image:Minnesota Historical Society

State fairs are known for butter sculptures, deep-fried Oreos, and the WonderWheel, North America's largest traveling Ferris wheel. But from 1896 to the 1930s, they were also known for locomotive collisions that drew thousands. Across the country, fair organizers pitted roaring trains against each other, with their engineers bailing out at the last moment to avoid their own demise, like the above wreck at Minnesota's 1934 state fair. Later, the Minnesota event escalated the big-bang concept with airplanes shooting at and igniting a massive hydrogen-gas-filled observation balloon.