Chouteau County Fair

At seven o’clock on the Thursday morning of the 2026 fair, the swine judging began between the Swine Barn and the Livestock Barn, five hours before the gates opened to the public. By eleven the sheep and goats were in the park area for judging and showmanship. This was the 114th Chouteau County Fair, held August 13 to 16 on the fairgrounds at Fort Benton, a town of 1,413 in a valley of the Missouri River, surrounded by high bluffs. The theme for 2026 was “Hands That Built America – For 250 Years.”

Barns, halls and the Chuckwagon

Most of the fair’s working hours belong to the barns. The 4-H Pig Barn holds swine in its main section, with rabbits and poultry in one wing during fair week. The 4-H Beef Barn, completed in 2005, holds cattle, sheep and goats. In 2026 the rabbit and poultry shows went on in the 4-H Building on Thursday afternoon, after a cat show. Friday morning belonged to beef judging and showmanship, followed by the heifer show and, in the afternoon, a dog show. On Saturday the young exhibitors met again for the Round Robin and a livestock judging contest. Turkey races ran every day at times the schedule listed only as “TBD.”

Indoors, the Education Building shows school projects and artwork by Chouteau County students, along with Family Living exhibits. The school art came from Big Sandy, Highwood, Geraldine, Fort Benton, Benton Lake, Mary’s Little Lambs and Meadow Lane Colony. The Floriculture Building shows flowers and grains grown in the county. Open Class, free and open to all ages, drew baking, quilting, photography, woodworking, ceramics and needlework, and on the last day the fair posted its People’s Choice award.

Meals come from the Chuckwagon, a full kitchen and dining hall where local clubs serve breakfast, lunch and dinner through fair week. Each 4-H club and FFA chapter works shifts there. The fair’s 2026 vendor list ran to about fifty indoor and outdoor booths and included Fat Kid’s Kettlecorn, Grindy’s Cheeseballs, JT’s Licorice, and Montana Scents, which sold wooden car air fresheners, mosquito repellent and fire starters. There is a beer garden, and a bingo building where games ran from noon to closing on the later days. The midway carries the mobile vendors, the inflatables and a gel blaster arena. On Thursday afternoon the Museum of the Rockies brought a presentation on dinosaurs and fossils. At the grandstands that evening there was free ice cream for the Chouteau County Cancer Support Group.

On Sunday, August 16, the young exhibitors sold their work. The Creative Trades Live Auction at one o’clock offered blue-ribbon sewing, knitting and woodworking. The Market Livestock Sale followed at two in the park area between the front entrances off 4th Street, with buyers bidding in person and online.

Three nights at the Pride of the Golden Triangle

Evenings move to the grandstand, called the Pride of the Golden Triangle. It faces the Gene Chapel Arena, a multipurpose ring laid out on what was the horse racing track. The stands hold 1,600: 1,000 in the upper deck, 250 in the lower, and 350 on newer bleachers.

The 2026 nights followed a fixed order. Thursday at six brought the Horsepower Battle, with mutton busting for children ages three to seven, steer riding, goat tail untying, and barrel races run on horses, ATVs, dirt bikes, push lawnmowers and riding lawnmowers. Friday at seven the Mountain West Pulling Nationals came to town for the truck and tractor pulls, with local pullers welcome alongside the professionals. Saturday at six was the demolition derby, opened by a Calcutta on the cars and put on by FOS Promotions. The Light Weld class paid $8,000 to the winner, and $1,000 went to a “Mad Dog.” The Central Montana tourism listing for the 2026 fair gave a different order, with pig wrestling Thursday, tractor pulls Saturday and the derby on Sunday. The fair’s own schedule held to the order above.

The grounds are kept between fairs by Victoria Kirby, operations and administrative manager; Vern Spaabeck, on maintenance; and Chris Stringham, groundskeeper. JC Lindeman chairs the fair board.

From Chinook to the Baker Opera House

The fair began elsewhere. On March 7, 1907, a Chouteau County Fair Commission was established with a $500 appropriation to the Milk River Fair & Racing Association, and from 1908 through 1911 the county fair was held at Chinook. On February 22, 1912, county residents voted to create Blaine and Hill counties, with Chinook and Havre as their seats. That left Chouteau County to start over. The Chouteau County Fair Association formed on August 26, 1912. Less than three weeks later, on September 13 and 14, the first fair in Fort Benton opened in the Chouteau County High School Armory and the Baker Opera House, where the Post Office now stands. The fair’s own list of past fairs numbers that one as zero.

On November 11, 1912, the association bought the present fairgrounds for $1,500. The fair and its horse races moved there September 11 to 13, 1913. In 1917 more than 5,000 people came, Governor Sam Stewart among them, and an airship made a special flight over the grounds. Two years later a severe drought cancelled most of the fair. The fair’s list of past dates also marks 1922 as cancelled. On May 4, 1927, the county commissioners re-established the Fair Commission, seating Ed. C. Fuller, Jacob Ritter, Vernon E. Lewis, Tracy Andrews and Nate H. Bovee and setting aside $2,000 for the county fair and the community fairs around the county.

The present grandstand was finished on August 9, 1930, two weeks before that year’s fair, and doubled the capacity of the old one. The Grandstand Exhibit Hall got its cement floor in 1936. The Education Building followed in 1938, and in 1939 three horse barns went up on the west side of the grounds. The local Red Cross chapter had built a building there about 1920.

Soldiers, racehorses and “Arabian Rhapsody”

In July 1943 about 1,000 soldiers of the 331st Air Supply Group, under Colonel Bodie, were quartered on the fairgrounds. In 1946 the racing came back with 200 horses on the grounds.

The River Press of August 28, 1957, set out that year’s fair in detail. It ran September 7 and 8, with a junior horse show on the Friday before under Bill Meeks, and halter classes Saturday morning under Marion Little of Geraldine. There was no outside gate charge. Rodeo seats cost $1.50 in the grandstand and 50 cents in the bleachers, and reserved loge seats down front for the night show went for $2. The rodeo paid purses in bareback and saddle bronc riding, calf roping, bulldogging and a girls’ cloverleaf race. Four races ran each afternoon from two o’clock. The night show, “Arabian Rhapsody,” came from Clarence Smith of Salt Lake City, who had supplied the fair’s evening program for the past ten years. It featured pole, balancing and tumbling acts with music, lighting and dancing girls at eight each evening, and fireworks after every performance. Norton’s carnival returned to the midway. Mrs. W. J. Shirley, in charge of the flower show, added a junior department so that young gardeners could show what they had grown.

The Floriculture Building and the original 4-H Beef Barn were approved on July 8, 1958. Through the 1970s and 1980s the Chouteau County Turf Club carried the fairgrounds, and the fair marked its 75th anniversary in 1987. Eugene “Gene” L. Chapel managed the grounds from 1990 until he died of a heart attack on October 10, 1997, and the main arena carries his name. Plans in 1999 and 2000 for a campground and a Missouri Breaks Interpretive Center drew controversy. The campground was approved and the interpretive center went looking for another site. In September 2001 the Canoe Launch Campground opened on the western part of the old racing track. The Chouteau County Fair Improvement Foundation was formed March 18, 2004. The grounds marked their centennial in 2012, and in 2019 the wooden bleachers were replaced with aluminum and steel. The fair’s own site sets the 115th fair for August 19–22, 2027.