The butter cow is the Iowa State Fair's most famous attraction. It has been sculpted in Des Moines almost every year since 1911: a life-size dairy cow, roughly 600 pounds, carved from butter and kept behind glass in a cooler held near 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Hundreds of thousands of fairgoers file past it each August.
How it started
The first butter cow appeared at the fair in 1911. The idea was simple and very Iowa: celebrate the state's dairy industry with a sculpture made from the product itself. More than a century later it is still the centerpiece of the fair's farm exhibits, and for a lot of families it is the first stop after walking through the gate.
How it's made
The cow is built on a frame of wood, metal, and wire mesh, then covered in butter pressed on by hand, layer by layer, until it takes shape. Finishing it takes days of work inside the cold case. Much of the butter is low-grade and reused from one year to the next, re-chilled and worked again rather than thrown out, so the same butter can serve for many seasons.
The sculptors
Only a handful of artists have held the job in over a hundred years. The best known is Norma "Duffy" Lyon, an Iowa dairy farmer who became the first woman to sculpt the cow and did it from 1960 to 2005. Her apprentice, Sarah Pratt, took over in 2006 and has sculpted it ever since.
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More than the cow
The cow is the constant, but the same artists usually add a second butter sculpture each year, and those are where the fun is. Past companion pieces have included Elvis Presley, astronauts, the cast of "Star Trek," and Harry Potter, each rendered in butter alongside the cow. The pairing changes most years, and it is part of why people keep coming back to see what's next.
If you go
You'll find the display in the Agriculture Building. Arrive early. The viewing case is small, the building gets warm and crowded, and the lines are longest on opening weekend and on weekends throughout the run. A weekday morning is your best shot at a clear look.
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