The Great Plains to the Great Lakes – ND, SD, MN, WI, MI highlight America’s northern Midwest at The Great American State Fair 

(Editor’s note: A series on The Great American State Fair, held in Washington, D.C., in honor of America’s 250th birthday, written by Heartlander News interns.) 

Spanning the Great Plains to the Great Lakes, the five northern Midwestern states – North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan – share little in common beyond harsh winters, but each showcased its unique features at The Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C.

North Dakota

Although tourism to the state is relatively low (25.6 million visitors in 2025, compared with California’s 275.5 million), visitors to the North Dakota booth took photos with a sunflower exhibit, studied an 80-million-year-old mosasaur fossil found in the state and posed with a large stuffed bison.

North Dakota’s booth also featured scenic photos of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Although Roosevelt was from New York, he spent years hunting and exploring in North Dakota and famously said that without the state, he would not have become the president he was. North Dakota also promoted itself as a business-friendly state and highly ranked in education and childcare.

South Dakota

While more tourists visit South Dakota because of Mount Rushmore, the booth lacked some of the vibrance the state offers. Instead, a wall-to-wall timeline of state history highlighted influential figures and events.

Like North Dakota, South Dakota featured facts about the state’s dinosaur fossil: Sue, the Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the largest and most complete T. rex fossils ever discovered. The fossil itself is on display at the Chicago Science and Industry Museum. The timeline highlights Lakota leader Sitting Bull, whose forces defeated Lt. Col. George A. Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the “Little House” series. The booth also included a virtual reality pheasant hunt in honor of South Dakota’s state bird.

Minnesota

Known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes, Minnesota featured its motto, “The Star of the North,” at its booth, displaying images of state parks and highlighting the Minnesota State Fair, the second-largest state fair in the United States by attendance.

The booth’s displays included facts about the development of the Honeycrisp apple through cross-pollination in the 1960s and attractions such as the Mall of America, the nation’s largest shopping mall.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin, directly east of Minnesota, featured exhibits from the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, a life-sized cow representing the state’s agricultural industry and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle for visitors to sit on. Harley-Davidson was founded in Milwaukee in 1903 and is still headquartered there.

Several posters offered state facts for visitors, though the booth included relatively few interactive exhibits or scenic displays.

Michigan

In contrast to the other states’ land-focused exhibits, Michigan promoted itself as the “Great Lakes State.” Its booth highlighted the state’s agriculture, inventions and natural beauty.

Breakfast cereal was popularized in Battle Creek, Michigan, so the booth offered visitors free mini boxes of cereal from Kellogg’s.

As one of the nation’s leading dairy producers, Michigan included a mechanical cow that visitors could milk.

The booth also featured facts about the Mackinac Bridge, one of the world’s longest suspension bridges, and a state map where visitors could place a sticker on the city they are from or have visited. As one of the few booths that offered giveaways, Michigan’s display often had a line of anxious visitors waiting to enter.