Bonanza Days

At 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 25, 2026, the Bonanza Days parade came through downtown: decorated floats, antique tractors, classic automobiles, emergency vehicles, horseback riders, community organizations and local businesses. Leading it as grand marshal was Darryl Pomi, who, the Town of Bonanza wrote, “has been serving the town for many years.” Bonanza is a farming and ranching town of 465 in the Lost River Valley of Klamath County, 25 miles east of Klamath Falls on Oregon State Highway 70. It developed in the late 1800s at an old Modoc Indian site and was incorporated in 1901. The Herald and News reported in 2026 that crowds on Bonanza Days grow to many times the town’s population.

“Bonanza Days is our annual homecoming. It’s the weekend when former residents return, families gather in the park and visitors come to see the ‘Little Town that Does Big Things,’” town manager Cheri Stewart told the paper. The motto is the town’s own. The festival is put together almost entirely by volunteers, and admission is free.

Booths in Big Springs Park

Opening ceremonies follow at 11, and the day settles into Big Springs Park on Main Street. Owners from across Southern Oregon and Northern California park restored classic cars, trucks and antique vehicles for the Show and Shine. At the Homemade Hobby Festival, local artists and hobbyists lay out quilts, woodworking, photography and paintings. A pie and cobbler bake-off runs through the day, and so does a cornhole tournament. The Bonanza Volunteer Fire Department Association holds its First Responder Chili Cook Off, with tasting kits sold for $10. In 2025 the chili contest was billed as the Bonanza West Coast Oregon State Chili Cook-Off Championship, with six prizes of up to $1,000, and that year’s cornhole tournament was called the 26th annual. A band called Cheap Whiskey played a free set during the 2026 day.

Children get their own grounds: a free art festival with art tables, a children’s carnival, bounce houses, face painters, a foam party the town calls the Foam Explosion, and a balloon artist billed as Albert the Great. Chicken bingo is also on the park program. “We have old time carnival games using the same game booths that have been used for over 30 years complete with carnival prizes,” Mayor Ashlie Pence said in 2026. “We make a point to highlight our local groups.” Away from the park, yard sales run town-wide all Saturday.

Tri-tip for the Tyree scholarship

The evening belongs to the Betty Tyree Memorial Scholarship Fund, set up in memory of a longtime Bonanza community leader. It gives scholarships to graduating seniors at Bonanza High School. In 2026 a no-host bar opened at 4, with J’s Steakhouse pouring beer and wine. Dinner followed at 5: tri-tip, cheesy potatoes, southern green beans with bacon, rolls, and strawberry shortcake. Tickets were $20, or $300 for a reserved table for eight, sold ahead through Town Hall and at Soup to Nuts, a shop in town. On July 21, the last day of sales, the town posted that dinner tickets were still available.

At 6 the concert began. The 2026 performer was EllieMae Millenkamp, a country singer who competed on NBC’s The Voice as a member of Team Blake, backed by her full band. “My grandparents are from Bonanza and I love playing in small towns,” Millenkamp said. “I’m excited to play for Bonanza and hope people have a great time and can connect to some of my songs.”

The Lions Club carnival

In 2014 the town held two separate summer events. The first was the Bonanza Lions Club’s annual carnival on July 26. Lions member Bob Collom told the Herald and News it had been going on longer than the 25 years he had belonged to the club. That day began with yard sales at 7 a.m. and a fun run at 8:30. The parade started at 11, and the vendor booths opened at noon. At 12:30 the “cookshack” opened, serving $12 tri-tip meals along with hamburgers and hot dogs, and a horseshoe tournament began at 1. That year the club dropped its beer garden and added more games for children, including a water balloon throwing contest. “We’re trying to make it more family-oriented,” Collom said.

The second event came on August 23, 2014. It was the ninth annual festival run by the Town of Bonanza and the volunteer fire department, with an Oregon State Traditional Chili Cook-off, a Homestyle Chili Cook-Off, the Homemade Hobby Festival, the Big Springs Show and Shine Car Show and a Children’s Art Festival. By 2026 the parade, the carnival games, the chili and the car show all ran on a single Saturday under the town’s name.

A queen with 1,700 tickets

The 2014 carnival parade ran along Highway 70, the main drive through town. Sandy DeJong sat in a short chair beside the route, her grandchildren from the DeJong and Ramsier families waiting to grab candy. She and her husband, Bill, had moved to Bonanza on their honeymoon 43 years before, and her grandson Joel turned eight that Saturday. Asked why she came, she answered, “Tradition. Take a break from the dairy. It’s just a part of the history of this area. It’s fun. It’s a diversion from everyday work a world, farm life.”

Jim Lohn of the Bonanza Lions, which organized the carnival, gave his own count of the crowd: “It’s a pretty big event. Good grief, I’m gonna say we get 300 people at least. I like the people. I get a kick out of this. I do it every year.” Tami Dirk waited for her daughters, Whitnee, 16, and Baylee, 17, who rode on the float of the softball team that had gone to state. “A lot of people come from Klamath and Malin and Merrill,” she said.

The carnival queen and princesses won their titles by selling the most raffle tickets in town. The queen, 11-year-old Jaycie Schooler, sold 1,700. “Before I found out I was going to win, I was really nervous,” she said. “I just get to wave and throw candy. It’s basically, it kind of feels the same, just wearing a crown.” Princesses Alex Sharp, 12, and Kailyn Nichols, 11, said they enjoyed being the “center of attention” for the day.

Katie Schroeder, 13, rode in the parade carrying an American flag beside her friend Amber Vanhorn, also 13. Her mother, Sherry Schroeder, sat in the shade of a tree with her longtime friend Tracy Trenchard. “We parked at the school and she decorated her horse with her,” Schroeder said, pointing at Trenchard, “while I went yard saleing.”

“Yeah and I was supposed to go yard saleing with her,” Trenchard said. “She found these earrings and the matching necklace. And she didn’t buy me nothin’.”

“Tough patooties,” Schroeder said. “I love yard saleing.”