July 29, 2021

There’s no such thing as carnival season when you run one.

These are the weeks that bring colorful lights and midway games, funnel cakes and thrill rides to communities across South Dakota and throughout the Midwest.

Come fall and winter, the show moves south, to places like Louisiana.

From the Badlands to the bayou, as Mac’s Carnival and Attractions puts it, this fourth-generation business covers them all with carnivals. And it has for more than 90 years.

“We don’t get a lot of time off,” owner Lon McWhorter said. “And the time off is spent on shop time, which is honestly busier than the season with everything we need to do.”

The company is equipped to handle everything from a backyard birthday party to a large county fair, though McWhorter said the company’s bread-and-butter is the latter. It runs more than 40 carnivals annually, starting at Mardi Gras and continuing until Christmas, with the rest of the limited weeks spent on maintenance.

The McWhorters are South Dakotans through and through; Lon said they’ve resided in the state since 1865.

The carnival was started by McWhorter’s grandfather, Howard, in 1929. 

Co-founder Elsie McWhorter in the ticket box, son Jim McWhorter and an unknown man standing in front of Mac’s first merry-go-round. The ride was purchased from an implement company in DeSmet in 1937, the same year Jim was born.

A former stock car racer, Howard McWhorter, who was the original “Mac,” ran the business up until 1973, when he had a stroke. With rising costs, Mac’s operated for the next 13 years on a reduced basis with just a cotton candy wagon and a few rides. 

In 1986, Lon McWhorter and his brother, James, pulled an old roller coaster out of storage and restored it. Out of that one ride, the brothers branched off into separate carnival businesses: Lon with Mac’s and James with McWhorter’s Entertainment. The brothers have different equipment but help each other with their respective business’ gigs.

Mac’s remains a family-owned and -operated business even after all of these years. McWhorter’s father, children and grandchildren frequently travel with the carnival as it makes its way through town after town.

Mac’s employs about 50 people — some independent, some who travel with the carnival. The company owns a few of its own trucks but hires out most of its transportation for moving the equipment from place to place. With so much travel time, McWhorter said he misses out on many family milestones.

“It gets stressful at times,” he said. “We miss out on family things that people with a normal life get to do. We’ve had weddings and funerals and baptisms at the carnival because we have to bring those things to us because we can’t go to them.”

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the carnival business, McWhorter said. He estimates there used to be 12 to 14 carnivals and traveling shows based out of South Dakota. Now, Mac’s markets itself as the only South Dakota-based carnival.

“There’s not many of us left. There just isn’t,” he said. “COVID put a lot of carnivals out of business, along with circuses.”

McWhorter said besides the pandemic, the industry is struggling because of the immense time commitment and manpower needed to run a carnival. Costs also continue to rise, but the expectation for what customers pay to attend has changed much more slowly. McWhorter’s father bought a cotton candy machine in 1957 for $200 and had to sell hundreds of sticks of cotton candy to pay for it. Now, McWhorter said that same machine costs $2,000 while the price of a cotton candy stick has remained mostly the same. 

“It takes a lot,” he said. “You gotta be 100 percent dedicated night and day. It’s just like owning a dairy farm. You’re married to it. You have a choice — you get to work or go broke.”

But McWhorter said he remains invested in the industry because of the people he works with and the lives he touches through the carnival. 

“If it wasn’t for that, I’d probably do something different,” he said. 

Over the years, Mac’s has survived world wars, recessions and now, a global pandemic. With McWhorter’s children now involved with the business, he hopes Mac’s will continue to survive to bring fun memories for future generations. 

“Coming out of a situation like this with COVID-19, I see people having fun,” he said. “They’re enjoying life. … I just feel that it’s good medicine for people to get out and have fun, and they can bring the whole family. It’s not just a kids’ thing, it’s an everybody thing, from a new 2-year-old of the family all the way up to grandma and grandpa. It’s a place to go have fun for everybody.”

Mac’s was at Harrisburg Days earlier this summer, as McWhorter gratefully took in crowds enjoying the rides, music and food. 

“We’re always looking forward to next year,” he said. “When we get finished tearing down, the trucks are loaded up and the last ones are leaving, it feels like we were just here a year ago. The time goes fast.”