Emery County Fair

On the Thursday night of the 2026 Emery County Fair, two longhorns provided by the Gardner family were released into a numbered arena in Castle Dale. Spectators waited to see where the winning cow patty would land. It was the fair’s first Cow Patty Bingo, played for $1,000, and fair organizers named it one of the three events that drew the largest crowds that year.

The 2026 fair ran July 30 through August 1 across the Emery County Fairgrounds, which take in a pavilion, an outdoor arena, the indoor Blue Sage arena, the Rec Center, a baseball field and the Aquatic Center. The Emery County Business Chamber manages it, and the Emery County Fair Committee organizes it with volunteers. Its 2026 motto was “Built on Freedom. Powered by Generations.” Much of the program marked the nation’s 250th birthday, with a colonial marketplace, a Paul Revere obstacle course, and a flag retirement ceremony with a flyover.

Lunch, bingo and Echoes From the Past

The program opened Wednesday, July 29, with the Special Little Luau at the Aquatic Center, a free appreciation day for people with special needs and disabilities and their families. Exhibits went to the Rec Center for judging Thursday morning.

At noon Thursday the pavilion served a free lunch, catered by Ponderosa Grill, to those 60 and older. The tables filled, and County Commissioner Jordan Leonard called the bingo. A Bob Ross paint-a-thon followed at the pavilion, and then a concert by the band Route 10. From 4 p.m. Emery County Search and Rescue ran its lamb fry at the concessions stand as a fundraiser for the volunteers, and it served again on Friday.

At 7 p.m. the outdoor arena held “Echoes From the Past,” then in its second year. Jill Bell directed the 2026 production, which told three stories about the Swasey, Nielson and Olsen families and their ties to the county’s history. The longhorns followed at 8.

Battle stations, a rodeo and a nighttime chase

By 11 a.m. Friday, vendor booths had opened across the fairgrounds and free wagon rides were leaving from the indoor arena. Animal exhibits, 4-H projects and quilts filled the exhibit hall. ETV News reported fewer animal exhibits than in earlier years. Every animal exhibitor received Fair Bucks, scrip good at any vendor on the grounds. At the Rec Center the Colonial Marketplace kept a trading post, homemade bread, a scavenger hunt and crafts. On the baseball field the Battlefield Games set out tug-of-war, ring toss, graces, sack races, the Hooked on America Fish Pond, Paul Revere’s Midnight Dash Obstacle Course and a mechanical bull. The day also brought a Battle of the Babies for ages two and under, two shows by the magician Frank Bright, a gold rush dig, a pet show, and at 2 p.m. the flag retirement ceremony and flyover.

The fair’s own list of food named ice cream nachos, pizza, island grill, Mexican food, chicken strips, Dippin’ Dots, taco salad, burgers, fries, fish and chips, and the lamb fry.

At 5 p.m. the Kids Rodeo put mutton bustin’, steer riding and goat team roping into the outdoor arena. Two hours later the Cowboy’s Memorial Rodeo, the fair’s headline event, began the first of its two nights. The Emery County Farm Bureau Federation presented it and the RMPRA sanctioned it, with more than $15,000 in added money. After the rodeo a patriotic firework show went up over the fairgrounds.

At 10 p.m. the teenagers went to Millsite Golf Course. More than 200 of them turned out for Fugitives of Freedom Teen Night, a large game of fugitive across rugged ground. Sheriff’s deputies and search and rescue members tracked them with paintball guns. The first two games were for ages 13 to 18, and the third was open to ages 13 to 99.

Saturday on Castle Dale Main Street

Saturday began at 6 a.m. with a 5K at the Swell Retreat, with proceeds going to the Emery High cross-country team. At 10 the parade stepped off down Castle Dale Main Street. The afternoon filled with rides on the baseball field and the Trucks n’ Tunes car show. There was a cornhole tournament on the lawn by the visitor center, the hypnotist Andrew Wonder, $1,000 bingo for adults, and Family Feud. A rabbit and chicken show and a horseshoe tournament followed, and Colonial Jeopardy was hosted by Neal Peacock, who had held a tea time in the exhibit hall that morning.

At 4 p.m. the arena held the second annual Emery Telcom Battle of the Ranches, and the memorial rodeo ran its second night at 7. At 9 the fair closed under the pavilion with a free country concert by Kaleb Austin, with free cookies and drinks.

The year before, the fair had run four days, beginning Wednesday, July 30, 2025. Autumn Arrien chaired the luau. Frontier Days set out exhibits of earlier skills and hobbies at the county administration building, and the Red Spirit Dance group demonstrated their Native American heritage. The Emery High Auditorium screened the Castle Valley Pageant from a taping made mainly of the 2008 production. According to ETV News, the pageant was written about the request for Saints to move from Sanpete to the Castle Valley. A concert by Charlie Jenkins closed that fair late on Saturday evening.

A fair got up in a month, 1916

The first Emery County Fair ran two days in Castle Dale. The Emery County Progress of October 7, 1916, reported that it had ended “last Saturday evening.” Earlier fairs had been held jointly with Carbon County. The paper wrote that there had been no idea of holding a fair that year until about a month before. As a result, the agricultural and horticultural displays held only the county’s ordinary crops, with nothing specially grown for show. Some, it said, vowed the new fair “had the former joint Carbon-Emery fairs beaten.”

The first day opened with a pacing race between the Peacock horse and the Sitterud mare, both of Orangeville. Andy Moore won the half-mile on his Paradise horse. In another half-mile, the Pettiti horse of Huntington was running neck and neck with the gray Truman mare when it bolted the track. Harold Leonard of Huntington won the 100-yard dash from Arnold Berg of Castledale and the quarter from Bazel Lake. Dave Seely of Castledale won the relay horse race against Paul Hering, whose second mount gave “an impromptu bucking exhibition” at the start. Castledale’s picked team beat Huntington’s 10 to 6 at baseball. Afterward Hering rode the bronc Old Ivy, Wilkin of Orangeville rode the Nordell roan, and Smith of Victor rode the Larsen gray. That night the Mohrland orchestra played a dance at the E.S.A. hall, which the paper said many claimed was one of “the best and most orderly big dances ever held in the county.”

Saturday was “Mohrland day,” and the crowd was larger still. Mohrland’s miners beat Castledale 10 to 5. Then the Mohrland first-aid and mine-rescue teams staged their work. In one demonstration they treated a man found under rock and timber, and in another a man lying across the track with a broken back. The helmet team, captained by Lin Leavitt, recovered a man from an entry filled with poisonous gas after an explosion. The paper said this drew the closest attention, “due to the odd appearance presented by the men with the helmets and oxygen apparatus on them.”

More bucking followed. Hering saddled the Wilberg Short Horn bull and rode it “for a few interesting moments,” the Progress reported, until the bull threw him. It called this the first time Hering, “the best rider ever seen in these parts,” had been thrown during his stay. “The work of that old gentleman cow has never been excelled even at the state fair,” the paper added, citing many who were prepared to say so. L. C. Moore of Rochester announced both days.

The officers of the fair association had worked day and night, the Progress said, “in the face of unjust criticism and flagrant disloyalty in some quarters.” Checks for the prizes were still being tallied. Among them, James Jeffs took both first and second for a pair of peacocks. “A right lively shower made its appearance before any one was stirring Sunday morning,” the paper wrote, “too late, however, to mar in any way the unqualified success of our first county fair.”