Butter sculpting artist and Toledo native Sarah Pratt fine tunes her Jersey cow sculpture at the Iowa State Fair Aug. 13. This year’s sculptures feature a Jersey cow being led on a halter by a young man. The man represents G. Joe Lyon who was a dairy farmer from Toledo and an industry leader and Master Breeder who died in January at the age of 92. The annual companion sculpture depicts three kids going down the Giant Slide at the fair. The slide attraction is celebrating its 50th anniversary at the Iowa State Fair. -- Darvin Graham/News Chronicle

As thousands of Iowans and visitors returned to the Iowa State Fair this year, so has the famous Butter Cow sculpture created by artist and Toledo native Sarah Pratt.

Pratt has been at the helm of the State Fair’s butter sculpting efforts for 16 years after working as an apprentice for the original Butter Cow Lady, the late Norma “Duffy” Lyon.

Lyon, also from Toledo, began her artwork at the State Fair in 1960 and continued on for 45 years as the attraction gained national attention.

In the late 1970s, Lyon expanded her State Fair project to include figures other than cows.

Since then, a companion sculpture has joined the Butter Cow in the glass cooler each August.

Iowa State Fair Butter Sculptor Sarah Pratt works with her daughter Grace in the butter cooler at the John Deere Agriculture Building on Aug. 13 as spectators stream by the window. Pratt and her family were nearing completion of the Giant Slide companion sculpture last weekend and after the fair is over will come back together to help tear down and store the butter away to be reused in 2022. -- Darvin Graham/News Chronicle

Pratt remembers Lyon moving in a decisive manner when considering the subject of each year’s companion butter sculpture.

Both she and Lyon would work with a long list of companion options, which Pratt admits fretting over more than Lyon did before coming to a decision.

Prior to the pandemic, Pratt was set to sculpt a piece to honor the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women’s constitutional right to vote.

But as the 2020 fair was canceled, she had to go back to the drawing board for 2021 and wound up with a sculpture of the beloved Giant Slide attraction at the fair.

The Giant Slide celebrated 50 years as an Iowa State Fair mainstay in 2021.

The companion sculpture for the 2021 Iowa State Fair depicts fairgoers joyfully riding down the fair's Giant Slide. The popular fair attraction is celebrating its 50th anniversary at the State Fair. -- Darvin Graham/News Chronicle

“The slide was just something that we always had to check off the list at the fair. Much like the Butter Cow is for people,” Pratt said.

In designing a giant slide to fit into a not-so-giant cooler, Pratt worked to capture the essence and emotion of riding down the slide, rather than a precise model of the entire slide structure.

The vantage point of the sculpture is that of a person standing in line halfway up the slide stairs watching as riders rush past on sack sleds.

Pratt said the slide was such a universally joyful experience for many visitors that it made it an easy subject to land on and to celebrate for 2021.

Creation of this year’s companion sculpture was a family affair for Pratt.

Hazel Doyle peeks into the butter cooler as her aunt Sarah works to the smooth out the top of the Iowa State Fair Butter Sculpture. Hazel and her sister Millie were inspiration for two riders going down the Giant Slide sculpture. -- Darvin Graham/News Chronicle

“I love being here with my family,” Pratt said. “It’s almost like a reunion. A time to slow down. Even though we’re working hard, we do it at our own pace to a certain extent.”

The children portrayed on the Giant Slide were all members of Pratt’s family she recruited to model for the project.

The two girls at the top were Pratt’s nieces Millie and Hazel who came to the fair early to ride the slide as Pratt captured some photos to help with modeling.

The young boy at the bottom was her 9-year-old son Dean who obliged by posing on their living room floor to appear as a rider nearing the bottom of the slide with their hands in the air.

Pratt and her older daughters Hannah and Grace were hard at work during the first few days of the fair, putting the finishing touches on the bottom of the Butter Slide as spectators streamed by the viewing window at the east end of the Agriculture Building.

