Columbia County Fair

The Columbia County Fair begins with breakfast. In 2026, from 6 to 8 a.m. on Friday, September 11, the Columbia County Cattlemen/Livestock Association served pancakes, ham and fruit in the Youth Building, free with paid gate admission. At eight, west of the main grandstands, members of the Frank E. Bauers American Legion Post No. 42 raised the American flag and led the Pledge of Allegiance. The flagpoles were donated in 2024 by Barker, Inc. The 4-H and FFA flags went up beside it, with 4-H members reciting the 4-H Pledge and FFA members the FFA Creed. At a quarter past eight the 4-H and FFA livestock judging contest began.

The fair runs three days on the weekend following Labor Day weekend, at the county fairgrounds in Dayton. Dayton is the seat of Columbia County, in southeastern Washington, and Starbuck is the county’s other city. The Columbia County Fair Board runs the fair. Its members are appointed by the Board of Commissioners. In 2026 Matt Johnson was president, Tracy Hanger vice president and Donna Hanger secretary/treasurer. By the county’s account, the board depends on the volunteer efforts of 4-H’ers, their parents and leaders, and the citizens of the county.

Each fair has a theme, carried through the booths, contests and decorations. The 2026 theme was “Barnyard Luau.” Four Fair Hostesses welcomed visitors: Sophia Castillo, McKenna McCowen, Alexa Jones and Stella Pearson.

Sheep, bulls and a demolition derby

Through each day the Midway and stage carry Lessa Hoops, the Fun Man Band, Ledbetter Magic, Breeden Ventriloquist & 60s Rock and Roll, and Smiles the Clown. Shaelyn Jenkins does face painting around the KidZone and Old McDonald Farm. The long-time food vendors are the Dayton Lions Club, the Dayton Kiwanis Club and the Columbia County 4-H Clubs, among others. The beer garden opens at noon on Friday and Saturday and stays open until close.

Friday afternoon belongs to children and animals. The Mutt Show, a dog show for kids, starts at 4 p.m. in the Kid’s Zone. At five comes Mutton Bustin’, in which children ride sprinting sheep. The Dayton Chronicle called it the fan favorite and printed a photograph of a 2025 contestant “less than enamored at the prospect of taking a spill off of a sprinting sheep, but it ended like most.”

The one-night Jackpot Rodeo follows at 5:30. It runs through steer wrestling, ranch bronc riding, bull riding, chute doggin’, calf roping, team roping, breakaway roping and barrels. In 2026 Skylar McCann was scheduled to sing the National Anthem to open it. A few days before that fair, the board posted a notice of a time change for the rodeo without giving the new hour.

The ticket covers the night. “Your entry into the Fairgrounds includes whatever activity is happening that night,” the fair’s page explained in September 2026. “Fairgrounds entry equals demo derby entry!”

Saturday starts with a 7 a.m. breakfast in the Youth Building, served by donation to the Columbia County Marksmen 4-H Club. The day then fills with livestock showing. At 2 p.m. comes the Round Robin Competition, which pits the Grand Champions in Fitting and Showing of the various breeds against one another. At four, in the livestock barns, exhibitors dress their animals for the Livestock Costume Contest, which has special awards. At five the Demolition Derby starts in the arena.

Sunday in the Chicken Chapel

The Dayton FFA serves Sunday’s breakfast, with donations welcome. At 9 a.m. the Touchet Valley Ministerial Association holds the Church in the Chicken Chapel, a non-denominational service in the livestock barn that is open to all. The barns close at 11:30. At noon the Market Livestock Sale opens in the sale barn.

The horse show awards are presented at the sale as well. The horse show itself is held separately, on the Saturday and Sunday immediately before Labor Day weekend. In 2026 that was August 29 and 30.

At 2 p.m. the Fair Board puts on an Ice Cream Social. At 2:30, in the Outdoor Arena, children 10 and under run the Stick Horse Races.

The Farmer Olympics follow at three. The 2026 edition was the fourth. Farmers and townsfolk from around the county enter as teams of four, all 18 or older, and compete for cash prizes. In 2026 the teams were also judged on their outfits. The events include the Swine Showdown, Straw Shot Put, Holy Cow, Egged On, Get the Sheep to Sleep, Broken Buckets, Pie in the Sky, Rancher’s Relay and Barrel Races. The Chronicle listed the ingredients as “straw, eggs, mud, slippery piglets and cow chips–not necessarily in that order.”

