Elmore County Fair & Rodeo

The Elmore County Fairgrounds stand at 855 East 1st Avenue in Glenns Ferry, a river town that the Elmore County Press places just off Interstate 84, halfway between Boise and Twin Falls. The grounds hold rodeo arenas and grandstands, horse stalls rented by the day or the week, an expo building, and RV spots with hook-ups. One camper, Brandy Vorwaller, stayed there with two other rigs while custom farming in the area and found “clean grassy spots” where “no one bothered us.” Weddings, rendezvous, and private parties use the grounds through the year. For four days each July they belong to the Elmore County Fair and Rodeo.

The Elmore County Fair and Rodeo Board runs the place. Tim Corder is chairman, Ryan Kunts vice chairman, and Tim Sessions, Donald Kiggins, Lacy Wolf, Nate Fowler and Jessie Ward sit as members. Julie Lisle is fair manager; her name is on the vendor letters, the sponsor forms, and the fair’s Instagram account. The board’s meetings are open to the public at 7:00 pm. In 2025 they were held at the Extension Office in Mountain Home in the colder months and at the fairgrounds in Glenns Ferry from April through September.

Family night to the ride-off

The 2026 fair ran July 15 through 18. Wednesday was family night. The gates opened at 4 pm and vendors were asked to offer family discounts. Elmore County’s Got Talent, a community contest, took the stage at 7, and the Jr Bull Riding Tour rode in the grandstands at 8. On the following days the fair opened at noon Thursday and Friday and at 9 am Saturday, and it stayed open until 1 am on the last two nights. The 4-H and FFA livestock shows fill the mornings, and the fair office tells vendors to plan their own hours around that schedule. Indoor exhibits in the Commercial Building were open from 10 to 8. The office’s letter to vendors acknowledges the weather: “We understand it’s hot and sometimes slower in the heat of the day,” it reads, and it recommends opening mornings and evenings. A fairgoer named Bo Mackey put it in a review: “It was hot as hell but a great little small town fair and rodeo.”

The board licenses a single beer garden. Drinks come only in plastic cups or plastic bottles, and anyone found with glass “will be dealt with appropriately.” Every buyer’s ID is checked and every drinker wears a wristband. A satellite booth serves down at the rodeo arena during grandstand events. Ice comes from the Moose Lodge on the grounds or from Southside Market in town. An undated town sketch in the Elmore County Press adds that a carnival with rides and games accompanies the fair.

The open rodeo held three performances, July 16 through 18, 2026. The board’s sponsor list names the events: ranch bronc, bull riding, saddle bronc, bareback bronc, steer wrestling, tie-down roping, team roping in local and open divisions, breakaway roping, and barrel racing. There is also a sponsored rodeo clown. The Saturday day sheet ran from Ranch Bronc Riding and Breakaway Roping through Barrel Racing and Jr. Barrel Racing to a Top 6 Ranch Bronc Ride-Off. Earlier that Saturday the same arena hosted the United Truck & Tractor Pullers Point Series. Turning the ground back over for the third rodeo performance took a borrowed implement called the Black Widow, lent by G & S Excavation and Tom Giannini. “I have always been a multiple implement person to get things the way you want them,” the fair’s page wrote afterward, “but the Black Widow made a believer out of me!” The writer added that “the girl team appreciated it and didn’t share well.”

Children ride too. The board’s closing note for 2026 thanked “every fearless little rider who climbed on a sheep or mini bull with a smile.” A reviewer, Chelsea Inmon, called the junior bull riders “adorable to watch.” A volunteer photographer, Joanne Lee, covered the 4-H shows, the Kids Zone, the vendor rows and the rodeo, and turned in more than 1,000 photographs of the week.

Shade, misters and a horse trailer

When the 2026 fair closed, the board asked for comments and got more than fifty. The requests repeated: more shade, more misters, more seating, more family activities. Handicap-accessible seating went on the list of planned improvements. To pay for them the board raffled a horse trailer, at $25 a ticket or five for $100, and was down to its last 500 tickets in August.

The grounds stayed busy into late summer. The Elmore County Junior Rodeo held a six-rodeo series there, which closed in mid-August. The fair’s page credited “Lori and her village” and thanked “every sponsor, volunteer, and member of the village.” Those sponsors numbered about forty for the 2026 fair and rodeo. They included Sunview Dairies, Ireland Ranches, the Academy of Equine Dentistry, the Idaho Trappers, Southside Market and the town’s Historic Opera Theater. By the end of July the board was polling the public on whether a fall Harvest Festival should run two days or three.

Fiddles in April, big cats in June

Between fairs the board books other events. A Fiddle & Folk Festival of folk, Americana and fiddle music, much of it original work by the performers, was held April 23 to 26, 2026. Youth Mini Bullriding gives young riders a smaller animal to start on. There is also a Sports and Gun Show. The Idaho Trappers Association brings live trapping demonstrations, workshops on wildlife management, and a fur sale. The fairgrounds website also lists a spring event called Spring at the Ranch, a St. Patrick’s Day party and an Oktoberfest.

On June 1 and 2, 2026, with shows at 5:00 and 7:30 pm, the board sponsored the Culpepper & Merriweather Circus. It is a one-ring big top show that has toured for 41 years. That year’s program had big cats presented by Trey Key, the aerialist Simone on the trapeze, and the Perez Daredevil Duo on the tightrope and the Wheel of Destiny. The Macias family juggled with hands and feet, Miss Gianna worked her performing dogs, and Leo Acton played the clown.

A 1961 fairground and a 121st fair

The fair and rodeo’s own pages give two starting points. The home page says the grounds were “established in 1961 as a place to showcase livestock,” and later became an event venue. The 2026 vendor letter calls that July’s event “the 121st Annual Elmore County Fair and Open Rodeo,” a count that runs well past 1961. The pages do not say where the fair was held before the present grounds. An Idaho State Archives record, in a collection of quilt histories gathered by the Boise Basin Quilters’ Guild, notes a quilt that took first place at the Elmore County Fair of 1906.