Broadwater County Fair

The Townsend Fairgrounds stand at 189 US Highway 12 East in Townsend. In the first full week of August they hold two events at once: the Broadwater County Fair and the Townsend Rodeo. The 2026 edition ran August 6 through 9 and was billed as the 63rd Annual Townsend Rodeo. The rodeo is a National Rodeo Association show held in conjunction with the fair. The weekend carries three kinds of rodeo: a kids rodeo, the NRA professional rodeo, and Townsend’s own local rodeo. The fair side runs to 4-H exhibits, an art and craft fair, food vendors, music, and entertainment for children.

The grounds have their own buildings. There is a 4-H Building, a Commercial Building, and a Roping Barn. In 2023 the Fair Board won a Graymont Carbon Reduction Fund grant to replace the 4-H Building’s heaters and furnace and to put LED fixtures in all three. That same spring, work began on a permanent 4-H Livestock Pavilion, open-sided. It replaced the tent that had sheltered the 4-H shows and sale for the three years before.

Two bodies divide the work. The county Fair Board and its fair manager, Jessica Erickson, run the fair and the grounds, and state plainly that they do not put on the rodeo. That job belongs to the volunteer board of the Broadwater Rodeo & Fair Association. The board’s August 2026 thank-you named Vince Thompson president and Wynn Meehan vice president, while the fairgrounds website lists the two the other way round. “The rodeo and the fair, all of it together, it’s all about family,” Jason Noyes, chairman of the county 4-H livestock committee, told KTVH.

Four nights at the strippin’ chute

KTVH reported a crowd of about 1,500 in the grandstands each night of the 2026 rodeo. Each evening opened with the national anthem. Lexie Davies sang it on several nights, and Lelia Booker-Burns sang it as well. A Billings Clinic Broadwater EMS crew stood ready through all four performances and through slack.

Below the grandstand, the Bird family works what the board calls the “strippin’ chute,” and the next generation of the family has joined them. They pull bronc saddles, bareback riggings, and bull ropes off the rough stock as it leaves the arena. Duck Creek Fire and David Plymale kept the roadways and warm-up area wet to hold down the dust. Townsend Wrestling ran the concession stand, selling breakfast, sandwiches, candy, and sodas. “August in Montana can be HOT,” the board wrote, “but holy smokes, it gets HOT in that concession stand!”

When the arena emptied each night, children from the Bulldogs and Beyond group pulled on gloves and took garbage sacks in and under the grandstands. Each morning, before most of the grounds were awake, the city sanitation crew emptied the cans: Eric Crusch, Chris Ahern, and Jake Wattenbarger.

The contestants run young. Cinch Neal, a 14-year-old saddle bronc rider, compared the Townsend show with another: “I rode in Helena last weekend. I’d say this one’s my favorite one. It’s really fun. It’s just like a better vibe. This one’s more Montana-like.” Robert Michael, a rodeo board director, watched both of his children ride in the kids rodeo. “The kids are gonna remember this,” he said, “and hopefully bring their kids 20 years later and just keep this event going.”

Western Days and the Sunday parade

On Sunday, August 9, 2026, the arena held the Broadwater Western Days Adult In-County Rodeo. Its events were tie-down roping, pole bending, old-timer’s team roping, the ribbon race, barrels, breakaway, open roping, and a cowhide race. The board president roped too: Tess Counts and Vince Thompson won the old-timer’s team roping. Ella Begger took the women’s all-around and Clint Begger the men’s, with Lauren Reiser and Roddy Cameron as reserves. Taylor Cartwright won the barrels. Coree Cartwright and Chad Hunter won the open roping, and Jada Begger and Jared Graveley placed fifth in it.

At noon the same Sunday, the Rodeo Parade went through the streets of Townsend, with floats, horses, vehicles, and animals. The Rotary Club of Townsend puts out the detour signs each year. Carla Ahern organized the 2026 parade, her first time in charge. Grand Marshal Kathy Toombs placed first among individuals. The Bozeman Satalites took the horse division, Rauser Durocs the commercial class, Jim Beck the antiques, and Honey Hive Academy the drill teams. The board signed off the weekend with “Ridin’, Rockin’ & Livestockin’.”

Trees, grandstands, and money in the trunk

In 2023 the Fair Board and Rodeo Board marked sixty years together. They put on a bigger kickoff concert on Wednesday, August 2, under the banner “Celebrate 60 Years of Tradition,” with Adam Doleac brought to Townsend.

The first year sits one generation back. Lisa Larson has worked on the rodeo for more than 40 years and now handles its public relations and advertising. Her mother was involved with the association and took part in the first rodeo in Townsend. “It takes a lot of people, a lot of people that love community and giving back,” Larson said. “Maybe one day my children or grandchildren will also be involved.”

Elaine Graveley belonged to the original group that planted the trees, painted the grandstands, and built the arena. She won the Montana Pro Rodeo Woman of the West award in 2021. She and her husband Bob were in the Montana Rodeo Association before it merged, prior to 1980, to become the National Rodeo Association. Before they sat on the board, they would load the horse trailers and round up the children to go from one Montana rodeo to the next. On one run they went from Hot Springs clear down to Bridger in a single day. “We would drive down the road with $60,000 to $80,000 worth of money in the trunk,” Bob Graveley said, “and thank god a lot of people didn’t know about it because we never lost a penny over 20 some years.” Elaine Graveley said of it: “I love the association, I love the cowboys, I love the stock, the tractors, it was a big part of our life, and would we do it all over it again? You bet.” Standing in the grandstands on a later night, she noticed that some of the young contestants had grandparents who once worked the rodeo and have since died.

Harry Cartwright, born in 1942, also helped build the rodeo grounds. For more than 17 years he worked to put on the Townsend Rodeo and others across the state. After the family ranch sold in 1977, he spent some time as a millwright at RY Timber. When he died in 2017, the reception after his service was held at the fairgrounds. His obituary names a great-granddaughter, Taylor, who ran barrels. A schoolmate, Gay Ann Masolo, wrote that she had ridden horses with him when they were young.

Her husband, Charles Robert “Bob” Masolo, served the Broadwater County Fair and Rodeo Association as director, president, and vice president. He could be found in the arena as a pick-up man or working up the ground with a tractor. For more than 15 years he produced Montana Team Roping Association jackpots on the grounds, each drawing over 1,000 teams a year. His grandson Leandro has competed in the Western Days rodeo. Masolo died June 27, 2025.

A building for seeing past legs

The Memorial Building began with a complaint. A rodeo club director brought his mother-in-law, who was handicapped, to the Townsend rodeo. She had to sit under the grandstands and complained bitterly that all she saw was other people’s legs. Jim Thompson heard the complaint and thought about the lack of any place where handicapped spectators could really see the rodeo. In 2004 he designed a building and took it to the rodeo club. Director Al Kimpton liked the idea, and so did Commissioner Steve McCullough.

The club gave a $3,500 budget, and Thompson helped build it. RY Timber supplied the lumber, and Vogl Construction put up the tin. His wife, Peggy, turned the triangle of ground beside the building into a garden. Thompson built a brick wall around it set with memorial plaques for rodeo fans who have died, sold at $100 each to pay for upkeep. Paul Vogl welded a horseshoe archway over the entrance. One plaque now honors Jim Thompson for his work on the park and the rodeo grounds.

In 2023 the couple had kept the Memorial Park for nearly twenty years. “The garden took a beating last winter and this spring the gophers ate the lilies,” Peggy Thompson said. “Maybe next year will be better.”