Big Horn County Fair

The 2026 Big Horn County Fair opened on Monday, July 27, with cowboy polo at six in the evening and closed on Sunday, August 2, with Tuff Truck at two in the afternoon. The fairgrounds lie at 315 Holdrege Avenue in Basin. The banner on the fair’s website for that year read “Where 250 Years of Stories Come Together.”

Seven nights at the grandstand

The fair calls its outdoor arena historic, and the evening program filled it. Goat roping came on Tuesday. The opening ceremonies, returned to the schedule in 2026, came on Wednesday at five, paired with the swine show. On Thursday at seven came pig wrestling, with gates opening at 5:30. Teams of four entered in divisions that ran from Pee Wee, ages 5 to 8, through Junior and Intermediate to Women and Men, 17 and older. The fair’s own notice called it “the muddiest, wildest night of the summer.” Friday brought the Big Horn Circuit Rodeo at six and a dance to the band Buck Wyold at nine. Saturday brought the demolition derby, followed by a glow stick dance. In other years the fair has also listed concerts. The 2023 fair ran July 31 through August 6.

Grandstand admission in 2026 was $10 a person, and children 7 and under got in free. Tickets were sold at the gate for cash or check, with an ATM on the grounds. The fair board set that price at its July 1 meeting. According to the Basin Republican-Rustler’s report, members had heard pushback on the previous year’s prices.

Show ring, pig barn and the Free Stage

By day the fair belongs to livestock shows, culinary arts and crafts, and a parade the fair describes as one “that encompasses our county traditions.” Youth from the 4-H program and from FFA chapters at Burlington, Greybull, Paintrock, Rocky Mountain and Lovell bring the animals. The Pee Wee Equitation class, for riders 4 through 8, met at noon on Tuesday, July 28. The Peewee Sheep Show followed on Thursday at four. The fair invited the public to “support our littlest shepherds as they hit the ring with their fluffy friends.”

In 2026 the swine show moved into the pig barn. The board decided this after discussion with fair event planner Dusty Miller, members of the audience and the pig barn superintendent. County maintenance staff set up a two-way alley to move animals for the livestock sale. They also relocated the Free Stage. Its program included a Dress-a-Pet contest on Thursday at five, open to “a dog, a cat, or something more unique,” and a pie-eating contest on Saturday at one, no hands allowed. The midway vendors were all open by Wednesday, July 29.

Campers stay on the grounds in tents, at dry sites or on electrical hookups. There are no sewer hookups, and dump stations are in town. On the fair’s first afternoon the Town of Basin ordered every air conditioner at the fairgrounds turned off. If the units were not off within the hour, the town said, it would cut power to the entire camping section. The fair had asked campers the week before to bring generators. A second notice that day promised refunds to affected campers. It said the town “must prioritize supporting the broader Basin community.”

Between fairs the grounds stay in use. The indoor arena hosts equine clinics, shows, sales and ropings, and it is groomed after each use or two to three times a week. The outdoor arena is groomed “when time, weather, and use allows.” The Fair Hall rents for banquets, reunions and dinners. In January 2025 community ropings were held on the grounds every Sunday.

A county and a fair, 1897

Big Horn County lies in the northern part of Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin. It was created from parcels of Johnson, Fremont and Sheridan counties and organized in 1897, the year the fair gives as its founding in Basin. The county lists its farms as producers of sugar beets, grain, beans and hay. The Wyoming State Archives holds a photograph of the original county courthouse in Basin, taken in 1901.

Three managers in five years

In December 2024 the fair board hired Catherine Foss as fair manager. She was a veteran 4-H leader with the Paintrock Punchers. Her first event was a Winter Festival on the fairgrounds on January 18, 2025, from 5 to 8 p.m., with a concession dinner of nachos, super nachos and pulled pork sandwiches. She told the Republican-Rustler that she “puts (her) head down and does (her) job without fanfare.” She hoped to revive the quilt show, which had lapsed several years earlier, and to start a barn-square competition decided by public vote. She also planned to add FFA Olympics to the midway and to keep raising money for a new pig barn, perhaps by bringing back an old fundraiser called Squeal Your Thirst. “It would be amazing to make fair the highlight of summer once again for everyone to look forward to!” she said.

By the spring of 2026 the fair had neither a manager nor a working board. At an April 7 commission meeting, county resident Brian Gifford said the commissioners should have acted when the fair manager resigned the previous fall. A fair board member had resigned verbally in February. Commissioner Dave Neves explained that the resignation could not be acted on until it arrived in writing, which left the board without a quorum for a few months. The commission reported three fair managers in the past five years. The pay scale budget for the last one was just under $42,000, without benefits.

On February 17, Rebecca Bates, acting chair of the fair board, had proposed to the commissioners that the county hire a contractor to put on the fair. The contractor would be paid a lump sum to work from March through August, with no benefits. “They are only putting on the fair,” she said. The commission agreed the idea could work.

At the April 7 meeting, Gifford told the commissioners, “The whole budget for the fair seems to be a muddy situation. We are coming up on 90 days.” He said some young exhibitors had asked about taking their animals to the Park or Washakie County fairs because of rumors that Big Horn County would hold none. Commission chair Deb Craft answered that there had never been an intention to skip the fair, especially the youth livestock shows. Commissioner Bruce Jolley said, “In this case we should have done something sooner. At the same time, you never know when the fair manager is going to pull stakes and leave.”

The same discussion laid out the fair’s money. Its 2025–26 budget was $120,019, excluding the manager’s salary and office costs. Revenue does not cover expenses, so the county makes up the difference from its general fund. Neves described the calendar problem: the county’s fiscal year begins July 1, and the fair follows a month later. That day the commissioners appointed Eron Lampman, Jesse Dewey and Dan VanderPloeg to the board. Interviews for a contract manager to run the 2026 fair were set for April 15.

The fair went on as scheduled. While it ran, and again after it closed, the board posted anonymous feedback forms and invited the public to a meeting in the Fair Hall on Wednesday, August 5. Anyone who wanted to volunteer for the next fair could leave a name at the bottom of the form.