Current Viola Gopher Count organizers did not respond to an interview request.
The annual event, held on the third Thursday in June, celebrated 151 years this summer.
There’s still a competition to see who trapped the most gophers (54 people participated this year, according to news accounts) but the event has become a community celebration, with a parade, disco party, bingo and live music.
A fleet of tractors rumbles by in the Gopher Count parade, which celebrated 150 years last June. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
While 151 is an impressive anniversary, Stiftungsfest, which means “founders day celebration” in German, marked its 164th annual celebration last month.
It began in 1861, when a man named Carl Bachmann founded a German-language singing group called Pioneer Maennerchor, according to a Minnesota Historical Society article. That summer, the group held a picnic for members and families at a park in what was then the town of Young America. (Norwood and Young America combined into one city in 1997.)
While participation in the choir had fizzled by 1911, Stiftungsfest — held each year on the last full weekend in August — only grew. It drew German immigrants from New Ulm, Minneapolis and St. Paul by train each year.