Del Norte County Fair

The Del Norte County Fair opens on a Thursday morning at 10:45 with a ceremony at the Main Gate, 421 Highway 101 North, Crescent City. Fifteen minutes later the carnival starts turning and the exhibit buildings open their doors. They stay open until nine at night. The 2026 fair ran August 6 through 9 under the banner “Liberty Nights & Carnival Lights.” The fairgrounds site has posted the next one for August 5 through 8, 2027.

Four days in August

Each day of the fair has its own admission terms and its own local sponsor. Thursday is Kids Day, free for children 12 and under, sponsored in 2026 by the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation. Friday is Seniors Day, free for visitors 60 and over, sponsored by Del Norte Ambulance. Saturday is Military Day, free with a military ID. Sunday is Family Day: $24.00 admits two adults and three children 12 and under. The fair asks visitors to leave pets at home for the safety of the livestock.

The livestock are the reason the fair exists. Dozens of young people from 4-H, the Lake Earl Grange and Future Farmers of America raise animals to show before judges and then sell to buyers. The 2026 shows began Thursday at 8:00 a.m. with swine in the Livestock Arena. Poultry followed at noon in the Small Animal Barn, then goats at two and beef at five in the Ace Pavilion. Friday brought dairy and pygmy goats, sheep, cavies and rabbits, and dairy cattle. Saturday held the round robins, small animal and large, and a bucket calf show. On Sunday at 1:00 p.m. the Junior Livestock Auction in the Ace Pavilion sold the year’s animals. In the 4-H Barn children worked through “Barnyard Fun” from eleven to four, with archery and air rifle demonstrations at two. On Saturday 4-H members put on their fashion review in the Home Arts Building.

The Home Arts Building also held the Grace Lutheran Church kids’ crafts table and the Webfoot Weavers Guild, who demonstrated fiber arts from eleven to three each day. Across the grounds, the Reptile Hunter showed live animals in the Main Exhibit Building. Floral entries came in with the rest. After the 2026 fair the fairgrounds named Pauline Byrne Overall Champion for Floral and quoted her: “I want more competition next year!” The post added that she was willing to help anyone identify their dahlias.

The Pond Stage is the free community stage, and its bill runs from late morning to night. In 2026 the Think Safety magic show alternated with Dangerously Fun Juggling and with ventriloquist Joe Gandelman, who travels with a cast of characters that includes the wisecracking John Raven. Captain Billy Banjo did “Meet the Banjo.” Thursday had watermelon and pie eating contests and karaoke with Tyler Murphy. Friday morning the Senior Center led line dancing, followed by Tsunami Swing and the Not Too Late Band. On the first three nights Armor & Echo Entertainment closed the stage at nine with fire dancing.

Elsewhere on the grounds, JD Platt & the K9 Kings ran their stunt-dog show three times a day at the Amphitheater Stage. The county sheriff, Lucas Brittan, gave demonstrations with his dog, Zuko. Strollers met Dr. Goodjohn’s Card Magic Lessons and the Wagon of Whimsey with MAC the Flexbot. The Beer Garden Stage carried the Holus Bolus One Man Band, Monogroove, the Spence Brothers, Steve Berg, Jackson Michelson, Jordan Branch and the Family Tree, and Black GTO. The fair’s own page calls Mo’s Pizza “our favorite fair pizza.”

The MidWay of Fun Carnival posts a height minimum at every ride. The Zipper takes riders 54 inches and up, with no single riders. The Drop Zone and Ali Baba share the midway with the Vista Wheel and with smaller rides: the Berry Go Round, Jumbo the Elephant, the Tea Cups and Jalopy Junction. A Tip-Top is billed as the “Throw Back!” ride and requires 48 inches.

Evenings in the Tri Counties Bank Arena

Each fair day has a main event in the arena. On Thursday evening the 2026 fair opened with pit bike racing on a dirt track built by volunteers. Peewee riders aged 4 to 8 and 9 to 12 raced, and adults raced in 110cc, 125cc and open-to-140cc brackets for $500, $300 and $200.

Friday began with the Andy Larson Memorial Classic Car Show, held from ten to three by the Amphitheater Stage while the Shark Tones played instrumental surf music. Classes ran from Mustangs, Camaros and Corvettes to imports, with an Under Construction class and motorcycles. The awards were People’s Choice, a Coast Central Credit Union award, a Fair award and a Larson Family award. That night at six came FMX Rampage, a 90-minute freestyle motocross ramp show. Javier Villegas, a medalist at the X Games and the Nitro World Games, rode with his son Javier Villegas Jr. They were joined by Christian Dresser and by Caleb Delacey of New Zealand, and Devin Bollerslev called the tricks from the microphone.

Saturday at four was the rodeo, billed as Bulls, Broncs & Barrels: bucking bulls, broncs, and an open barrel race in junior and senior divisions. At half-time came the Annual Calf Scramble, in which children aged 3 to 12 race across the arena for the chance to win a bike. Afterward, from seven to eleven, Billy Williams and his band played a free Adult Rodeo Dance for those 21 and over in the Beer Garden.

The fair ends Sunday afternoon at two in the dirt. In 2026 four monster trucks, El Taco Loco, Titan, Monster Moose and Double Trouble, crushed cars and took the jumps. Local drivers ran the Tuff Truck competition in timed heats, and the crowd voted for Best Appearing Truck.

