Grant County Fair

On the Friday afternoon of the 2026 fair, A.D. Richins Jr. led the “losers parade” around the ring with a goat during the parent showmanship contest, celebrating as he went. Elsewhere on the grounds that day, Xyiana Grenado, 5, took coaching from her mother, Enecia Olivera, on handling her rabbit, Pepper, before the rabbit show. The fairgrounds lie in Cliff, approximately 30 miles northwest of Silver City on Highway 180 West, and the fair runs there every year in late September. The 2026 edition ran September 23 through 26.

The Cliff-Gila Grant County Fair Association runs it. The association is governed by a five-member board of directors and four officers, and volunteers do the work. Its stated purpose is promoting the educational development in agriculture for the youth of Grant County. It is self-supporting and receives no public funding. In 2026, sponsors paid so that entry to the fairgrounds was free. The rodeo and the dances charged their own admission.

The sales ring and the barns

The 4-H and FFA livestock shows fill the days, from 8:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon on Thursday and Friday, and until 3:00 on Saturday. The barns hold swine, sheep, goats, cattle, rabbits, and poultry, and they close at 8:00 each evening to everyone but exhibitors with animals. Indoors, the exhibit building holds general, school, and 4-H entries. The association’s history page says the fair also encourages adults to enter their crafts, their baking, and their other accomplishments. Booths selling food, jewelry, and crafts stand north of the show ring and around the grounds every day.

The youngest exhibitors have their own classes. In 2026, the Pee Wee Lamb Show followed the Sheep Show on Friday in the Sales Ring, and the Pee Wee Pig Show opened Saturday there at 8:00 am. A round robin showmanship contest followed at 9:00. At 1:00 Saturday afternoon came the Junior Livestock Sale. On the walls hang banners from past sales, each carrying the names of almost 50 businesses and individuals who bought animals. A Silver City Daily Press account of the 2013 fair reported that sale proceeds help 4-H and FFA members with college costs and with buying animals for the next year’s competition. Jim Wetzel, a Fair Board member, said this to the Daily Press in 2026: “It’s about support for the kids, because far, far and away, most of these kids, the proceeds that they get from selling their animals is used to get an education.”

The 2026 fair opened a week after New World screwworm appeared in the county. Fair Board President Ty Bays said every animal coming onto the grounds had to be checked. “We had to check all the animals, and it took a little bit more time, but it’s not a huge inconvenience,” he said. Attendance seemed to be up, by his account.

That Friday, Ryan and Starlin McCauley, who grew up showing animals themselves, were helping their son, a nephew, and a cousin get cattle ready for the afternoon show. Teagan McDaniel of Arenas Valley was preparing her steer. Danika Moon, also of Arenas Valley, earned a grand champion and a fifth overall with her pigs, and a third and a second with her lambs. Harper Allsup of Cliff showed no animals; she competes in 4-H and FFA pasture and range judging. “I live on a ranch, and so it also teaches me all the things I need to know,” Allsup said. Ryan McCauley put it this way: “You’re not guaranteed a reward, but you’re guaranteed a lot of work.”

Four nights at the Buster Shelley Arena

When the barns go quiet, the evening moves to the Buster Shelley Arena, where the rodeos run under the name Fiesta de Gila. Every performance starts at 7:00 pm.

Thursday is the ranch rodeo. In 2026, local ranch teams competed in horse catching, trailer loading, doctoring, and branding, with $1,000 added money and custom buckles as prizes. Admission was $5.

On Friday and Saturday nights, Nunn’s Frontier Rodeo Company puts on rodeos sanctioned by the NMRA. The events are bull riding, saddle bronc, bareback, barrel racing, steer wrestling, and team roping, and Friday’s program also includes an Open Ranch Bronc Riding. Admission in 2026 was $8.

On Saturday morning the arena belongs to the junior rodeo, open to contestants 18 and under. The 2026 edition was billed as the 77th annual. It began at 8:00 with a lead line event for children under six, and every lead liner received a participation prize. The high-money girl and boy each won an all-around saddle.

After the Friday and Saturday rodeos, the dances run from 9:00 pm to 1:00 am on the concrete dance slab. In 2026 the music was by the Yarbrough Band.

Lunch on the rock wall, 1948

The first Cliff-Gila Fair was held on a Saturday in the fall of 1948. According to the association’s history, it was originally going to be held in Silver City, near the place where a race track was later built in Arenas Valley. The valley was then known as Whiskey Creek. Enthusiasm for that plan waned. Instead, the Farm Bureau, the Cliff School, and the County Extension Service formed a partnership to put on a county fair in Cliff.

The Great Rock Wall at the Cliff School was the centerpiece of that first gathering. Temporary livestock pens went up near it, along with the 4-H exhibits. Women from the Farm Bureau and women of the valley made lunch and served it on the wall. In later years, fairgoers sat on the same wall to eat a barbecue lunch they had bought from the Lions Club of Silver City.

The fair became a formal organization on February 25, 1971, when the Cliff-Gila Fair association was recognized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.

Barns, a tornado, and the people who stay

A livestock barn came first. It held the swine, the sheep, the cattle, and the show and sales ring, with pens for rabbits and poultry under the bleachers. Other exhibits went into the Cliff School gym and several other rooms. As the fair grew, the old rodeo arena was torn down and a new one was built where it stands now. Next came a rabbit and poultry barn at the south end of the livestock barn, then the steer barn and sales ring, then the dance slab, the RV park, and the new exhibit building. In 2012 a mini tornado severely damaged the livestock barn. It was torn down and replaced, and the new barn houses the rabbits, poultry, swine, and steers.

By 2013 the fair had stretched to five days. The 65th annual edition closed on a Sunday, and the Daily Press listed rodeos, live music, line dancing, a tractor show, bingo, and a horseshoe tournament among that year’s events. Clell Bays showed the grand champion steer. The 2013 fair was dedicated to Ron Lamb, the Extension Service agricultural agent for Grant County from 1984 until 2006. During his tenure the county won four state titles in livestock judging, and one of its teams won the beef cattle division in national competition.

The volunteers who run the fair tend to stay for decades. John Wenzel of Silver City got involved when his children began showing animals. In 1991, he said, he was “roped into” being president of the board. “I didn’t even really know what it was,” he said. He has since served as sheep superintendent and has been the show ring announcer for 33 years.

Jim Wetzel, a contractor from Buckhorn, started about 50 years ago. He was 24, and his job was hauling trash from the fairgrounds. The next year he was asked to join the committee. He has served on the Fair Board and as livestock supervisor, and all seven of his children took part in the fair. As a contractor, he built new barns, did electrical work in the show barn, and built the dance slab. In 2026 his family tried something new. “This year my family all got together, and we just decided there’s enough belt buckles being given and stuff,” Wetzel said. “We said we’ll start a fellowship and we raised $1,200.”