Byron Days

Byron Days opens on a Friday evening in July at Jones Park, on North Center Street in Byron, where a man lays down track and runs a small locomotive for children to ride. In 2026 the engineer was Curtis Abraham. Nearby, Carl Jones gave miniature pony and mule rides, and the waterslides ran against the heat.

The celebration fills a Friday and a Saturday. It is the second of three summer festivals in North Big Horn County: Lovell goes first, Byron follows, and Cowley Pioneer Day comes after. The Byron Days Committee is a nonprofit that funds and organizes the activities, and Rebecca Bates has chaired it. The 2026 edition, July 10 and 11, carried the theme “Legacy of Liberty” for the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Family night at Jones Park

Family Fun Night starts at 5 p.m. and is sponsored by the Byron Recreation Department. In 2026, two dollars a person bought access to everything: the train, the ponies, the waterslides, games and prizes. The food trucks open the same evening and stay through Saturday. Pam Hopkinson, who writes the Byron News column in the Lovell Chronicle, counted 16 food and drink vendors in 2026, the most the celebration had had.

The town’s 2025 list shows what the trucks serve. Sabor Mexicano had asada fries and elotes. Texas Twister poured its drink into a 32-ounce cup or a 46-ounce cowboy-boot cup. The Gravy Wagon had biscuits and sausage gravy, smothered spuds and tri-tip sandwiches. Topp Dawg sold locally made brats, Haley’s Concessions sold fresh-squeezed lemonade, limeade and caramel popcorn, and Country Grill sold a donut burger. There was also funnel cake with fried Oreos, sushi from CRaV Custom Sushi, and shave ice.

After the family hours comes a teen dance for ages 13 to 18. In 2026 it ran from 9 p.m. to midnight for $5, with Mike Bernard as DJ. The food trucks stayed open.

Floats on Main Street

Saturday begins at 7 a.m. with the color fun run, a 5K or a one-mile course starting from Jones Park. In 2024 and 2025 the route headed north on Road 5 out of Byron. Hopkinson’s advice for the 2026 run was to “wear your white T-shirt if you want to end up with the tie dye look.” Entry was $5 that year and free for children under 8. In the two years before, it had cost nothing, and Brandon and Serena Hessenthaler organized it. In 2024 runners were asked to come dressed in clothes from their favorite decade.

At 9 a.m. the floats line up on North Mountain View and the classic cars on South Mountain View. At 10 the parade comes down Main Street. Sherry Snell reported on the 2026 parade for the Chronicle. It started at 80 degrees and ended at 90, with 36 entries. Bates called it a “good turnout even though it was hot.”

A color guard and fire trucks led the parade. Behind them came the grand marshal, Elaine Abraham, who surprised the crowd by riding on the back of a motorcycle instead of in a car. The Reiminks family drove and rode the town truck as the Town of Byron float. On the Hopkinson Studio float, local artist Glen Hopkinson painted an eagle on canvas as it moved down Main Street. The Rocky Mountain cheer squad had a float of its own, and Snell took it as a reminder of the ties between Cowley and Byron. The Class of 1976 rode in remembrance of Tom Wolff, Larry McSharry and Elton Anderson. Queen Bee and the Zeller family marked their 50th anniversary with a float and handed out honey candy and honey sticks.

Dark E. Jones drove a 1950s-era truck flying a flag for each branch of the military. Troy and Trudy Cozzens came in their convertible. The Little Acres Farms float turned squirt guns on the crowd. Water bottles, honey candy and popsicles went fastest. Pam Hopkinson was the emcee, and Anna Anderson handed out sunscreen. Possibly the youngest spectator was Lakelyn Croft, born July 1, 2026, who slept through it.

