Albin Day Celebration

At eight on the morning of July 11, 2026, the Burns FFA began serving pancakes and sausage in the Old Fire Hall on Main Street, and the 98th Albin Day was under way. Albin sits in eastern Laramie County, in what a 2003 newspaper account called “this tiny town on the brink of Nebraska.” For one Saturday each July its streets, ball field, community center and rodeo arena all carry part of the program. The celebration’s own page reminded visitors to bring sunscreen and water and to watch for people walking, since activities run all over town. It also noted that “There are no ATMs in Albin so be prepared.”

Two parades on Cheyenne Avenue

The parades follow breakfast. The children’s parade steps off at 9:30 and the main parade at 10:00, with entries gathering at a red canopy on the corner of Cheyenne Avenue and Albin Street, across from the caboose. The organizers advertised it as a parade “so nice, we do it twice.” Don Hollingshead, campaigning for Laramie County commissioner, wrote after the 2026 morning that volunteers served breakfast, kids rushed to grab candy, and the line held horses, flags, “and even a few pigs.” Ed and Bev Allen were the grand marshals that year.

The doubling is an old arrangement. In 2004 the Albin Day chairman, Mary Jones, told the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle that the parade went the length of Cheyenne Avenue and turned around, so watchers saw it twice. For the children’s parade, she said, the kids rode bikes and ponies and wrapped colored crepe paper around their spokes, hung more from the handlebars, and tied on balloons. “We had cows one year,” she said. Kindergarten-age girls had ridden a float as the “Little Princesses.” Groups from Cheyenne, among them the Golden Spikes and the Dandies, sometimes entered, and the Bluffs Veterinary Clinic had put people in the back of a pickup. “Bob Sorenson usually has a float that has a buffalo made of barbed wire on it and he usually rides one of the buffalo,” Jones said. “It has a saddle on it and he sits up there.” She added: “Most everybody does throw candy.”

That year’s royalty were three juniors, Shannon Brooks, Erica Willoughby and Lori Peterson, who had each written a letter to the Albin Day committee. “This year, because there were three, we decided to have them all do it,” Jones said. While the parade passed, the Ladies’ Auxiliary ran a Bake and Broom Sale, selling the brooms it sells year round.

The arena, the ball field, and dinner

Once the parade is done, the middle of Albin Street is kept clear for traffic headed to the rodeo. The Tim Malm Jr Rodeo runs at the Albin Arena, with buckles for the winners. In late July 2026 the celebration’s page reported a pocket knife found at the arena and asked its owner to come forward.

The arena sits in the far southeastern corner of town. Mayor Kelly Krakow told the Tribune Eagle in 2015 that it was probably built in the 1960s or 1970s, and that it was regularly used once a year, during Albin Day. A group had once run weekly barrel races there. A $20,000 countywide consensus grant in 2011 paid for the first part of a renovation: a new crow’s nest, renovated bleachers, new railing and new electrical wiring. “We want to make it used more than once a year,” Krakow said. The 2004 rodeo, held at what the paper then called the Albin Rodeo Grounds in south Albin, had steer roping, team roping and kids’ events.

The rest of the day spreads across town. In 2026 there were races, vendors, bingo and cornhole. Lunch came from food trucks behind the Community Center, where diners could carry their plates inside, or from the concession stand at the ball field. In 2004 the noon meal was hamburgers at $4 at the west end of the ball park, races ran at the east end of the ball diamond, a horseshoe tournament started at four, and bingo in the Community Center cost a quarter a card. Volleyball pits stood at the south end of the Union Pacific caboose, at the east end of town, “there if people want to play,” Jones said.

Supper in 2026 was at the Community Center: brisket or chicken burritos with sides and a drink, $15 a plate, served until 7:30, with door-prize registration at the same tables. Then came a night show featuring Roy Hale, raffle prizes, and, as the organizers promised, “some of the best fireworks you will see in Laramie County.” The night show was new in 2004, when it began as a dinner theater with the kids of Albin performing “Wizard of Oz” in the high school gym. A local disc jockey played the dance at the Community Center from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. that year.

