Big Horn County Fair

On the last two evenings of the Big Horn County Youth and Open Fair, opening ceremonies begin at 6:15 at the county fairgrounds on Sawyer Loop in Hardin. Indian relay races follow at 6:30. At 7:00 the Little Big Horn Stampede starts, a PRCA rodeo with rough stock furnished by J Bar J Rodeo. In 2026 those nights fell on Friday, July 24, and Saturday, July 25. Ticket holders traded their tickets at the gate for wristbands, and QR codes posted around the parking lot let latecomers buy on their phones and skip the line.

The rodeo closes the fair. The days before it belong to the county’s children and their animals. The fair calls itself “a fun-filled week representing agriculture and focusing on our youth,” and its 2026 fairbook counts that year’s youth fair as the 72nd “of this kind.” The fairbook gives the aim as developing “a spirit of friendliness, cooperation and sportsmanship among our youth; to give them an interest in their farms, ranches and homes, and to give them an opportunity to display their hard work.”

Four days of shows on Sawyer Loop

The 2026 fair opened with a shooting sports contest at 7:30 on the morning of Saturday, July 18. A dog show and an archery contest filled Monday, July 20, and the results went up that night. Asher Renshaw took grand senior in archery with 515, and Claire Ramsey’s dog was named Top Dog. On Tuesday the open class and indoor exhibits were checked in and judged, and horse shows ran that afternoon and the next morning. The indoor project classes in the fairbook run alphabetically from aerospace to vet science, with cowboy poetry, leathercraft, clowning, small engines, range management, tractor, and a class called “horseless horse” in between.

By Thursday the weigh-ins were done. The fair thanked its “weigh-in crew” of volunteers and superintendents and reported that the animals were “ready for a full weekend of shows.” Rabbits and poultry went before the judges at 8:00 that morning, then goats and sheep in the afternoon and a beef futurity show at 5:30. At 6:30 came the animal and exhibitor costume contest, in which exhibitors dress up alongside their animals. Friday was given to swine, breeding and market beef, and the bucket calf class. The fair praised “all the kiddos who bottle fed their calves and worked with them for fair.”

The forecast for Friday and Saturday called for extreme heat, so the fair moved every animal show up an hour. Swine conformation began at 7:00 on Friday morning. Saturday brought swine showmanship, then a pee wee pet parade for children five to eight, a first responders’ “Touch a Truck,” and a cornhole tournament. An ice cream social was held under the grandstands to mark America’s 250th. Beef showmanship and a round robin showmanship contest filled the afternoon. On Sunday, July 26, a country church service was held at 9:00, a buyers’ lunch at noon, and the project animal sale at 1:30. That morning the fair posted, “These kids have worked so hard for this day.”

J&D Meats ran the concessions. Monday through Wednesday it served lunch only. From Thursday through Saturday it served three meals, with breakfast from 6:00 a.m., and a different lunch special each day: soft tacos on Thursday, sloppy joes on Friday, and a spaghetti bake on Saturday. Sunday was breakfast only.

The fair is run by a roster of volunteer superintendents, one for each kind of animal, under fair superintendent Wailes Allen. The county extension agents and Paul Wagenaar of the fairgrounds work with them.

Relays, rough stock, and the runway dance

Relay teams use the track for practice through the week. In 2026 they practiced Wednesday evening, Thursday and Friday mornings, and Saturday from the end of rodeo slack until noon, and the fair asked anyone else to stay off the track at those hours. The slack itself, the early rodeo runs held Saturday at 8:00 a.m., was free to watch. The youngest riders try mutton-busting. Eleanor Guerrero, writing in the Big Horn County News after the 2026 Stampede, reported that “the adult riders provided great excitement whether bronco busting or setting speed records in the relay, and the kids gave everyone laughs.”

The Stampede joined the PRCA in 2017. Its official results for July 26 and 27, 2024, show what a night there holds. Cade Costello won the saddle bronc riding with 86 points on J Bar J’s Soul Lunatic Paint. Will Norstrom won the bareback with 84 on I’m Special. Gunner Plenty and Caleb Guardipee won the team roping in 5.5 seconds. Only two bull riders made qualified rides. Randy Taylor announced, and Scott Cameron worked as clown and barrelman. The total payoff came to $35,367.

After the Saturday rodeo comes the Two-Step on the Tarmac, a free dance held on the old runway. In 2026 the band was Exit 53, a country and classic rock group: Landa on vocals, Gary on guitar, and Gale and Tyson keeping the beat. The fair’s website says the band has played together “for over a decade.” Its Facebook page says “over 15 years,” and adds that the band has opened and closed for Tracy Byrd, Rodney Atkins, Lonestar, and David Lee Murphy. The website’s line for the evening: “It doesn’t get much better than a small town Saturday night!”

A fair on the downtown streets, 1925 and 1926

In September 1925 the county fair ran through the middle of Hardin. The Hardin Tribune reported that the agricultural exhibits went into the south room of the Lammers Block, on the corner north of the post office. Foot races were run each day on Center Avenue, and the rodeo and horse races were held south of the railroad tracks, below the depot. J. M. Walker, chairman of the agriculture committee, spent weeks collecting grain and grass samples. He asked farmers for half-bushel samples of rye, speltz, and wheat, and for potatoes of 10 to 12 ounces, free of scab. “This is a free show for all,” Walker told the paper, “and we want everybody to take part.” The program listed a fat men’s race, a fat women’s race, a wheelbarrow race, a tug of war, a greased pole, and a pie-eating contest. Charles Ruzicka, county agent at Billings, judged livestock and grains. James Rennie of Sheridan, Wyoming, judged poultry.

The Tribune of September 11, 1925, covered the three days. Rain sprinkled on Thursday, and the last day was clear. Between 2,000 and 3,000 people came from Big Horn and neighboring counties, and the crowd grew each day. Dances were held every night in two of the town’s large halls, and there was Indian dancing on the pavement. Many visitors took rides in the airplane of the Wyoming Airways, which “did a rushing business.” Prof. W. J. Denman’s Hardin school boys band played on the streets and at the rodeo. The Third Ward won the indoor baseball tournament.

The rodeo was put on by Col. William B. Hoerr. A large number of Indians came with strings of race horses, and the paper ranked the events with those of the big roundups. Hoerr supplied two beeves for the Indians in attendance during the three-day show. There was a 700-yard Crow Indian Derby. Tom Big Lake won the first day’s relay race, and Max Big Man won the second. In the exhibit hall, the Tribune noted that Indian growers had the best wheat and oats at the fair. Mike Blackhair of Hardin took the potato sweepstakes in the Indian department. On the last day, after thousands of keys had failed in a mystery lock at the Hardin Motor Company, Roy Wakely tried his and won. He put the value of the prize Ford toward the new Ford truck he had just bought. The best exhibits went on to the Midland Empire fair at Billings the following week. Hardin, the paper said, was “practically deserted” while everyone who could get away went to see them.

The Tribune of September 17, 1926, called that year’s fair the “second annual.” Its 1925 headline had judged the 1925 fair “far above any ever held in years previous.” Rain postponed the 1926 fair by a day, and only one of its three days had good weather. Even so, between 2,500 and 3,000 people passed through the gates, nearly half of them on the second day. Esther M. Kelley, the fair secretary, expected a slight balance to remain in the treasury once the bills were paid. The livestock show was small. It included ten head of Percherons and a Shire stallion shown by J. W. Cunningham of Tullock. George Pitman’s name appears again and again in the rodeo results, for fancy roping and trick riding. The paper’s verdict: “Everybody appeared to be well satisfied.”