FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. — This year at the Minnesota State Fair, 60 is the new 20.
"We spent the last 20 years just completely renovating this machine. You name it, we have done it."
Don McClure's put a lot of work into the iconic Skyride since buying it in the early 2000s, ensuring it'd shine for its 60th year in operation at 2024's Great Minnesota Get-Together.
"We've rebuilt the gearbox — new controls, new motors, new drives, new gears, new grips... you name it, it's new. Pretty much everything's new."
All new everything — except the aesthetic, that is.
"It's got the retro look to it; it looks very retro 1960s," McClure said, "And you know, in a yearly range, it's old, but actually in a number of hours run, it's still a relatively young machine."
The Skyride first took flight above the fairgrounds in 1964, making it one of the more than 100 models manufactured and installed by Swiss company Von Roll throughout the mid-to late-20th century. The Skyride type 101, a.k.a. VR101, that we ride in Falcon Heights today is now just one of about a dozen still operating at fairs, amusement parks and zoos around the world.
But if you ask one of the approximately 200,000 people who ride the sky ferry from the east to west grounds — or vice versa — over 12 days of the fair each year, a few might tell you the one in our backyard is particularly special.
"It's funny. We've got some people stop by from our industry, which is, you know, ski lifts and sky rides from other parts of the country," McClure said. "I had one gentleman come visit me today, and he's like, 'God, I've never seen such a fair. This is by far the best fair in the country. Hands down.'"
As a Minneapolis native and lifelong fair-goer himself, McClure tends to agree. And as once the operator of a sister machine at the not-so-well-attended fair in Tulsa, Oklahoma, McClure certainly has the history, resume and experience to back up a good get-together when he sees one.
"I remember riding this probably as a 9- or 10-year-old," McClure said. "I was an avid skier at that point and when I was at the fair with the family, I was like, 'Mom, they got a ski lift and we gotta go ride on it!'"
It was many years into his career working in the downhill skiing industry — specifically repairing and maintaining chairlifts — that McClure's family fair memory would come full circle.
Being aware of McClure's intimate knowledge of like machinery, the ride's previous owner sought the ski industry buff's expertise.
"He called me and said, 'Hey, would you be interested in doing some mechanical work for me?' And I said, 'Yeah, we could do that.'"
McClure and that man, Ed Hjermstad, went on to form a friendship, and eventually, a business deal, too.
"At one point, we were at lunch or whatnot and I said, 'Ed, when you think you are interested in selling, you know, put me on your list because I would be interested,'" McClure said.
The rest, as they say, is history... a continuation of now more than a half-century of it.
"So about six months later in the middle of winter, he called me and said, 'Yeah, I think we want to sell it.' And of course, he did. We had quite a price differentiation at that point, but we ultimately did put a deal together a few years later."
Since 2003, McClure's flying fleet of air-gliding gondolas has sailed as many feet in the air as it is years old this year, traveling about 550 feet per minute. The ride not only offers an aerial view of the entire fairgrounds but also gives fair-goers a chance to recharge while taking an energy-efficient escort to either side of the fair — record-breaking crowds be damned.
"That's the number one — we're a source of transportation," McClure said. "If you're tired and you don't want to hoof it all the way back to the transit hub is when we do our big business from about 1 o'clock on, people coming from the east coming back to the transit hub."
But then again, McClure admitted memories of a bygone State Fair era combined with the promise of flashing fair lights from above, could be another reason people return to the St. Paul suburb's skies year after year.
"It's a good view and it's great to watch the fireworks," he said, "just fun to see the whole fair in operation from a different vantage point."
"We figure we will ride 10% of the people that come to the fair, about one out of 10. I think it's just nostalgia."
A nosh of nostalgia to satisfy fair-goers' taste for tradition.
"It's funny, you see people that come to the fair and they have their routine — they have to have a Sweet Martha's cookie, then we have to ride the Skyride and then we have to go to the Old Mill," he said.
"It's a staple."