Exhibits and decorations stay on display until 5:01 p.m. Sunday, and no livestock leaves the grounds before then.

The Pavilion and its booths

The Pavilion and the Youth Building are open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and until 5 p.m. on Sunday. The Pavilion holds the Open Class entries. They include baking and food preservation, quilting, needlepoint, crewel and counted cross-stitch, hand spinning and weaving, woodworking, photography, crops and forages, and flower tubs. There are also a cinnamon roll contest and a muffin contest. Anyone may enter, but only residents of the Columbia County Hospital District are eligible for premiums. Other entries are judged for ribbons only. The Youth Building holds the 4-H and FFA work, from robotics and forestry to sport fishing and pocket pets.

The fairbook is printed as a supplement to the Dayton Chronicle. It still sets out the fair’s aims in an older register. One aim is “to promote a better community spirit among town and country people of the county.” Another is “to help us know more about the worth of our community and its possibilities.” Its committee reports that it “has found an entirely unanimous support in favor of a county fair.”

The community booths take on the year’s theme. Of the 2026 booths the fair’s page wrote, “Luau and barnyard, quite the challenge but it looks like everyone was up for it!”

At the 2011 fair, held September 9, 10 and 11 under the theme “Sunshine Days, Country Ways,” the Blue Mountain Heritage Society won the sweepstakes ribbon for its booth. The booth’s centerpiece was a circa 1900 tin washing machine with wooden “guts,” a gift from Rayleen and Chuck Sursely. Jack Williams loaned photographs of early Dayton scenes. Pictures of the society’s projects hung on the walls and on a clothes line: the Sacajawea bronze statue, the Palus Indian Artifact Museum, the Smith Hollow School, a log cabin and the Columbia County history book. Rose Engelbrite, E.J. Rising Sun and Elizabeth Thorn built the booth. Karen Thronson, Jacque Sonderman and Diane Longanecker took it down at fair’s end. By 2026 Engelbrite was the fair’s Pavilion Coordinator.

From 1888 to an empty midway

The Dayton Chamber of Commerce, the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin and the Columbia Rural Electric Association all give 1888 as the founding year. The counts that follow from it differ. The 2026 fairbook welcomed visitors to the 136th annual fair, while the Dayton Chronicle had the same fair kicking off its 137th year.

Admission has climbed slowly. In 2018 general admission was $10 for those 13 and older. For the September 2023 fair the chamber listed the same $10 single day and a $22 three-day pass, and five canned food items bought a single-day pass on Friday morning. By 2026 the single day was $13 and the three-day pass $30.

The 2020 fair, wrote Loyal Baker in the Chronicle, “was like no other in its 130-year history.” In other years that corner of Dayton had held people lined up for cheeseburgers, families strolling the Midway and the Pavilion, and live music. That September the Midway was empty and the vendor booths were shuttered. Only exhibitors, judges and volunteers came in, and everyone was screened at the gate for temperature and symptoms.

Masked exhibitors were divided into high school, middle school and elementary classes rather than 4-H and FFA. They showed 10 goats, six sheep, a dozen beef and 36 swine. A half dozen or so showed poultry and rabbits. An official videographer at each ring streamed the fitting, showing and market classes on Facebook, and some 30 to 40 people watched the beef fitting and showing online. Entertainment Chairman Ty Lane said the fairgrounds’ internet had been branched with hardwired connections to hotspots to improve the video.

County Commissioner Mike Talbott described the decision to hold it. “We wanted to do something for our youth,” he said. “We worked with the Fair Board and the Public Health Department, and they would tell us what they wanted, and we agreed on the fairgrounds being open and animals being there.”

“It went smooth,” said Fair President Matt Johnson. “I’m glad we were able to do it and hope we never have to do it this way again.” He added, wryly, that Facebook had deemed the Youth Livestock Sale in violation of its “community standards” and deleted the event from the fair’s page.

The sale went on anyway, with bidders spread out before the outdoor auction ring and some bidding through an internet auction site. Grace Coulston’s 103-pound Grand Champion goat sold for $15.00 a pound, and Dakota Buman’s sheep brought $20.00. Jaycee Cox’s Grand Champion steer fetched $5.50 a pound, and Jemma Anderson’s hog topped the swine at $7.00. When the auction closed, Northwest Grain Growers pledged to bring any hog under $4 a pound up to that price. PFI Mart then raised every hog still under $5 a pound the rest of the way.