Independence Day Celebration

At nine in the morning on the first Saturday of July, the Community Hall on Main Street in Conconully opens for a silent auction. Bidding runs until two in the afternoon. Parade and car show registration is taken at the same hall, and food and craft vendors line Main Street from nine o’clock on. The Conconully Chamber of Commerce runs the day. The chamber holds its Independence Day Celebration on the first Saturday of July, whatever the calendar date of the Fourth. In 2026 the two fell together, on Saturday, July 4. Admission is free.

The town is small: 193 people in the 2020 count, at an elevation of 2,303 feet. The chamber places it “in a mountain valley on the sunny side of the North Cascades, bordered by two lakes and surrounded by state and national forests.” The Wikimedia Commons entry for the town notes that it served as the Okanogan County seat from 1888 to 1914.

A Model T for the fire chief

The car show opens the program. It is a judged showing of classic and antique cars, and visitors vote for a People’s Choice award. The chamber posts the show’s hours as 9:30 to 11:30. The town’s Facebook page gave 9 to noon for 2026. That season the town had a car of its own to show, a 1919 Model T donated by Mick and Wanda Howe. In the town’s words, it “will be designated as the ‘Fire Chief Vehicle.’” Live music runs through the day.

At 12:30 the People’s Choice award is announced, followed by the citizen of the year. The Omak-Okanogan County Chronicle also lists the grand marshal among the 12:30 announcements. Parade lineup begins at the same hour on Lottie Street, which the Chronicle calls Lottie Avenue. At 1:30 the parade heads north. The chamber’s listing on FestivalNet adds an old west shoot-out, kids’ games, and a pet parade to the day, and gives attendance as 1,000.

Ducks at four

Ducks for the race sell for $3 apiece at the chamber table and at the town’s restaurants and lodgings. The race was set for 4 p.m. in 2026. Two years earlier the schedule ran later. The 2024 celebration fell on Saturday, July 6, and that year the parade started at 1:45, Robin Ellis played music through the day, and the duck race began at 5 p.m. on the bridge on Broadway.

Not every year has had a celebration. In 2020 the Chronicle reported that the Conconully Independence Day celebration was canceled because of coronavirus considerations. The Fourth of July events in Brewster, Twisp, and Oroville were canceled the same summer.

Tom Gibson’s parades and Herb Scott’s honor

The parade and car show have depended on volunteers. Thomas R. Gibson was born March 20, 1948, graduated from Omak High School, and studied history. He and his sister Mary Ellen started two Conconully businesses, Suntan Trailer Park and North Fork Lodge. With his wife, Debbie, he helped organize the Conconully Fourth of July parades, the Stew & Brew, and the car show. He also served on the town council and for a time as mayor pro tem. The Chronicle printed his obituary in January 2025.

The parade has also been used to honor the dead. Herbert Edward Scott was born in Sheridan, Wyoming, in 1936. He worked in orchards and as a mechanic, and flipped burgers in the Arctic Circle restaurants he owned with his wife, Virginia, in Bothell and Kenmore. Work took the family to Bothell, then to Conconully, and later back to Selah, where he retired in 2003. He died May 27, 2023, at 86. His obituary, published that June, closed: “Per Herb’s wishes, there will be no funeral services. He is being honored at the Conconully Fourth of July Parade.”