Goldendale Community Days

On the second weekend of July a carnival sets up on Main Street in Goldendale, the seat of Klickitat County, 13 miles north of the Columbia River Gorge. The 2026 edition of Goldendale Community Days, the 100th, ran Friday and Saturday, July 10 and 11. The rides opened a night early, Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m., and ran until 10 p.m. on both festival days. Paradise Amusements brought the carnival, and presale tickets were sold only at The HonkyTonk Bar and Restaurant. Mayor Dave Jones told county commissioners it was the first full carnival on Main Street in a decade.

The City of Goldendale runs the event. On Friday The Lodge opened at 8 a.m., the downtown vendor market ran from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and at 2 p.m. the lawn mower dragsters of the Old HWY 97 Cruisers Car Club came out for test and tune. At 6 p.m. the beer garden opened on the courthouse lawn, presented by the Klickitat County Friends of the Fair, and live music played on the Main Stage until 10 p.m. Both repeated on Saturday night.

Saturday from Schuster Street

Saturday began with the car show at 8 a.m. For 2026 it moved to the courthouse area, with vehicles set out around the courthouse lawn. The Old HWY 97 Cruisers called for classic cruisers, muscle cars, custom builds, hot rods, trucks, and motorcycles, and awards were given from the Main Stage at 3 p.m.

The parade, presented by ABATE of Washington, lined up at 10 a.m. on Schuster Street and stepped off at 11 along the regular route. The festival’s own page described floats, local businesses, community organizations, classic vehicles, and performers, and told spectators to bring chairs. The Seattle Cossacks, billed as a stunt riding team and brought by ABATE’s Columbia Gorge Chapter, rode in the parade and performed at The Lodge at noon and again at 4 p.m. The lawn mower dragsters ran at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 5 p.m., the last on Columbus Avenue.

Between those runs the program filled the rest of downtown. The Matt Chiles Lego World Exhibition was open at The Lodge from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. WAGAP presented a talent show on the Main Stage from 1 to 3 p.m. A blow-up car demonstration was scheduled for 2 p.m., and a Native American pow wow presentation for 3 p.m. on the courthouse lawn. A scavenger hunt on the 13 original colonies left from the Goldendale Community Library at noon. The organizers also asked classes holding reunions that weekend to post their gatherings.

Quilts in the Presby Mansion

The Klickitat County Historical Society held its quilt show from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Presby Museum on Broadway, with work from local and regional quilters. The house is three stories and 22 rooms. Attorney Winthrop B. Presby built it in 1902, and it later served as a family residence, a boarding house for teachers, and a boarding house for railway workers. The society, organized in 1958, bought it in 1962. In 2015 its collections included the original press used to print the Goldendale Sentinel and a reproduction of a one-room schoolhouse.

A turnout at Columbus and Railroad

At the commissioners’ meeting on June 23, 2026, Jones said the event started as an attempt at a world-record turnout at the intersection of Columbus and Railroad streets. The pages give no year for that first gathering. The town itself dates from August 15, 1871, when John J. Golden bought the land from Lyonel J. Kimberland. He had the townsite platted in 1872, and on November 5, 1878, county voters chose Goldendale as the county seat by an overwhelming majority.

By the spring of 1982 the event was established enough that the historical society’s newsletter, Klickitat Heritage, listed Goldendale Community Days next to the date of the July Blockhouse Picnic.

In 2022 Community Days marked the town’s sesquicentennial. On Friday, July 8, at 6:30 p.m. the courthouse lawn held speakers, historical exhibits, a free ice cream social, and the opening of the 1972 time capsule, followed by the burial of a new one for 2022. The first ten people to finish the library’s scavenger hunt received a commemorative coin and a commemorative rock taken from the cement slab used 50 years earlier.

That Saturday a Show ‘N Shine Car Show filled East Main Street, and an all-ages Hot Wheels drag race was played for a trophy and pizza certificates from Uncle Tony’s Pizza. The Native American exhibit on the lawn set up a teepee and showed regalia and artifacts. Elsie David and family performed a song and ceremonial dance. Elaine Harvey and family ran a First Foods booth teaching about sacred foods, and the Yakama Nation Fisheries had an information table. Lorna Jim, Monica George, Floyd Meslpie, Kathy Schwartz, and Laura Partlow sold crafts, and Justine Begay cooked. The parade went off at 11 a.m. on Columbus Street.

Four years later Jones closed his report to the commissioners with an invitation. “I just wanted to take the opportunity to invite you July 10-11 to the 100th annual Goldendale Community Days, in this, the 250th year of our country,” he said. He promised to sit as a target in the dunk tank, and he claimed a turn in the afternoon, when the water would be warmer.