Fourth of July Celebration

On the morning of the Fourth, South Morrow County firefighters stand at a griddle in the Ione city park and cook the firemen’s breakfast. They do it every Fourth of July, according to the East Oregonian. In 2026 the breakfast ran from 7 to 10 a.m. The park and its amphitheater hold the day from breakfast to dark. Ione lies along Highway 74 in the southern part of Morrow County, wheat and livestock country by the city’s own account. The Oregon Trail crosses near the town at Well Springs.

Bicycles at the tail of the parade

Runners turn out at the same hour as the griddle. In 2026 registration for the 5K walk/run opened at 7 a.m. in the park and the walk/run started at 7:30, according to the celebration’s Facebook page. The East Oregonian listed the run at 7. That year marked 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, and the Fourth fell on a Saturday. The paper wrote that Ione, known for throwing its biggest party of the year on the Fourth, planned the semiquincentennial around heritage, community and the American spirit. That April, resident Betty Gray had asked the city council to consider financial support for local businesses taking part in the anniversary celebration.

From late morning through mid-afternoon the 2026 program ran to the Cruz-In Car Show, kids’ games, a bike raffle, a dunk tank, laser tag, face painting and bingo, with plenty of food vendors. Two bouncy houses and two bouncy house/slides stood ready for children 12 and under, weather permitting. They were split by age into groups of 2 and under, 3 to 5, 6 to 8, and 9 to 12, and organizers required a parent or guardian to supervise every age. Another event pays for the children’s activities: Ione hosts a 1,000-yard shoot as a fundraiser for them.

At noon, children gathered at the Ione Community Church for Kids on Wheels. For half an hour they decorated bikes, scooters, wagons and other wheels. Parade lineup began at 12:30, and at 1 p.m. the decorated wheels joined as the tail of the parade.

Embers over the park

In April 2026 the organizers asked on Facebook for suggestions for music or entertainment to fill 3:30 to 4:30 or 5 p.m. on the Fourth. The bill, as the East Oregonian later gave it, was Luke Basile, Musically Unstable and Brass Fire Band, starting in the afternoon. The paper told readers to bring lawn chairs. As the sun went down the fireworks began, a display that Visit Eastern Oregon says can be seen throughout Ione.

The show has not always run to the end. On July 4, 2016, embers falling from the display started a brush fire shortly after the show began, and the fireworks were cut off mid-show. Writing in the Hermiston Herald two days later, Jade McDowell could not reach the town’s all-volunteer fire department. She quoted a post on the celebration’s Facebook page instead: “our volunteer firemen were on it quick and have it out.”

A meeting in H. C. Wood’s office

The Ione Independent, a weekly then in its thirteenth volume, reported on its front page of May 15, 1925, that “those interested in promoting a Fourth of July celebration in Ione” had met informally in the office of H. C. Wood the previous Wednesday evening. No definite action was taken beyond adjourning to Monday evening, May 18, when more information, it was thought, would be available. A second notice on the same page urged everyone interested to “rally to the colors” that Monday. By then, it said, there would be enough in hand to decide whether it was expedient to go ahead with plans for a festival.

The same front page carried other town news. The Ione high school nine had beaten Arlington, thirteen to nine, on the Heppner field. Reports on the wheat crop were generally favorable. With hot weather coming, Bullard’s Pharmacy offered chocolates at 50 cents a pound.