Apache County Fair

The 84th annual Apache County Fair ran August 26 through 29, 2026, on the fairgrounds at 825 4th N in St. Johns. Parking and admission cost nothing, and the fair’s Facebook page calls it “one of the last free fairs.” The 2026 theme was “Stay Wild & Free — 250 Years of the American Spirit,” tied to the nation’s 250th anniversary. The fair’s home page gives the extent of the grounds in one line: “From the Arena to the ZIPPER at the Carnival.”

Two managers, Jennifer Frieden and Tiffany Willis, run it under a fair commission of three: David Brown, chairperson, with Tony Lindsey and Kay Hauser. Volunteers keep the judged departments, and outreach coordinators gather entries from Alpine and Nutrioso, Round Valley, Vernon and Concho. When the 2026 fair closed, the fair’s thank-you post named Tiffany and Brian Willis, Jennifer and Matt Frieden, and Josh and Annie Anderson for “taking on the enormous task of running the fair.”

The barns and the sale ring

The livestock barns and show arena sit at the center of the program. In 2026, 156 young people from 70 families brought 246 4-H and FFA market and breeding projects, the most ever by the fair’s count. The tally was 115 market hogs, 3 Mangalitsa pigs, 47 market lambs, 7 breeding lambs, 25 market goats, 2 breeding goats, 32 market steers and 15 heifers. The fair listed the work behind them in capital letters: feeding, clipping, walking, bracing, training, grooming, cleaning, washing, leading, shearing and exercising. Swine, goat, beef and lamb shows ran Thursday and Friday. On Friday the fair posted a picture of a hog getting his back scratched, with an invitation to the sale. It opened at 9 a.m. Saturday, and the small stock auction followed at 1 p.m.

The Field Crops Building held the Junior Farmer Program, which was new in 2026. A child walking through it picks an apple from an orchard, gathers an egg from a henhouse, shears a sheep and works a garden. The child then carries the harvest to a mock co-op, is paid in play money, and spends it on a prize at the program’s General Store. Regina Hitchcock and her St. Johns FFA students are credited with building the display. 4-H tried something new of its own that year: eight children in a STEM project took recreational drone flying tests, in the hope of competing in Tucson in early spring.

Horses came back the same Saturday morning. The open horse show had been retired in 2025, and in 2026 the Open All Breeds Horse Show was held at the St. Johns Equestrian Center. Registration opened at 7 a.m., and the show began at 8 in the warm-up arena. Poultry and rabbits also have a show of their own away from fair week. The Apache County Poultry Show comes to the fairgrounds October 30–31, 2026, with open and junior shows, youth showmanship, game fowl and a Trunk-R-Treat.

Anderson Stage, the carvers and the midway

Anderson Stage had entertainment on all four days. Reggie World Tour opened it Wednesday at 6 p.m. On Thursday at noon came the Hispanic Heritage Family Fiesta, with bingo and the San Juan Dancers back on the program, and Wild Whiskey closed that night at 7. On Friday the piano juggler Dan Menendez played at 1 and 4, local talent filled the 3 o’clock slot, the classic-rock band Roulette went on at 6, and fireworks followed after dark. Saturday opened at 10 a.m. with a World War II program by Baker 505th Reenacted, and the fair squeezed in a second showing at 3 p.m. for those who had missed it. Local performers took the noon slot, Menendez played twice more, and the Cowtippers closed the stage at 6 with country music “ranging from classic favorites to current hits.”

North of the food court, the Bear Hollow Wood Carvers worked logs with chainsaws under a canopy at 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m., Thursday through Saturday.

The fair’s exhibits page describes the main building as a place to cool off from the sun. It holds dozens of booths selling products and supplies, the baking on display, benches, and, by the page’s account, someone giving massages. The judged departments cover art, photography, creative writing, crafts and hobbies, field crops, floriculture, clothing, needlecraft, baked food, food preservation and the Fun for Everyone contests. Digital photography became a department in 2025. In 2026 its entries were posted to Facebook and Instagram under #ApacheCountyFair26B2 and ranked by likes, comments and shares, and the top three in each class played on a television near the photography department. The fair’s posts mention a building they call the BUB. Free caricatures were drawn there beside the home economics department, and on Saturday young vendors set up booths on the grass outside it, open from 9 to 6 “or until they sell out.”

