Bismarck Daily Tribune

Tomorrow morning the Mandan fair will throw open its gates to the public and for the ensuing four days it is expected that there will be thousands of people from the entire state who will visit this great event. The city of Mandan is in gala attire for the occasion and nothing will be left undone which would add to the enjoyment and pleasure of the crowds which will throng to the fair grounds.

Today there were Indians arriving from the Berthold and Standing Rock reservations and they were busy pitching their tents and tepees and preparing to make their home on the fair grounds for the next few days. The Indians will have a prominent place on the program as in former years, and will give their dances, have races, indulge in Indian sports and games, wage a mimic tribal warfare, and add many other features to their entertainment. It is interesting to note that there can be no set program for the Indian dances. The red men do not dance a certain dance at any set time. They dance as the spirit moves them, sometimes the sun dance, the grass dance, or whatever they feel like dancing when the time comes.

Cowboys will be there also and the cowboy relay race this year has been stretched out to three miles each day instead of two as a year ago. The stagecoach holdup by the Indians and rescue by the cowboys and soldiers will also be one of the big features of the fair.

However, the Mandan fair is not all entertainment and show. The fair this year is the first to be conducted by the Missouri Slope Fair and agricultural Association, which was organized last year to replace the former Mandan Fair Association. This was done because the last legislature appropriated state funds and placed the Mandan fair under the state fair class. As result of being one of the biggest agricultural fairs under the state's protection the agricultural, horticultural, dairying and better farming exhibits this year will be better than they ever were in former years.

It was thought that perhaps exhibits of farm products might not be so good this year on account of the drought which visited some sections. However, this turned out not to be the case and Morton county and slope products will be well represented. The machinery exhibit this year will be the largest ever held here, almost all of the leading machinery and farm implement firms of the country having reserved display space.

It is expected that hundreds of Bismarckers will take in the fair, as there are few fairs in the United States that can offer the attractions which may be seen at the fair grounds of the city across the Muddy.