The Gopher Count is an annual community festival held in

Viola, Minnesota Viola is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Viola Township, Olmsted County, Minnesota, Viola Township, Olmsted County, Minnesota, Olmsted County, Minnesota, United States. It is the site of a yearly Gopher Count festival, which ...

, United States. Since 1874, the event has been on the third Thursday in June. Some the events include a parade, a

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

show, a

nail Nail or Nails may refer to: In biology * Nail (anatomy), toughened protective protein-keratin (known as alpha-keratin, also found in hair) at the end of an animal or human digit, such as fingernail * Nail (beak), a plate of hard horny tissue a ...

-driving contest (

women A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional u ...

only), a pie-eating contest, fireworks, and dancing. The festival is named for the practice of collecting a bounty on killed

gophers Pocket gophers, commonly referred to simply as gophers, are burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae. The roughly 41 speciesSearch results for "Geomyidae" on thASM Mammal Diversity Database are all endemic to North and Central America. They are ...

, still paid by the township , though other aspects of the festival are more actively promoted. Since 2024, Gopher Count's official Facebook page states that Gopher Count is "the oldest celebration in Minnesota and the longest consecutive celebration in the US!" However, both claims are false. Stiftungsfest, which began in 1861, is Minnesota's oldest celebration and is thirteen years older than Gopher Count.

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{{Coord, 44, 3, 48, N, 92, 16, 1, W, display=title Festivals in Minnesota Tourist attractions in Olmsted County, Minnesota