Fire hoses and a barrel on a cable

In the afternoon Cheyenne Avenue has belonged to the water fight. Jones described it in 2004: “There are two teams and there’s a barrel that’s suspended on a wire. (The) stream of water has to push it down to the other team’s end and whoever gets it to the end first is the team that wins.” Laramie County Fire Department District 3 supplied the “ammo,” she said.

Jessica Lowell of the Tribune Eagle watched the 75th celebration’s contest in July 2003, with the temperature on the high side of 90. Teams of three worked fire hoses against a barrel hung on a carriage that ran along a cable strung down the centerline of the avenue, and the town blocked traffic while they fought. When struck, the barrel spun end over end, sometimes too fast to tell which way it turned. The only required gear was fire helmets with visors. Some contestants wore jeans and T-shirts, some women wore bathing suits under their clothes, and some men wore only shorts. Everyone within about 25 feet stood a good chance of getting wet.

Shortly after 3:30 p.m., Bob Dennis, Terry McAllister and Doug Lemaster, who had come from Carpenter and Burns, finished third. Asked about strategy, Lemaster said, “You want to talk to Terry, it’s his first year doing this.” McAllister named Keystone beer and passing a course called Stupidity 101. Dennis supplied a third: “A good night’s sleep.” Paula Dennis, whose team had placed second in an earlier round, had advice: “Terry didn’t listen to us. I told him to aim higher. First you have to get the barrel spinning and then you aim for the triangle.” The triangle was the carriage mechanism. “We aimed for the triangle,” said Coleen Capson. “We’re women; we asked for directions.”

That same afternoon a mechanical bull outside the town hall gave rides for $5. A Ford Ranger was raffled for the Albin charter school effort. At the west end of the avenue, flowers bloomed in a memorial park for April Sorensen, Candace Yuill and Brett Yuill, three area residents who had died in the same year. As workers reopened the street, people stayed on benches and in their own chairs and talked about the coming closure of Albin Junior-Senior High. “This is just a kick in the pants,” Paula Dennis said. “No matter how you feel about the schools.”

At the 82nd celebration, in 2010, the paper counted the town at 120 people. The 2015 arena story gave an estimated population of 185. The 2010 program ran to an egg toss, in which eggs rolled and bounced across the grass and a winning catch sometimes ended in a yolk explosion, as well as a three-legged race and the water fight. A staff photograph showed Colton Wilson, 13, carrying Sam Petsch, 5, through the race. The article spells his name Colten and says he came from Meridian every year. Raenie Palmer of Burns, there for the first time after years of hearing about it, said of the people: “They’re out to have a good time, not make a buck.” Nick Dennis, who grew up in Burns, said, “I think half this town is family. (But) no matter who you are, everyone greets and welcomes you.” Albin resident Dean Anderson noted that nearly everything was free. “I guess tradition is a big thing,” he said.

Since the railroad came in 1928

Albin Day began in 1928, the year the Union Pacific Railroad began servicing the town. Maxine Boyce, born Mildred Maxine Sorensen on July 25, 1928, was born on the first Albin Day, according to her paid obituary, and looked forward to it every July. She later served as Albin’s postmaster.

The Albin Museum opens for the day. In 2026 it was open until 1 p.m., and the organizers advertised it with a fact from its collection: Albin got telephone service in 1929, but electricity did not arrive until 1940. In 2004 the museum stood at Fifth and Woolcott, open free from 1 to 4. “It is a little log cabin and this is the one day a year it is open,” Jones said. “Otherwise, you make an appointment to see it. There’s a lot of things having to do with Swedish heritage. The early settlers were Swedish. There are a lot of pictures of J. Albin Anderson, who Albin is named after.”

The obituaries of the town’s residents record their part in the day. Wilma Helzer-Moore, who ran Moore’s Grocery with her husband Al for 36 years, worked on Albin Day and was grand marshal of the 79th celebration. Bill Dale Sorensen, a grain elevator man, 40-year volunteer fireman, and Albin’s mayor and councilman, participated in and supported it. Artice I. Anderson helped build the Albin Baptist Church’s Albin Day floats. Paul Dale Graves of Pine Bluffs lived most of his life on horseback and liked to drive his teams and wagons. He had wagons in the Albin Day parade every year from 1966, missing only 1992 and 2011. He died in September 2011, at 88.