Carbon County Fair

The parade and the hill at Spruce and Harshman

The fair opens downtown. At 10 a.m. on Saturday, August 1, 2026, the parade stepped off in front of the Wyoming Frontier Prison Museum. Riders on horseback went through the streets of downtown Rawlins, a vintage firetruck joined in, and marchers, as the Saratoga Sun’s photographer recorded, braved the heat. One wagon carried the year 1926. The theme that summer was “Through the Decades: 100 Years of Carbon County Fair & Rodeo.” The Carbon County Fair Association counted it as the 100th annual fair.

The rest of the week happens at the fairgrounds, a block bounded by East Spruce and Daley streets and by Harshman and Rodeo streets. The fair office directs travelers down Spruce to the corner of Harshman, where the grounds sit “on your left at the bottom of the hill,” and in through the Harshman Street gate. Inside are a Large Arena with grandstands, a building called the MultiPlex, East and West exhibit halls, an East Lawn Pavillion, a midway, and barns for swine, sheep and goats, steers, and small animals. Opening day began with a Lion’s Club breakfast at 7 a.m. in the Jeffery Center. A car show followed at noon, and at 1 p.m. the Smooth Operator Excavator Contest ran in the Large Arena.

Rabbits in costume, pie on the stage

Most of the week belongs to the county’s 4-H and FFA members. The association calls the fair its “chance to spotlight the incredible youth of Carbon County.” A young exhibitor must live in the county or attend school there. Through the 2026 week the shows moved from one species to the next:

• dog showmanship and agility
• rabbits and poultry on the East Lawn Pavillion
• cats in the West Exhibit Hall
• dairy goats and pack goats
• sheep and meat goats
• swine
• beef
• a pocket pet show on the fair office lawn

The rabbit show had a dress-up portion. Orin Christen came as the scarecrow to his bunny’s lion, and Zoey Vallot stood as Dorothy behind hers. Owen Ervin cuddled his show bunny, and Blake Miller inspected his rabbit’s ribbon. At the cat show Sutton Lucero showed off her Queen Bee. Alaina McNees was photographed with the Best in Show winner, Goose. On Monday, August 3, Riata Withers cleared a jump in the working ranch horse competition.

The exhibit hall was open to the public from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the full fair days. At 1 p.m. its stage held the judging of the shoot-out contests: pie on Tuesday, cake on Wednesday, and chili on Thursday. The Home Brew Shoot Out came at 3 p.m. that same Thursday. Monday brought Energy Day on the midway and, in the evening, a lawn dance with Travis Blaylock on the East Lawn Pavillion. Dummy roping went on all week on the fair office lawn, with the finals in front of the grandstands on Thursday evening. The Rawlins Times reported aisles of food trucks.

Rodeo nights, a concert, a sale, and the derby

Evenings belong to the Large Arena. County roping came on Sunday, August 2, and a ranch rodeo on Tuesday. On Wednesday the PRCA rodeo ran its slack at 9 a.m. and its main performance at 7 p.m., drawing cowboys and cowgirls from across the Rocky Mountain Region in rough stock and timed events. The fair’s rodeo page lists the events as bull riding, barrel racing, team roping, bronc riding, and more. Mutton bustin’ took place the same night, and children signed up at the arena that evening.

Thursday’s concert came through a partnership with HF Sinclair and Discover Carbon County. Kenny and Ivy Raymond opened, followed by Kaspen Haley and the Boxelder Stomp, and Mark Wills headlined. The fair’s own announcement called him “a classic, with many hits you will all enjoy!!” The Carbon County Stockgrowers held a social in the MultiPlex earlier that evening, and a 4-H dance followed there.

On Friday at noon the Buyer’s Luncheon was laid under the grandstands, served by the LSRV FFA and the Savery Savers 4-H. At 1 p.m. the Junior Livestock Sale began in the MultiPlex. The association describes it as a chance “to support local youth and purchase high-quality animals for your freezer.”

The Carbon County Khaos Demolition Derby closed the week at 5 p.m. on Saturday, August 8. The association says it “fills the grandstands every year.” On derby morning the fair office posted its notes. Both west gates on Rodeo Street would stay locked, and no coolers were allowed. Anyone wanting an adult beverage was sent to the Beer Shack under the grandstands. The post ended: “Have fun tonight, and make good choices!”

The grounds stay in use after the fair. A new horse barn and livestock pens take traveling animals overnight. “Call the Fair Office,” the association writes, “we’ll leave the light on for you.” In September 2026 the Wyoming Junior High and High School Rodeo associations held a weekend there. Its Sunday began with Cowboy Church before the rodeo.

From a race track in Saratoga

The fair’s count of 100 runs back to 1926, the year the parade wagon carried and the Saratoga Sun captioned as the one that “hosted the first fair in Carbon County.” Dick Perue, writing in the Wyoming Livestock Roundup in 2023, tells a longer story. In his account the fairgrounds were established in Saratoga in the spring of 1908, and the first fair was held that fall. Articles of incorporation filed that year set out to “establish and maintain parks, grounds and race courses, for the trial of speed, development and training of horses and to offer award premiums.” A second purpose was the exhibition of “all kinds of livestock, agricultural, mechanical and mineral products.”

In 1910 the local weekly reported that the track on the fairgrounds east of Saratoga had been surveyed and leveled. The first payment of $750 had been made on a 40-acre tract. Perue also tells of an opening day that began cloudy and threatening. Rain set in about 10 a.m. and lasted until 1 p.m., and everyone believed the day would be spoiled. The clouds broke about 1:30, and the first race went off at 1:30 sharp. It was a running race for Carbon County horses only, with a five-dollar entrance fee and purses of $75 and $25. Don McPhail’s Mercadal won in 55 and one-fourth seconds, with English Lass second.

After 1916 the fair stopped for a period Perue calls “unexplained,” lasting until 1926. On September 15, 1927, the paper announced that the Local Dairy Association would sponsor a Platte Valley Fair on October 8. The exhibit hall, cow barns, and other buildings would come back into use after standing “idle and deserted” since the last county fair. The fair ran in Saratoga in 1927 and 1928 and moved to Rawlins in 1929, where it has stayed. Perue writes that the first Rawlins fair was a social affair with a small showing. In 1930 the county paid for fair buildings in Rawlins, which, he writes, “undoubtedly increased the size and scope of the fair.”

The fair paused again during World War II. In 1945 it was held in Rawlins August 29 to 31 as the Annual County 4-H Fair, under County Agent Nels Dahlquist. The owner of the grand champion fat calf received $25, and so did the top local clothing project winner.