance in his 50-plus years of entertaining. His perfect attendance placed In the next issue of the magazine we recount a Sherwin Linton story that Bob Glanzer wrote in his new book, You Can’t Unring a Bell. Glanzer helped plan and produce the state fair for 26 years and from 1980-2002 was the superintendent of the grandstand stage and show events. During his tenure he met Minnie Pearl, and confirms she was just as funny backstage as she was onstage. He drove Red Skelton to the Sioux Falls airport and was treated to two hours of stories and humor. Skelton bought him breakfast and tipped him $50 for the drive.
One story that stood out in Glanzer’s mind was a meeting between Sherwin Linton and Johnny Cash. It was during the state fair’s bicentennial year in 1976. Glanzer was standing backstage before Cash’s performance. Cash looked at his manager and said, “Do you notice anything different about me tonight?” His manager didn’t notice anything unusual about Cash’s all-black attire. Cash then told him to look at his feet. He was wearing two left boots. The manager asked Glanzer to find a pair of size 13 black boots and gave him $100. Glanzer took off for the midway, where he knew Geiger’s Western Wear was selling western clothes and tack. The largest black boots were size 12, so Glanzer bought them and ran back to stage.
Cash squeezed his size 13 feet into the size 12 boots and went on stage to perform two shows. At the end of his second show, Cash told the audience the story of his two left boots and how the new boots were too small. He spotted Sherwin Linton in the audience and invited him on stage.
As Glanzer recalls, Johnny gave a nice tribute to Sherwin, took off the boots and told Linton to try them on. He then asked Sherwin,”How do they fit?”
Sherwin replied,”I could never fill your shoes, Johnny!”
Cash replied, “Oh, yes you can!” Linton went back to his seat wearing the new trophies of the concert and Johnny finished the show in his stocking feet.
South Dakota Magazine is proud to be a part of South Dakota’s fair tradition this summer. Look for our green ’49 Chevy delivery pickup and stop by for a slice of watermelon. And if you see Sherwin Linton, ask about Johnny’s boots.
Garish colors, flying mud, revved engines and collisions of metal — the gasoline-powered chaos of demolition derbies is a South Dakota festival fixture. How much abuse can these cars take? Crowds love to watch and find out. Photos by Chad Coppess.
I’ve never been a good planner in terms of details. I’d rather take a long weekend in a favorite area like the southern Black Hills and improvise as I look for photographs. I don’t want to think if I don’t have to. I guess that is a”me” problem. What’s funny is that I also really like night photography and night photography is hard. It requires some serious thinking. To do it well consistently you have to pay attention to detail. You have to learn your gear and your camera and most importantly, you have to plan your shots in advance of night falling. If you don’t, you will find yourself out stumbling around shooting in the dark both literally and figuratively. Believe me, I’ve tried and failed to do it without taking the time to learn and be prepared.
Over the last year and a half, I’ve devoted a lot of time to learning how to get the kind of night photos that I think are cool. That includes photographing the starry skies and particularly the Milky Way. As noted in South Dakota Magazine’s most recent issue, our state is a wonderful place to star gaze. For me, figuring out how to photograph those starry scenes only adds to the experience. I also enjoy shooting scenes where there is some traffic so I can produce light streaks from headlights and taillights. I believe an important tenet of good photography is showing a familiar scene in a new and interesting way. Opening up the shutter of your camera for longer than a half second or more can do this for you. Doing it at night overlooking a busy street or highway can produce amazing results.
I read somewhere that smart scientist types tell us that our eyes record what we see at roughly an equivalent of 1/30th of a second. So if you learn how to manipulate your shutter on your camera to be open longer than that, you will automatically record a scene in a way that your eyes do not. One catch to this… you need a tripod. If you don’t secure you camera on something sturdy then your photos will suffer from the dreaded blurs and fuzziness of”camera shake.” Not good and really frustrating.
The recent innovations in digital camera sensors have allowed much greater sensitivity to low light situations. To take advantage, learning about ISO numbers, what they mean and how to change them, is essential. The lower the ISO number means that the sensor is the least sensitive to light, so shooting at 100 ISO is great for bright, sunny days. The higher number ISO like 1600 or higher, the more sensitive your sensor is to light. The only drawback to increasing your ISO is that the resulting photo will be less sharp and crisp as the higher the ISO, the more digital”noise” is added to the photo. The good news is that technology has dramatically improved sensors so the digital noise isn’t as bad as just a few years ago.
Last summer, I finally took the time and initiative to do a project I’ve been kicking around my brain for a long time. I took my camera out to the Sioux Empire Fair in Sioux Falls and played around for a couple nights in an attempt to get some compelling photos of the midway lights. I also set up some timelapse shots for promotional video for the fair. I think that at the very least, I was able to show the fun of the fair in a new and interesting way, and that is what I feel good photography is all about. Enjoy!
A Night at the Fair from Christian Begeman on Vimeo.
Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he’s not working at Midcontinent Communications he is often on the road photographing our prettiest spots around the state. Follow Begeman on his blog.