The carnival rides opened at 5 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and at 3 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and ran until 10 and 11. Rides are sold separately from admission. Round Valley Middle School’s citizenship award winners were each given a Mega Pass bracelet for the midway.

Mud, ranch rodeo and a mutt show

The arena side of the fairgrounds took over on Friday evening, with the Junior Ranch Rodeo at 6 and the Mud Boggs at 7 north of the rodeo arena. The fair credits outside groups and organizations with hosting the mud bogs and rodeo alongside its own program.

Saturday began early. Mud run registration opened at 7 a.m., a competitive heat went off at 7:30, and the main run started at 7:45. The fair reported its largest turnout yet, and that some runners “committed so hard to the mud run this morning that they left their shoes behind.” The mutt show followed at 9 on Anderson Stage, the Special Friends barrel race was set for 4 p.m., and the Ranch Rodeo began at 6.

A county agent’s fair

The fair gives its founding year as 1942, and the White Mountain Independent prints the same date. An older document gives another. The 1958 annual narrative report of C. L. Isaacson, county agricultural agent at St. Johns, records that the County Agent’s office was instrumental in starting the first Apache County Fair in 1926.

Isaacson filed his fair work under “rural sociology,” and he wrote that its chief aim was “to assist others in conducting the fair and help make it educational.” In the year ending November 30, 1958, he met with the County Board of Supervisors to select a Fair Commission: Melvin Greer of St. Johns as chairman, Lyle McDonald of Chambers and Paul Eagar of Eagar. He then met with the commission to name department heads. Delbert Lambson was selected fair manager, and the report says he did a very good job. Clair Platt, the beef chairman, reported every cattle pen filled. Dick Hext, chairman of the small-animal department, reported the largest small-animal entries ever, with poultry and rabbit pens full and some animals doubling up. Navajo fleece entries were something new that year. In the same report Isaacson noted very little poultry activity in the county, “as the number of producers in operation is now at a very low minimum.”

Jack A. Brown held the commission longer than anyone the pages name. He was born in St. Johns on May 2, 1929, a fifth-generation Arizonan, and built his family’s ranch up to 900 head of cattle. According to the Arizona Farm and Ranch Hall of Fame, which inducted him in 2012, he chaired the Apache County Fair Commission for approximately forty years and served on it another ten. During 36 years in the Legislature he worked to make sure funding was available for county fairs around the state. Of the constituents who talked him into his first race in 1963, he said, “I never did understand why I was the guy.”

By 2018 the count had reached the 76th fair, which opened Wednesday, September 5, under the theme “Red, White and Blue. This fair’s for you!” The Independent’s list that year included deep-fried Twinkies, an Old West shootout by Six Gun Entertainment, a Cutest Baby Contest, and a Ranch Rodeo whose grandstands “can fill quickly.” It also noted local families such as the Wiltbanks, who had entered cattle, pigs and sheep for years. A photograph from the year before showed Beau Eagar’s goat, Kramer, appearing to enjoy her grooming. Organizers added a Brand Wall in 2018 and wrote online: “We will be hosting an event when you can bring your irons, and brand our wall. Our hope is to bring the tradition and history of cowboys and ranching of our county to the fair and its events.”

Two Wednesdays before Labor Day

The September dates ended over a carnival. On June 3, 2026, Frieden and Willis explained that many carnival companies had gone out of business after COVID-19 and that the few left were heavily booked. One company had come to St. Johns for three years, the first two on trial, and 2026 began a five-year contract with it. The only weekend it could offer fell in August, so the fair now opens two Wednesdays before Labor Day. The managers addressed the heat: “our mountain community does not see the same extreme heat as the Valley.” They also addressed the requests to return to the old dates: “Until the carnival’s schedule opens up for another option, August will remain our permanent timeframe.”