Hailey Days of the Old West

At noon on the Fourth of July, the parade in Hailey, Idaho, steps off at Myrtle Street and moves down Main Street to Cedar Street. In 2026, the year of America’s 250th birthday, more than 100 entrants made the march: youth and community organizations, horses, wagons, classic cars and fire trucks. Local restaurants along the way served their specialties. The Chamber, the chamber of commerce for Hailey and the Wood River Valley, organizes the parade, and it runs one hour, noon to one.

Main Street, the river park and the antique fair

When the parade ends, the celebration moves to Hop Porter Park. There Sawtooth Brewery holds the Riverfest from one to five in the afternoon, with live music and food from the brewery’s Outpost food truck. Admission is free. Across town at Roberta McKercher Park, the Blue Cow Antique Market fills July 3 through 5, from nine in the morning to six in the evening. It is a curated antique show run by Blue Cow Antiques and Dana Jo Cameron. The City of Hailey and The Valley Chamber close the Fourth with a fireworks show at dusk, about nine to nine-thirty, which the crowd watches from wherever it has settled.

All of this goes under one name, Days of the Old West. In 2026 the celebration ran July 2 through 4, and the oldest part of it, the rodeo, filled all three nights.

Three nights at Werthheimer Park

The Sawtooth Rangers “Days of the Old West” Rodeo is held at the Hailey Rodeo Grounds in Werthheimer Park, at the entrance to the city. On the first two nights of the 2026 rodeo, pre-rodeo entertainment began at 6:30, followed by the Grand Entry. The first night, July 2, was Family Night, when children 12 and under got in free with a paying adult. On the morning of July 3, starting at nine, the timed-event slack was run. On July 4 the evening opened at seven with the Rodeo Queen Coronation, then the Grand Entry. The visitor bureau’s listing gives the rodeo a 7:30 start, “sharp,” with halftime entertainment. Tickets are sold only in advance and never at the gate. In 2026 they were sold online and at the Hailey Welcome Center and the three Atkinsons’ Market stores.

According to the club’s history, the contestants are cowboys and cowgirls with Intermountain Professional Rodeo Association membership, competing for cash prizes. Local talent fills out the program with hometown bull riding and mutton busting, for buckles and trophies, and the queens contest adds its performances. The club says the money from the rodeo and its other events goes to community organizations.

Eighteen riders at the courthouse

The club’s homepage and the valley’s visitor bureau both say the rodeo has run since 1947. The club’s photo gallery shows a ticket captioned as coming from the first rodeo in 1947, courtesy of Mk Claycomb. The club’s written history tells it a little differently.

By that account, the Sawtooth Rangers Riding Club held its first meeting on September 30, 1947, at the courthouse in Hailey. Floyd Wilson was elected president, along with a full slate of officers that included a drill team captain and six executive board directors. Eighteen members joined. The members held regular meetings and picnic rides, and the club grew. They wrote by-laws and chose blue and gold for the club colors, which were later changed to green. On May 1, 1948, the club sponsored its first annual western dance in the high school gym. Other events followed: a spring breakfast ride to start the summer riding season, an overnight ride, a drill team, and jamborees with other southern Idaho clubs.

In the summer of 1948 the members built their own rodeo arena at the Hailey Ball Park and took responsibility for keeping it up. The first rodeo, called the Wood River Roundup, was held there on October 3, 1948. It went well enough that the club voted to sponsor an annual show on July 3 and 4. The board signed the Articles of Incorporation that December 3. Over the years the July show grew from two days to three.

An arena that changed hands

In 2009, the club’s history says, the rodeo moved to a smaller arena area with more seating. Ownership passed to the City of Hailey, and the Sawtooth Rangers agreed to keep producing the Hailey Days of the Old West Rodeo. The Idaho Mountain Express gave the money side of the story in April 2015. Five years earlier, Hailey voters had approved a $3.5 million bond to rebuild the arena, and the new 3,000-seat venue opened in time for the July Fourth rodeo in 2011. The visitor bureau puts the city’s investment at over $3 million.

By 2015 the Sawtooth Rangers were using the arena only three weekends a year. It had hosted a circus, two big concerts and several new rodeo events, but it had never made a profit from ticket sales. Mariel Platt, the city’s Public Works operations director, reported that the arena had been rented the year before for eight events over 11 days, bringing in $14,000, and had run an $8,000 loss. She proposed raising rental fees to at least $2,000 a day. “At the very least, we should not be losing any money on the rodeo arena,” said Councilman Don Keirn. “Two thousand dollars is not very much to charge for a rock concert.”

Lisa Horowitz, the interim community development director, said people had told her after a Marley in the Mountains concert that the arena was too exposed to the sun. “They said it was too hot,” Horowitz said. The field was dirt, and she said the city knew of music promoters who could bring their own ground cover for concerts.