Bigfork Fourth of July

At noon on the Fourth of July, members of the military lead the parade into downtown Bigfork. They stop in front of the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts to present the colors while the National Anthem is sung. By then the village has been closed to cars for four hours. No vehicles are allowed downtown after 8 a.m. on the Fourth, and most spectators arrive by a free shuttle that runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. out of a field at the intersection of Highways 35 and 82. That field is the only pickup point. Food trucks open in the downtown parking lot at 10 a.m., and the Fetveit Brothers play there through the morning and on after the last float has passed. A few handicap spaces are kept at First Interstate Bank and must be reserved ahead with the Chamber.

The Bigfork Area Chamber of Commerce organizes the parade, and volunteers staff it. Residents serve as route marshals and parking attendants, watch over float staging, and clean the streets afterward. Rebekah King, the Chamber’s executive director, advised visitors for the 2026 parade to be on the ground before 11 a.m. She said that anyone boarding a shuttle after that hour was likely to miss the parade.

From the firehouse to Bridge Street

The procession forms at the Bigfork Fire Department and travels down Grand Drive. It turns right onto Electric Avenue and passes through the center of the village. Once through town, the floats leave by Bridge Street, cross the bridge, and head out onto Highway 35 or 209.

Judges look the floats over in the lineup before the start. They score four things. Originality covers design and concept. Craftsmanship covers the quality and complexity of the workmanship. Entertainment Value is the float’s “wow factor,” meaning color, sound, motion, and the costumes of the people riding, walking, or dancing alongside. Interpretation of the Theme is the fourth. A separate category is judged for classic cars.

Nothing may be thrown into the crowd. Walkers beside a float can hand items out or toss them gently toward spectators’ feet. Confetti and confetti cannons are banned because the Chamber says confetti leaves lasting litter in the village. Animals and livestock come after all the floats. The Flathead Lake Lodge firetruck always closes the parade. A Daily Inter Lake photograph shows the Budweiser Clydesdales on the route on July 4, 2017. A Flathead Beacon file photo shows Ed Rothfuss leading his donkey through downtown.

The Chamber calls the event non-partisan, and its rules have tightened. For 2024, political candidates could take part with respectful campaign signage only, limited to name, seat, and party, and they could not hand out printed material. By 2026, candidates, parties, and issue-based advocacy groups were barred from the parade in any capacity, along with campaign signage, slogans, and clothing. Organizers may remove any person or float they judge political or offensive.

American Eras, 2026

The 2026 parade fell on a Saturday. Its theme was American Eras, marking 250 years of independence and 125 years since the platting of Bigfork. The Daily Inter Lake recounted the second date. On May 17, 1901, Everit L. Sliter filed the official plat for the settlement he named Bigfork.

The grand marshals were Don and Jude Thomson. The Daily Inter Lake described them as the driving forces behind the Bigfork Summer Playhouse for more than 60 years, a program that over the decades has brought hundreds of people into the village each night. King said the Chamber board looks for people who have made an impact on Bigfork to fill the role.

Two years earlier the grand marshal was Gretchen Gates of Eva Gates Preservers. That year’s theme, “Preserving” Bigfork Traditions, honored the company’s 75th anniversary.

The 2026 schedule placed the colors and anthem at about 12:15 p.m., followed by a flyover by the 120th Airlift Wing of Great Falls. More than 4,000 people were expected. The Chamber had planned to hire paid security along the route, and when that plan fell through, the Somers Fire Department came across to fill in. “They’re coming over to help us, which is pretty cool,” King said. “They’re taking time out of their holiday to help with our parade.”

King put her concerns for the day plainly: “My two biggest things this year are people coming early — and that cannot be emphasized enough — and people showing grace and kindness.”

A photograph on Electric Avenue

The Daily Inter Lake wrote in 2026 that the parade “has marched down Electric Avenue for as long as anyone can remember.” According to King, the earliest known photographs of it date to 1924. Since then it has grown to draw thousands from across the Flathead Valley. In 2020 the Bigfork Eagle reported that it routinely brought 3,000 to 5,000 people into town and had repeatedly been voted the best parade in the valley.

One early image, from the collection of Denny Kellogg, looks south along Electric Avenue as the community gathers for a Fourth of July parade in the 1930s. It belongs to the Bigfork History Project. Ed Gillenwater, Kellogg, and others began that project with a documentary in 2017, gathering more than 50 hours of interviews and nearly 1,000 photographs. “We saw that a lot of the history was going away and the community was losing that,” Gillenwater told the Flathead Beacon in 2020.

Two parades and a closed bridge

In June 2020 the Chamber called the parade off. Montana’s Phase 2 reopening guidelines then permitted gatherings of no more than 50 people. The six-person parade committee reached the decision unanimously, with the board’s support. Members had considered a small parade on private property with a livestream, or a route through outlying neighborhoods, before settling on cancellation. “There is no way that we can control people in and out of town and adhere to social distancing guidelines,” King said.

The Bigfork Summer Rodeo, a ticketed event with seating, went ahead that weekend. King asked downtown businesses to “paint Bigfork red, white and blue.”

Some locals organized a parade of their own. Zack Wenzel and Brian Truckey worked with agencies in Flathead and Lake counties. Truckey explained why the route moved out of town: “We wanted to keep it in Bigfork, but they wouldn’t let us close Highway 35, so it was too big of a highway to shut down, so the only one that we could get permission was Highway 209 because of all the alternate routes.” That parade started at noon at the Ferndale Fire Hall and ran down Highway 209 to the junction with Highway 83. Organizers expected 5,000 to 10,000 people and raised money for a local youth center.

The Chamber’s parade returned on July 4, 2021, with an essential-workers theme. Three years later, in 2024, Bigfork’s single-lane bridge was closed, and the parade was rearranged around it. Spectators were told to use the shuttle and not to park on Bridge Street and walk in, since no pedestrians were allowed on the bridge.