Afternoon in the park, fireworks at dark

After the parade the crowd eats lunch at Jones Park. At 11 a.m. the park fills with the Market Place, which in 2026 was a selection of local artisans and makers open until 6 p.m. The same hour brings the classic car show, a cornhole tournament and a co-ed volleyball tournament for six-person teams. Natalie Collins has run the volleyball, and in 2024 and 2025 the Powell American Legion post organized the cornhole. In 2026 Bucky the one-man band played in the park, and Hopkinson wrote that the vendors stayed open “until way late.”

Saturday evening, Byron High School alumni gather at Town Hall for dinner. In 2024 the gathering was called a “Gathering of Eagles,” and classes ending in 4 were honored. The Byron Museum opens for the evening. Hopkinson recommends leafing through the old yearbooks there and points out a papier-mâché eagle head that was formed over a football helmet and worn by the school mascot at games for a few years. Reunion classes also ride the parade, “floating” down Main Street in her phrase.

In 2026 the Tinderwoods played the Carter Baseball Field from 8 p.m. until the fireworks, which go up at dark. Caleb and Joshua Sanders choreographed the show in 2024 and 2025. In 2025 they worked with their hobbyist group, Pyro Up Wyoming, and spectators could hear the show’s music on the Pyrocast app. Families reserve squares on the field. The town’s 2025 page sold a 24-by-24-foot section for $100 and said it seated “about 30 people.” The 2026 squares cost $125, held a maximum of 20, and sold out.

Napkin flowers, a hard winter, and an orange box

Hopkinson dates the celebrations to when “enough people settled our area and thought, ‘Hey, we should do a parade.’” At first, she writes, Lovell, Byron and Cowley celebrated together. She remembers stuffing chicken wire with colored napkins to look like the flowers of the Rose Parade. The more stuffers a float had, the faster the wire filled. She misses the satin, glitter and fancy floats.

The program changes from year to year. The 2024 theme was “Through the Decades.” That year the Friday food truck rally became the first Byron Food Truck War, with visitors voting by QR code on each truck. Town clerk Misty Turnupseed ran a Family Carnival, and a Family Dance followed. Saturday added a tug-of-war, the classic car show, and a first battle of the bands in which each band played 20 minutes. Former mayor Heidi Brightly was grand marshal. Smokin’ Aces played before the fireworks, and the Bulls and Bows 4-H Club served “hot dogs and hamburgers,” as Bates put it. The National Weather Service forecast 99 degrees for Friday and 102 for Saturday.

The 2025 celebration was called “Stronger Together.” In February of that year, shootings had killed four young girls and their mother. “This is in light of the sadness at the beginning of the year and trying to pull together as a community,” Bates said. At noon on the Friday, a sign was unveiled at Riverview Park in memory of the sisters Brailey and Olivia Blackmer and Jordan and Brooke Harshman. The food truck war was dropped that year, and the Family Carnival was renamed Family Fun Night. The teen dance came back in place of the Family Dance. The Wyoming Department of Transportation gave away 50 bike helmets, and children decorated them in the park.

The 2025 grand marshals were Dwain and Harriet Jackson, natives of Georgia who met auditioning for a community theater production of “Guys and Dolls.” Mayor Alan Clark came to their door to ask them. “We were totally surprised, not being natives,” Dwain said. They first came to Wyoming in ‘87, after Dwain’s oldest daughter enrolled at the University of Wyoming. In 1995 they decided to retire there. A house in Powell went under contract the afternoon their daughter went to see it, and she called to ask what they thought of Byron. “I said, ‘It’s in Wyoming, isn’t it?’” Dwain recalled. “So I guess Byron found us.” They bought a house in Byron that year and moved in in April 2000.

After the town hall was renovated, Harriet built the Byron Museum from scratch in a small room there, with Dwain as her “go-fer.” For the veterans display, residents lent their uniforms. “The uniforms are there, but the people are gone,” Harriet said. For years she typed and labeled the collection at home. “The only thing we had in that room was a small table and an orange box of stuff,” she said. “Eventually, the council decided we could do a little more. It evolved.”