The grounds the rest of the year

The fairgrounds include a rodeo arena, horse barns and an outdoor horse arena, a large parking lot, open space, and natural resource areas. Organizations use them year round. On summer Saturdays the Country Market sets up in the front parking lot from ten to two. On August 15, 2026, it offered fresh vegetables and fruit, sourdough bread, pesto rolls, fresh-squeezed lemonade, soaps and handmade goods. On July 25 it had produce from Promise Land Farms. In June the Malicious Monster Truck Tour comes for a weekend with pit parties and truck rides; in 2026 it ran June 20 and 21. In December the Holiday Fair fills three buildings with more than 70 vendors, seasonal food, and photographs with Santa. The 2025 Holiday Fair was held December 6 and 7. The Main Exhibit Building has more than 10,000 square feet and is rented for meetings, weddings, birthday parties and quinceañeras.

That building dates to 1953, according to the facilities inventory. The same inventory gives a date for most of the grounds:

• the wood-frame Poultry Building, 1923
• the steel grandstands and concessions, 1941, retrofitted in 1991
• the Jr. Building, 1944
• the Main Office, 1954
• the Indoor Tennis and Commercial building, 1962
• the Livestock Building, 1966
• the Arts & Crafts Building, 1972
• the Floral Building, 1984
• the ACE Arena, 2001

The stables went up in phases, with 1961, 1968 and 2001 among their construction years.

From Smith River to Highway 101

The fair began in 1892, when the 41st Agricultural Association was formed and the fair was held in Smith River. A National Park Service history of the Redwood country records an early winner. David Griffin, who led Del Norte County in bringing in purebred livestock before 1900, owned a colt of the “Go Bang” line. In 1893 that colt took the largest purse in the three-year-old trotting race at the Del Norte Agricultural Association Fair. In 1920 the fair moved to its present grounds, and in 1930 it began to receive horse-racing revenue.

For a time the fair carried another name. In 1993 the Los Angeles Times listed the Jefferson State Fair, held August 5 through 8 at the Del Norte Fairgrounds. That fair had a Native American museum, an exhibit of old farming equipment, rides, music, livestock, food and home arts. General admission was $5. The paper explained the name: the State of Jefferson was an early-20th-century plan by Northern Californians and Southern Oregonians to win local political control of natural resources. The statehood idea was shelved after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the fair kept the name in its memory.

The horse-racing money did not last. According to a 2013 account by Linda Sutter in the Crescent City Times, the state fair fund grew to more than $100 million by 1990. By 2009 racing revenue had seriously declined, and the state moved fair funding to the General Fund. By 2010 the fair fund was depleted, and in 2011 all state funding was eliminated. Sutter also cited a planning document by Tamera Leighton. Under it, the 41st District Agricultural Association would now pay for its own unemployment claims, insurance, Department of Justice fees, audits and construction inspections, costs the county had formerly covered with $180,000 a year.

Randy Hatfield, the governor-appointed fairgrounds manager, carried this news to the Board of Supervisors. Sutter wrote that the previous fair week had cost about $438,000 and finished $123,000 in the hole, with the loss covered from reserves expected to last about two years. She reported Hatfield’s view that the grounds had never been funded well enough to stay maintained, and that bringing them up to date would take $20 million. Proposals followed for a countywide quarter-cent sales tax over seven years, aimed at the November 2014 ballot, and for a special district.

Two boards, and the audits

The grounds today are owned by the State of California and governed by the 41st District Agricultural Association, whose board members are appointed by the Governor. Beside it stands the Del Norte County Fairgrounds Recreation and Park District, a countywide district with five directors elected to four-year terms. The district contracts with the association to provide and maintain the fairgrounds and its programs.

Hatfield retired as the association’s CEO and manager in 2017. His daughter, Kim Floyd, is CEO now. A state audit in 2019 found improper spending of more than $1,200 on alcohol and a manager employing a close family member. Another audit was issued on July 22, 2025, by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and covered 2022 and 2023. It found 15 areas with reportable conditions and made 44 recommendations. Redwood Voice reported that the audit counted $34,637 in credit-card charges without receipts, $11,903 of them for food and drink. It also found that the manager’s daughter and nephew had been hired to work part-time at the fair.

The board answered on June 17, 2025, with corrective measures, including review of credit-card statements by the board president, Kara Miller. In December 2025 the Los Angeles Times listed Del Norte among 26 California fairs beset by trouble. Floyd described the association’s new nepotism policy to Redwood Voice: “When a family member is considered for hire, the hiring requires prior approval from the Fair Board.”

The Old Redwood Schoolhouse II

A one-room schoolhouse dated to 1902 stands on the fairgrounds. It closed in 1941. The Healey family later bought it and used it for storage. By one account, the school property stood in the way of a housing development and a golf course. Fair board members arranged for the owner to donate the building and agreed to pay the cost of moving it. Another account credits the late Bob Bolen with acquiring the schoolhouse. It was moved to the fairgrounds on March 15, 1994.

Bolen restored the building. Phyllis Hight Tedsen collected period pieces and arranged the room, and she has served as its hostess and historian since it opened to visitors in 1996. Rainie and Richard Garvin cleaned and readied the schoolroom, and Richard Miles tidied the yard. Ardie Harris donated the handmade display case. On the teacher’s desk sits an antique globe that Pastor Wedig brought from Germany.