Cambridge Rodeo

The arena at the Washington County Fairgrounds in Cambridge has two sides, and the ground rules keep them apart. Spectators go to the grandstand side. Each contestant gets one companion pass, issued in August as a hand stamp. A companion who crosses to the bucking chutes and roping boxes is expected to dress to the Idaho Cowboys Association code for competitors. The ground is raked after every six barrel racers. Horses are watered from the spigots around the grounds and never from the hose by the bucking chutes.

The Cambridge Rodeo Association, which calls its working body the Cambridge Rodeo Board, keeps this arena for rodeo and other community use and puts on two rodeos in it each summer. The Hells Canyon Rodeo comes in June and also goes by Hells Canyon Weekend Rodeo and Bulls N Broncs. The Cambridge Classic Rodeo comes in August with the county fair. The board bills its show as the “Best Little Rodeo in Idaho!” and adds: “Come on home to small town Idaho at its finest!”

Bulls and broncs on Hells Canyon weekend

The June rodeo is one event among many on Hells Canyon weekend. Because the timeline is tight, the association tries not to hold slack. In 2026 the performances were set for June 5 at 7:30 p.m. and June 6 at noon, with 20 contestants in each performance for every timed event. Slack would follow the Friday performance only if both performances filled. Clark Rodeo Company furnished the stock.

Around the arena, the town filled. The Cambridge Commercial Club expected about 3,000 people for the weekend. The 2026 program opened Friday, June 5, with the Cambridge-Midvale-Goodrich Senior Center’s annual taco feed. On Saturday a community breakfast ran in the fairgrounds exhibit hall from 7 to 10 a.m. The Show & Shine car and truck show ran from 8 to 3 with an all-you-can-eat open pit beef barbecue. The club’s page numbers that show both the 30th and the 31st, and the rodeo flyer counts more than 200 entries. The Market lined both sides of Highway 95, the main street, rain or shine.

The rodeo association held its own open pit barbecue at the fairgrounds from 3 to 7 p.m., $15, children 7 and under free. At 6 p.m. the 8th annual Hells Canyon Jam started up, and the club’s notice promised, “We are dancing in the street!” A quilt show ran June 6 through 14 in the Cambridge High School gym. Tickets to every event were sold on a walk-up basis. The rodeo notice listed a beer garden, food vendors, free admission for children 6 and under, and one rule: “No Coolers, No Pets, No Exceptions.”

Fair week in August

The second rodeo falls in Washington County Fair week. In 2026 the performances ran July 31 and August 1, each at 8 p.m., sanctioned ICA Prime and co-approved by the NPRA. The pre-rodeo slack, the timed-event competition held the evening before, is dated two ways: the ICA flyer sets it for July 30 at 7:30 p.m., and Rodeos USA lists it for July 31 at 7. Clark Rodeo Company brought the stock again, Zack Zumstein announced, and TJ Schmidt Photography worked the arena. General admission was $15, children 7 and under free. Earlier editions ran August 2 and 3 in 2024 and August 1 and 2 in 2025.

Fair week also brings the local events. Children 4 to 7 enter mutton busting. Riders 7 to 17 enter steer riding, and riders 13 to 17 enter junior novice barrel racing. The 2023 local list also included novice barrel racing.

In 2026 the two rodeos were tied into a new series. Contestants who entered and competed in both rodeos were eligible for a series champion and a reserve champion in each standard event, decided by the most money won. Random prizes went to those who rode both rodeos without finishing first or second.

A roping for Jeff Springer, a marshal for Carol Turnbull

The August rodeo of 2023 fell on August 4 and 5. That year added the first annual Jeff Springer Memorial Team Roping, run Thursday evening and again during the Friday and Saturday performances. By 2026 entries for the roping were taken by telephone on a single evening, and ICA members were not eligible.

The board named Carol Turnbull grand marshal for 2024. “She has given so much to our community,” its press release said. “Carol is always active and contributing, but doesn’t ever seek any glory or recognition.”

The association claims a drill team as well. In a post dated September 2026 it congratulated “’our’ drill team, the Treasure Valley Leather Slappers,” on a first-place win at the Western Idaho Fair.

Eight hundred seats on the northwest end

Kim Royer takes the local entries for the August rodeo and serves as executive director of the Cambridge Western Heritage Foundation. On April 13, 2026, the Cambridge city council agenda listed her for a “Cambridge Rodeo Association Grandstand Project Update and Building Questions.” The foundation and the rodeo association together propose a new grandstand on the northwest end of the arena, about 130 feet wide and 34 feet deep. It would seat up to 800 on aluminum bleachers with hand rails, with front-row ADA seating reached by ramps and vendor space underneath.

Besides the two rodeos, the plan names the Washington County Fair Horse Show, high school rodeos, Rodeo Bible Camp, 4-H and FFA events, dances, and small concerts as uses for the new seats. The foundation’s list of current projects also includes padding for the bucking chutes, helmets and vests for children, a big screen replay system, and a stage for contestant awards. The grandstand roof is drawn as a shed sloping away from the arena, to give shade and weather protection without blocking the view of the arena.