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The Butter Sculpting booth is a Minnesota State Fair exhibit sponsored by Midwest Dairy Association™ through its 5,000 dairy farmer funders.

·Butter sculpting at the Minnesota State Fair was initiated to highlight Minnesota’s claim as the “butter capital of the nation.”

·The butter sculpture booth in the Empire Commons is one of the most popular attractions at the Minnesota State Fair.

·Various butter sculptures were featured at the Minnesota State Fair from 1898 through 1927. In 1965, the American Dairy Association of Minnesota began its tradition of having the likenesses of dairy princesses sculpted in butter.

·On opening day of the State Fair, the newly crowned Princess Kay of the Milky Way spends 6-8 hours in the butter sculpture booth, having her likeness carved. This procedure continues each of the remaining days of the fair with the 11 other Princess Kay candidates.

·Each sculpture is carved from a 90-pound block of Grade A butter. The butter blocks are produced at AMPI in New Ulm exclusively for this activity at the State Fair. They are packaged and transported to the fair in specially made containers.

·This year will be artist Linda Christensen’s 36th year of creating butter sculptures for the dairy industry at the Minnesota State Fair.

·The temperature inside the rotating butter booth is 38°F.

·The history of butter sculpture began in the 1800’s when frontier women molded and imprinted their homemade butter.

·Midwest Dairy Association™ helps to sponsor butter sculpting at several other state fairs in its nine states, but sculpting in front of the fair-goers using a live model is unique to Minnesota.

·It takes 21.8 pounds of whole milk to make a pound of butter.

What happens to the butter sculptures?

Following the fair, each princess takes her butter sculpture home. Past uses have included serving the butter at community events such as dairy days, pancake breakfasts and corn roasts. Some princesses have served the butter at their wedding receptions. And of course, some still have their sculpture, or parts of it, in the freezer!

A few examples:

I was the first Princess Kay to have her head sculpted in butter, in the freezer department at the Land O’Lakes Creamery (not at the State Fair). Since I was the first, the butter was used on the last day of the State Fair. – Karen Bracken Geier, 1964, Lincoln County

Mine was the first butter sculpture promotion at the Fair. Later that year it was used at various dairy events, and then broken up. –Mary Ann Titrud Springer, 1965, Todd County

My butter head was in the barn for the winter. A neighbor came over to check the farm, saw the butter head, and called the police! – Linda Kottke, 1966, McLeod County

We held a county-wide barbeque to thank the dairy association and celebrate winning Princess Kay – and served the butter. – Gayle Krogstad Solum, 1970, Norman County

My grandmother chopped it up, piece by piece, to make Christmas cookies for everyone in the community. – Juliet Tessmer Garbow, 1974, Hennepin County

It was displayed at a local restaurant, then used in baking. – Wanda Ponto Sackter, 1975, Kanabec County

After displaying it for a week in Duffy’s Grocery Store, we gave half to each of the two Catholic schools I attended: St. Isidore’s and Marian. – Kathy Zeman, 1976, Steele County

We cut it up and gave some of it away. – Beth Aarsvold Olson, 1977, Winona County

We cut it up and shared with family and friends. – Kari Schroht Reuvers, 1978, Steele County

I still have the face. – Jean Lindig Kessler, 1980, Pine County

Prior to cutting and repackaging the butter for baking, I refashioned the nose (it had been flattened by the box). Before we could take a comparison photo of me with the sculpture sporting the nose I always wanted, our dog took a bite, taking only the nose! – Janet Forner Bosch, 1982, Carver County

We planned to use it in the food at my wedding, but I found it displayed with cheese at my reception instead. – Lisa Schaffer Coyne, 1983, Dakota County

We used it for a neighborhood corn roast and for baking. – Barbara Bianchi Clayton, 1984, Nicollet County

We had a wonderful party. The menu used butter for a pig roast, sweet corn and hot buttered rum! – Stephanie Dickey Bjella, 1985, Clearwater County

After it was displayed in my hometown of Ashby, we served the butter.– Yvonne Moerke Devito, 1986, Grant County

I used it throughout the year when I went to speaking engagements, particularly in schools. Thereafter, we chipped at it bit by bit (using it mostly to make honey butter), until it was gone. – Marie Dick, 1988, Cottonwood County

I donated it to my church for a missions fundraiser pancake breakfast. –Katie Scott Johnson, 1989, West Otter Tail County

I kept it more than 10 years, then displayed it at the 50th Anniversary Banquet for the Princess Kay program.  – Beth Mesenbring-Mastre, 1990, Carver County

We used part of it for our church pancake breakfast in 1994, and then we displayed it at our wedding in 1997. – Bridget Hendrickson Jacobson, 1992, Fillmore County

It was used for the 1994 Ottertail County Breakfast on the Farm (during June Dairy Month).  And I still have part of it! – Ann Erickson Gibbs, 1993, West Ottertail County

I have just the cracked face. – Kimberly Mallery Gusick, 1995, Chisago County

Two weeks before I gave up my crown, I held an “end of my reign” party to thank family, friends and the surrounding communities to thank them for their support. The butter sculpture was used to top nearly 2,000 ears of sweet corn at the party. – Kristi Ann Pettis, 1996, Sibley County

One of our friends, Norma Shaffer, made “Princess Kay Butter Cookies” that year and won second place in the Minnesota State Fair baking competition. – Kari Skiba Stanek, 1997, Anoka/Isanti Counties

We had a sweet corn feed after my reign. We also donated some butter to church and used it for baking. – Jenny Kinnunen, 1998, Wadena County

I still have the outline of my face, but used the rest of it for lots of cookies and at our wedding reception. – Renae Jorgens Gebhart, 1999, Yellow Medicine County

We hosted a ‘Butter head Melt-Down” and served sweet corn. People rolled their ears of corn on my head. – Bridget Hollermann, 2000, Pope County