Freedom Days

In late June 2026, new American flags went up along Main Street in White Sulphur Springs. The White Sulphur Springs Volunteer Fire Department saw that the street needed them and worked with Meagher County, the City, Belt Mountain Builders, and Lococreek Solutions to buy and hang them. The Meagher County Chamber of Commerce said the firemen felt “incredibly blessed” to serve a community that supports them and wanted to give back something everyone could enjoy.

The flags hang over Freedom Days. The Chamber’s page puts it this way: “Some call it Fourth of July, around here we call it Freedom Days!” The same page calls it a “Homegrown Independence Day” and notes in capitals that it is not a Chamber-hosted event. A Facebook page under the Freedom Days name lists the event as Fourth of July weekend festivities on Main Street. The free downtown street dance is put on by Freedom Days LLC with the Chamber.

Floats from the Co-op

The 2026 Fourth fell on a Saturday. It opened at 7 a.m. with the Race For This Place fun run. The 10K started first, and the 5K and 1-mile went off at 7:30. Afterward there was breakfast, with door prizes and rewards for runners and walkers.

Floats lined up at 10 a.m. at the Co-op. At 11 the parade stepped off down Main Street under the theme “The American Spark: Celebrating 250 Years of Freedom.” For the 250th anniversary, music and a speaker followed the parade in front of the courthouse. The Lions Club sold corndogs near the Black Butte Copper/Tintina parking lot before and during the parade, and again before the fireworks.

The Chamber marked the 250th with a decorating contest for homes, yards, and businesses. Judges toured town on July 3. On the Fourth the Chamber reported that the judges agreed they could have given out many more prizes, but in the end they awarded three:

• First place went to Tammy Kranz for her residence.
• Second went to 2 Basset Brewery, with a prize donated by Springs Printing.
• Third went to Bank of the Rockies, with a prize donated by Mudpuppies Pit Stop, which had also decorated for the holiday.

Evening at Springs Park

The Race For This Place community barbecue ran from 5 to 7 p.m. at Springs Park. The street dance downtown began about 8, with the Bo Depeña Band. The Freedom Days page spells the name that way; the Chamber writes it Depena. At dark, usually around 10, the Meagher County Volunteer Fire Department set off its fireworks over the Springs Park baseball fields.

The Chamber’s account the next day listed the town dressed in red, white, and blue, floats being decorated, and a cornhole tournament at 2 Basset Brewery. There was dancing to the Bo Depeña Band, and the night closed with “several fireworks displays shared around town.”

The program has shifted from year to year. One earlier Chamber schedule was for a year when the Fourth fell on a Thursday. That year Eastern Star baked beans and baked goods were served at 9 a.m. with the Masons on Main, and a downtown farmers market ran in the late afternoon. The schedule ended the same way: barbecue at Springs Park, corndogs from the Lions Club, and fireworks from the volunteer fire department at dark.

Stage I restrictions, 2021

Freedom Days came up at the White Sulphur Springs City Council meeting of July 6, 2021. Mayor Rick Nelson raised an incident in which a vendor had been asked to leave on the Fourth during the “Freedom Days, LLC weekend festivities.” He said the updated application would have to name the event organization and the vendors it had invited.

Sheriff Jon Lopp, reporting as chief of police, told the council there had been no fireworks display that year because Stage I fire restrictions were in force. At the same meeting, the city’s animal control officer reported that families evacuated because of the fires had kept their two dogs and two cats overnight at the city pound. Lopp said the Fourth of July weekend had gone smoothly. Most of the fireworks, he said, were set off on Sunday, and no complaints were reported.