Douglas County Fair

A logger named Dougy stands at the main entrance of the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Roseburg and has stood there since 1965. He is the fairgrounds’ mascot. The grounds lie on SW Frear Street, just east of Interstate 5 at exit 123. For four days each August they hold the Douglas County Fair, which the county’s announcements say is often called the “Best County Fair on Earth.” The fairgrounds’ own site calls it only possibly that. The 2026 fair ran Wednesday, August 5, through Saturday, August 8, under the theme “Fair, Fun & Freedom!” It marked the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with patriotic decorations and displays across the grounds.

The gates open in order. The livestock gate opens at 6 a.m., the main gate at 7, and the carnival gate at 10. The county’s account of fair week lists the smells of kettle corn, barbecue, honey butter on warm fried bread, hand-dipped corn dogs and cotton candy. Its sounds are the lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep and goats, laughter from the midway, and fiddles and bass guitars. The fair is run by Fair Director Ciera Keith with the Douglas County Fair Board. The board has five volunteer members appointed by the Board of Commissioners: one from agriculture, one from timber, one from business and two at large. The fairgrounds complex receives no county tax revenue. It pays its way through the fair and through rentals for weddings, banquets, auctions, a Sportsmen’s Show, a Christmas Craft Fair, a poker tournament and auto racing.

The barns and the Beef Ring

By the county’s account, Douglas County has one of Oregon’s strongest 4-H and FFA programs, and hundreds of young people spend months preparing livestock and projects for fair week. The Junior Livestock Auction in the Beef Ring is held Friday at 4 p.m.; in 2026 that was August 7. Businesses and residents bid on animals raised by the 4-H and FFA members, and the proceeds go toward the exhibitors’ agricultural education. In 2024 the News-Review listed the auction for 10 a.m. Saturday. Among the food stands the 4H Kitchen keeps its place.

The Open Class buildings hold adult work from around the county: livestock, photography, fine arts, woodworking, crafts, quilts, gardening and flowers, baked goods and preserved foods. Master Gardeners give exhibits and demonstrations, and a model railroad runs in its own exhibit. BINGO goes on through the day.

Fire, bubbles and dogs off a dock

The free entertainment centers on the Garden Park Stage. Jodie Smalley dances with live fire up close. The comedy stuntman Matt Barker catches a bowling ball on his head, spears vegetables on spikes, escapes handcuffs and juggles with his mouth; the fairgrounds’ attractions page spells his name Baker. Local bands play, and the bill also holds a senior talent show and a diaper derby. Others work the crowd as they walk. Arty the Circus Drummer goes on stilts, billed as “equal parts rock star, comedian and circus royalty.” Lessa the Hula Hooper mixes hoops, contortion and audience participation. Sterling the Bubblesmith, “Engineer by training, joy-maker by choice!” in the fairgrounds’ words, makes bubbles for children and adults. At the DockDogs pool, dogs compete in Big Air, Extreme Vertical, Speed Retrieve and Iron Dog, and anyone with a dog and a toy may enter.

The midway belongs to Rainier Amusements, a family-owned outfit that claims more than 60 years of midway experience and works 30 events a year in the Pacific Northwest. Its 2026 list put the Freakout, Kamikaze, Vortex, Starship and Giant Wheel at the top. Below them came the Tilt a Whirl, Round Up, YoYo, Tornado, Sizzler, Spin the Berries, a merry-go-round, the Flying Elephant, two funhouses and a Super Slide. The small rides included the Happy Swing, Chopper Hopper, Crazy Taxi, a mini pirate ship and Route 66.

The 2026 food stands included Backyard BBQ, Fried Bread, Fried Ravioli, Gourmet Sausage, Hawaiian Teriyaki, High Roller Wraps, Rosa’s Churros, Korean Corn Dogs, Suzie’s Sunrize Kettle Corn, Starlight Slushies, Umpqua Dairy and a Pepsi booth run by the RHS band. Around the grounds were deep-fried Twinkies, jumbo curly fries, grilled cheese and caramel apples. Children 12 and under get in free every day, courtesy of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians. Teens get $2 off with a canned food donation. On Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., anyone who arrives at the main gate with a dressed-up vegetable gets in free.

Bulls in the grandstand, music in the amphitheater

The fair has opened with the Challenge of the Champions Bull Riding at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Grandstands. The amphitheater takes the next three nights. In 2026 Aaron Lewis played Thursday at 7:30, Tone Loc Friday at 8, and Niko Moon closed the fair Saturday at 8. The concerts come free with fair admission, a long-standing practice paid for in 2026 by Cascade Community Credit Union. That year a VIP pit opened at the front of the stage, with reserved seats just behind it. The 2024 bill had run Great White and Slaughter, Parmalee and Smashmouth, with the bull riding on the Friday. In the county’s description, the sun goes down behind the mountains and the grounds turn to “a cool patchwork of glowing lights, music, and sounds.”

From Oakland to Frear Street

Douglas County’s first agricultural fair was held in Oakland in November 1860. According to Ciera Keith, interviewed in 2024 as the fairgrounds’ business and administrative coordinator, the first county fair was held in 1920 in Reedsport and has “gone through its ups and downs.” The county bought the present fairgrounds in 1944. The county counts the 1945 fair held there as the first official Douglas County Fair. The 2020 fair was canceled because of the pandemic.

The News-Review of August 16, 1963, gives a full day of one of the Frear Street fairs. The opening day drew 16,157 people and Thursday 9,194. That made 25,351 for the first two days, against 21,553 a year earlier. Fair officials noted that Thursday’s evening crowds were larger than the afternoon’s. They also said a record crowd at Legion Field for the regional American Legion baseball playoffs had not cut into the fair “as sharply as expected.” The front page carried a photograph of Tom Ocumpaugh, 13, of Oakland and the Calapooia Rustlers 4-H Club, with a Southdown lamb judged grand champion in a field of about 60. Karen Dancer of Myrtle Creek owned Pedro, the Aberdeen Angus grand champion.

That week held a Shetland Pony Show with some $1,000 in prize money across its three days, a luncheon-serving contest, a dinner-serving contest and two style shows. Horse racing was to take over the grandstand arena on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. U.S. Rep. Robert Duncan was due in the late afternoon for a tour of the grounds before appearing as special guest at the 6 p.m. dinner-serving contest. Gov. Mark O. Hatfield was to stop by Saturday, the paper reported, “in the capacity of a visitor only.” On Thursday night the Ricketts Talent Show and Revue drew 17 entries in two categories. Among the winners were the Roseburg baton twirlers Jamie Ann Smith and Kathy Cardiff, a tap-dance trio of Brenda Stewart, Dorothy Schartner and Tony Shukle, and a song-and-dance pantomime trio of Cindy Stevens, Judith Norman and Sheila Knight. The singers who won included Beverly Woods of Myrtle Creek and Serena Inmon of Roseburg.

Two summers later, Dougy took up his post at the main gate.