Cochise County Fair

Each September the Cochise County Fair fills the fairgrounds on Leslie Canyon Road, just north of Douglas. The 2026 fair, the 102nd, ran September 24 through 27 under the theme “Country Nights, Carnival Lights.” Gates opened at ten in the morning Thursday through Saturday and at noon on Sunday, and stayed open until midnight on Friday and Saturday. Admission was $5, and children five and younger got in free. Each day a dollar gate honored one group, ID required: seniors 62 and older on Thursday, students on Friday, military on Saturday, and first responders on Sunday.

Barns, midway, and arena

The animals arrive first. On the Wednesday before the 2026 fair, junior exhibitors checked small and large stock into the barns, and goats, lambs, beef, and swine were weighed in. Thursday morning brought small stock showmanship and breed judging. The afternoon ran through dairy cattle, beef builders, breeding beef, breeding sheep, breeding meat goats, and pygmy goats, and the breeding swine and market hog shows began at five. Friday opened at eight with dairy goats and pack goats. Market beef followed through the morning, then meat goats, then sheep and market lambs, and a costume contest closed the day at 4:30. The carcass classes had been settled before the gates opened. Dr. Sam Garcia judged them, and the 2026 grand champions were Hagen Clemson for steer, Rhett Wade for hog, Easton Zamudio for lamb, and Kylee Gilbreth for goat.

Saturday is sale day. The Small Stock Auction began at nine, the Junior Livestock Buyer’s Luncheon followed at 11:30, and the Large Stock Auction started at one.

In the AG Building hang the open exhibits, which anyone may enter free for ribbons and premium money. They include garden and field produce, fine arts and crafts, photography, canning and preserves, sewing and needlework, and cut flowers. Outside, the carnival on the midway ran from eleven until close Thursday through Saturday and from noon on Sunday, with Sun Valley Rides holding a buddy-day promotion on the Thursday. There was live music, food, and vendors.

The arena held the intercollegiate rodeo. In 2026 it had a Friday performance at six, a Saturday morning slack at ten, and the final performance at six that evening, with the Cochise College team competing at home. Team roping followed on Sunday, September 27.

Sunday at the barns begins early. Cowboy Church met at 7:00 a.m., the Round Robin competition ran from eight until noon, and the awards ceremony was at one. The animals left the barns at five, and the packer trucks loaded at seven the next morning. The association named Bruce Whetten its 2026 honoree. He had covered the fair and much other county news for the local papers for decades, and, the association noted, “He also showed livestock here as a child.”

The hundredth fair, 2024

Whetten photographed the centennial fair in 2024. By his account in the Herald/Review it ran five days, from Wednesday, September 25, through Sunday, September 29. The county’s own calendar listed September 26 through 29. Nikki Valenzuela, the general manager, told KGUN 9, “100 years, it’s a big deal. I came my whole life, and now I get to put it on.” The fair counted more than 70 vendors that year and, for the centennial, brought back the fairground queens of earlier years. “People don’t realize how big it is,” Valenzuela said. “We need a bigger fairgrounds.”

Opening night had a catch-a-chicken event and a greased pig contest, and Julian Grijalva, 11, of Douglas, held up the pig he caught. Sunday belonged to the children in the arena. Juan Barrios, 6, of Douglas, hugged a lamb before the mutton busting, in which children ride sheep and try to stay on as long as possible, and Christian Franco hung on. Zaydee Hurtado, 8, found, in Whetten’s words, “a new way to dismount her calf.” Valenzuela’s son Fabian rode his steer the required eight seconds and was promptly thrown. In the Power Wheels Demolition Derby, Luis Sanchez, 6, of Douglas, crashed into Austin Munoz, 5, of Tucson. Isabella Rojas, 5, buried herself in the corn pit.

In the commercial building, Douglas fire chief Kevin Lomeli and Brian Ernest worked a table. Heide Sainz of Douglas, who had opened a store called Hats by Hedi five months before, waited on customers. On Sunday the Douglas Sandlot Sisters traveling softball team gave Valenzuela a vase of flowers. Kody Zentai, president of the Cochise County Fair Association, said the Friday and Saturday evening crowds were the largest she had seen in years, and early numbers pointed to another record attendance year.

From Tombstone to Leslie Canyon Road

The association traces the county’s fair back to Tombstone. There, on Dec. 5, 1887, before Arizona became a state, the first county fair association formed. The present association formed in 1924. It is a privately owned non-profit, sanctioned by the State of Arizona and Cochise County to host the annual fair. Its stated mission is to promote the people and products of the county by giving a venue to “their cultural heritage, economic possibilities, and the educational achievements and projects of our citizens.” In 2017 The Tombstone News described a volunteer board of directors and funding from the state’s Livestock and Agricultural Promotion Fund, together with proceeds from events and facility rental. The paper added that the Board of Supervisors had co-hosted the fair in recent years and that it drew thousands of visitors from across the county and northern Mexico. Between fairs the grounds hold occasional rodeos, ropings, and horse races.

Each fair carries a theme. The 93rd, in 2017, was “The Best Four Days of Fall.” It was dedicated to Tony Strongin, husband of the fairgrounds manager, Karen Strongin, and it had a magician on stage, a clown strolling the grounds, and a 4-H dog show at eight on Saturday morning. The 95th, in 2019, took its theme from Joshua Givens of Huachuca City School: “Cochise County May be a Square, but Not Our County Fair!”

A power plant and a canning prize, 1940

An earlier fair survives in the spring/summer 2012 Cochise County Historical Journal. That issue was given over to Double Adobe, a farming community in the lower Sulphur Springs Valley nine miles north of the Mexican border. Margaret (Downs) Bemis had found the old Double Adobe Farm Bureau minutes from the 1940s. On Oct. 19–20, 1940, the Cochise County Fair was held on the REA plant grounds together with the dedication of the power plant and its transmission lines. The fair-association president, Mr. Graves, and the plant superintendent, M. M. Bennett, shared charge of the exhibit space. Mrs. E. C. Hill announced that the women’s clubs would run the sandwich and soda-pop concessions. Otto Utke led the Douglas High School band in a Saturday-afternoon concert. Mrs. Frank Murphy sat on the dance committee for Double Adobe and Mrs. Walter Neel for Frontier.

The two communities sent a joint agricultural and floricultural display, put up by Cecil Wooldridge, Frank Murphy, Lon McBride, and Mrs. Jack Waters. In November 1940 the Farm Bureau heard that it had taken second prize. Barbara Porter won five county-fair canning awards and was rated second in the county in canning.