Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Ireland Chosa and Aaliyah Maki were crowned Baraga County Fair Queen and Junior Miss, respectively, at the fair Friday night. Contestants addressed the crowd Friday night and also had sit-down interviews with the judges on Thursday.

PELKIE — The coronation of a new Fair Queen and Jr. Miss. topped the first night of the Baraga County Fair Friday.

Ireland Chosa was named Queen, while Aaliyah Maki took home the Junior Miss trophy.

Chosa is going into her junior year at Houghton High School. She entered the contest for fun and to have a new experience.

“I’ve done Little Miss Superior before, and that was fun in general, so to get back into it was awesome,” she said.

Chosa got to meet with the other contestants not only at Friday’s coronation, but when they did interviews with the judges Thursday.

“It was a lot of fun to get to hang out with everyone else and experience this,” she said.

Her favorite part of the fair is the food and the vendors.

Maki is going into seventh grade at L’Anse Middle School. After having seen pageants on TV, she saw the Junior Miss contest was looking for people and decided to enter.

“I’m honored and excited, and I think this was a great opportunity,” she said.

For Queen candidates, Adyson Moulden, Morgan Fish, Annabelle Whiting, Kiera Dakota were respectively first, second, third and fourth runner-up.

Allyson VanAlstine and Ivory Whiting were first and second runner-up for Junior Miss.

As the final votes were counted, other fair awards were announced. Augie Krolik was named Pioneer Farmer. Progressive Farmer was given to William Lahti. Friend of the Fair went to Jackie and Ron Skytta, who run Skytta General Store in L’Anse.