Des Moines-based artist and Toledo native Sarah Pratt works in her 16th year as Butter Sculptor for the Iowa State Fair. -- Darvin Graham/News Chronicle

Prior to opening day, Pratt’s parents Tom and Mary Doyle were on hand assisting in and out of the cooler as the sculpture began to take life.

The armature for the slide was built by Tom using salvaged building materials from a farm in Tama County.

Pratt said it sometimes surprises people to learn there’s a wood armature frame underneath all the butter in the State Fair sculptures.

In her research, she discovered an account from one of the fair’s earliest butter artists who created a sculpture of a woman churning butter in the early 1900s. That year, the artist decided to sculpt out of solid butter without a frame underneath.

After nearly finishing the piece, he accidentally left the door to the cooler open and when he returned, the sculpture was completely melted.

A butter sculpture of G. Joe Lyon has been residing with the famous Iowa State Fair Butter Cow this week. Lyon is depicted in his younger years leading a Jersey cow, a breed he and his family were renowned for farming and breeding. -- Darvin Graham/News Chronicle

The armature used for the traditional cow sculptures dates back to the 1970s and is a reusable piece Norma built for her work. Pratt said the old frame is still working well and even has a movable head that conforms to different positions if needed.

Even the edible sculpting material used to create the cow comes with its own legacy.

Pratt said the butter they use to sculpt is preserved and recycled each year after they’re done at the fair.

Lyon’s final year sculpting at the State Fair in 2005 was the last time they had to replace all of the butter. Since then it has been used, preserved and reused for each fair sculpture since.

In a moment of reflection, Pratt thought fondly about the history that her sculpting material carries with it each time it takes a new form at the fair.

16 years after the late Norma “Duffy” Lyon carved her last udder, pieces of her legacy are still going into the annual butter attraction at the fair. Sculptor Sarah Pratt still uses Lyon’s tools (pictured below) and armature frame that goes underneath the cow sculpture each year. In fact, the hundreds of pounds of butter used for the sculptures has been continually recycled since 2005 and was used by Lyon in her final State Fair sculpture. -- Darvin Graham/News Chronicle

“Norma’s hands touched this butter,” Pratt said. “It kind of blew my mind when my husband Andy brought that up to me. I have her tools and I have the knowledge that she’s given me, but her hands were on this butter and that’s just a special thing.”

Pratt is a self-proclaimed history enthusiast and said before she took up the dairy arts, she always wanted to be an archeologist.

Over the past 16 years as the Iowa State Fair Butter Sculptor, Pratt has often dug up historical occasions and milestone anniversaries to be the subject of her annual companion sculpture.

Tama’s historic Lincoln Highway Bridge was even memorialized in 2013 as part of a tribute to the Lincoln Highway and President Lincoln.

This year, another local memorial was a part of the annual State Fair display. Standing next to the Jersey cow butter sculpture is a depiction of a young G. Joe Lyon leading the cow with a halter.

Joe Lyon passed away in January at the age of 92, having lived as an industry leader among dairy farmers and breeders. He and his wife Norma raised nine children on their dairy farm north of Toledo and were active members of the Iowa agriculture community as well as the South Tama community. Joe was a steady presence in Norma’s butter sculpting process, much the same as Pratt’s family members are for her today.

An interactive panel is installed outside the display cooler at the fair for visitors to learn more about the late Jersey breeder and dairy farmer from Toledo.

Pratt said having the Butter Cow on a halter was a rare feature for the main sculpture and that it was a nod to Lyon’s work showing and judging dairy cows.

Looking back across the Lyon legacy, Pratt is hopeful she can have the same sort of longevity her mentor and family had during their era.

“I would feel honored to be a healthy enough person to still be able to do this work at the same age Norma was when she retired,” Pratt said.

As her twin daughters have grown up, they have begun apprenticing with her. She said they enjoy the work and that she wouldn’t be surprised to see them follow in her footsteps one day.

Pratt’s Giant Slide sculpture, G. Joe Lyon tribute and Jersey Butter Cow sculpture named Linda are on display in the John Deere Agriculture Building at the Iowa State Fair through Aug. 22.