Colfax County Fair & Rodeo

A Friday in July on Airport Road

At eight o’clock on the morning of Friday, July 24, 2026, the lamb and goat shows began at the Colfax County Fairgrounds, 16 Airport Road, Springer. The cattle show and the round robin followed at 1 p.m. The Indoor Exhibit Hall stood open from 9:30 in the morning until 7 at night. The ranch rodeo started at 7, and from 8 until 11 DJ Noby played a dance at $5 a person. The fair’s post that morning called it a “Full day at the 82nd Colfax County Fair & Rodeo!” and signed off, “To the Fair, and Beyond!”

The fair is a non-profit, run by the Colfax County Fair Association. By its own description it hosts residents of Colfax County and the surrounding area, along with the county’s 4-H’ers and FFA members. In 2026 the week opened with the Youth Open Horse Show on the evening of July 22. The next evening the fair invited the public to “watch our County’s 4-Her’s show their Hog Livestock Projects.” Rising A Photography worked the barns and arenas all week. The fair later guessed there were “thousands and thousands of pictures to go through” before the steer, lamb, and goat galleries were done.

The Friday dance was announced for the Exhibit Hall. A clip the fair posted once the music had started placed it in the “CCF big red barn.” Earlier that evening the ranch rodeo had drawn what the fair called “another great turn out.” The fair thanked Clay Armstrong and his crew, TA Rodeo, and Ky and Elaine Brownlee, and the winners rode for donated buckles and prizes.

On Saturday morning, before the sale, the fair honored the 4-H seniors who had graduated from high school that spring: Justin Arko, Alannah Roybal, Olivia Burton, Cyress Chance, and Chiara Martinez. The round robin showmanship playoff, which tops the junior livestock program, went to Reagan Doherty in the senior division and Joseph Lopez in the junior. The Colfax County Fair Association named a top herdsman for each species: Alex Lopez for swine, Natalee Atler for lamb, Autumn Rae Myers for goat, and Olivia Burton for beef.

The sale in the Miller-Lark Pavilion

The Junior Livestock Sale was held on Saturday, July 25, in the Miller-Lark Pavilion. Fifty-six animals sold, and KRTN radio of Raton reported that together they brought some $323,000 before add-ons. Alannah Roybal led the sale. She had raised both the Grand Champion Market Beef and the Grand Champion Market Swine, which KRTN called “a rare double.” She chose to take her steer on to the New Mexico State Fair. Auctioneer Joe Boulware worked the bidding on it up to $12,225 for a scholarship, the biggest price of the day. Her hog brought $7,500, the top for swine.

Adeline Yates raised both the grand and reserve grand champion market goats, and each sold for $4,500. Reagan Doherty’s grand champion market sheep fetched $6,500, and Margarita Weir’s reserve lamb drew a bid of $4,500. Beau Dixon raised the reserve grand champion market steer and was also bound for the State Fair. A separate class goes to beef bred and raised in Colfax County. Its grand champion, raised by Madison Blakney, brought $11,500, and the reserve went to Braxton Doherty.

The fair crowned its royalty for 2026–27 the same weekend. Christina Sneed was named Fair Queen, Hannah Airington Fair Princess, and Nova Brogley Little Miss. Leslie Blakney presented the fair’s Woman of the Year award to Kathy Spargo. Trina Davis presented the Silver Spur Cowbelles’ Man of the Year award to Corky Fernandez.

Quilts and buckles in the Exhibit Hall

Across the grounds, the Exhibit Hall held the quilt show, the open indoor exhibits, and the 4-H indoor exhibits for most of the week. On Saturday it stayed open from 9 in the morning until 6. Beverly Mark’s “1/2 Square Triangles” took Best of Show among individual quilts. Sara Kowalski and Becky Hoxseng won Best of Show among professionally quilted entries with “Pick Your Side #2.” Their “Pick Your Side #1” was one of two Judge’s Choice ribbons; the other went to Pat and Kathy French for “Luminary.” Nancy McGlothin’s “Hello Honey” was named Best Machine Applique.

High-point buckles for 4-H indoor work went to Natalee Atler in the senior division, Scarlett Mayer in the junior, and Jayden George in the novice. The fair ran ahead of schedule, and the exhibits were ready for pickup on Sunday morning, July 26.

The next day, July 27, the fairgrounds took in animals of another kind. With fire near Miami, the fair posted that the grounds were “open to evacuate livestock and horses to during the fire.” Owners were to care for their own animals in the pens and to hang a sign with their name and number, “so the Fair Board and Livestock Inspectors will know what animals belong to whom.”

Blue jeans and green chili cheeseburgers, 2017

The fair has not always fallen in late July. KRTN listed the 2015 fair for August 3 through 9 and billed it as the 72nd year of the Colfax County Fair. That week offered a 4-H and FFA livestock show, barbecue, rodeo and dance, a junior livestock sale, a parade, and indoor exhibits, with a printed Fair Book of events left at local businesses.

The World Journal’s Sherry Goodyear wrote that the 2017 fair “may have been one of the busiest so far” for Springer. The Springer High School classes of 1967, 1977, and 1987 held reunions that week. The fair also held princess and queen contests, a pet show, rodeos, mud volleyball, and working dog trials. Vendors sold funnel cake, walking tacos, and green chili cheeseburgers.

The parade went off on Saturday, August 12, despite a cloudy start, under the theme “Blue Jeans and Country Dreams.” Gabriella Hernandez won the individual kiddie contest. Among the civic entries, Robert Chavez and the Assembly of God Church took first, ahead of the classes of 1967 and 1987. Third in the non-profit category went to Diego Maestas, the USA Track and Field National Junior Olympic javelin champion. The Broken Arrow Motel won the commercial class. The Springer Housing Authority took both first among non-profits and the “Best of the Parade” award.

Across town at Museum Park, the Road Runner Car Club’s annual show put more than thirty cars from around the state on the lawn. Up at the fairgrounds, people lined up for the annual barbecue luncheon while the rodeo and the mud volleyball got under way. The day closed with the livestock auction and then a dance to live music by CappTonReid. “Saturday’s events alone were enough to exhaust the most robust soul,” Goodyear wrote.

A private livestock show in 2020

Three years later most of that was gone. In July 2020 the World Journal’s Sharon Niederman reported that the fair would still run August 3 through 9 in Springer, without its rodeo, parade, or barbecue. The 4-H livestock show on August 7 was limited to participants and their immediate families. “It will be a private event,” said Christy Rubio, chairman of the livestock show committee. Not even grandparents would attend.

The fair accepted only 4-H indoor exhibits that year, and they were judged virtually. In Niederman’s words, “Whether the entry is chocolate chip cookies or the lives of critters, photos and, where relevant, recordings, will have to suffice.” Results went up on the fair’s Facebook page beginning August 5, with one picture of each project. A possible auction, perhaps at the Clayton Sale Barn after the fair, was still being worked out.

The World Journal called that year’s event the 76th annual Colfax County 4-H Fair. It reported that the slimmed-down fair was held the first weekend in August and that masks covered the competitors’ smiles “but could not stop” them. D’Laney Petrini, 15, of Raton, won Reserve Champion Senior Swine Showman. Aubrey Jespersen showed the grand champion breeding heifer. Breylin Rubio, 11, of Maxwell, won grand champion with his market steer and was photographed shaking the hand of judge Jason Miller.