Hartline Days

Hartline Days takes one Saturday in September in Hartline, a Grant County town that counted 134 people at the 2000 census. The 45th celebration fell on September 12, 2026. The day opens at 8 a.m. with a fun run. In 2024 the Columbia Basin Herald described it as about 2 miles, starting at the Hartline Historic School. By 2026 the organizers were billing it as a Fun Run/Walk and telling people to get their walking shoes ready.

Five blocks to the park

The parade steps off at 10:30. In 2024 marchers gathered at the school between 9:30 and 10 a.m. For 2026 the lineup was called for 9:30 a.m. in the Hartline Gym parking lot. The route runs about five blocks and ends at the town park. Organizers told the Herald that anyone can join in as they like.

“We probably have the biggest smallest parade in the county,” said Ron Thomas, one of the organizers, in 2024. “The kids, sometimes they’re riding their bicycles or four-wheelers, or they’re walking a 4-H lamb or dog, things like that. Very informal. A couple of fire trucks, (and) we usually get the VFW color guard from Odessa.” He added, “we have a very small Boy Scout troop.”

The 2026 call for entries asked for “Animals, old cars, farm equipment, bikes, costumes, or??” Children were strongly encouraged to march, and awards for kids were presented. Each year has grand marshals. In 2024 they were Russ and Julie Dingman, whom Thomas credited with contributing a great deal to the community. The honorary grand marshal was Tina Thomas, longtime town clerk.

Brisket, pop, and a pedal tractor

The organizers’ own page calls the grounds Hartline City Park. The Herald’s 2026 events listing calls it Hartline Community Park. Local vendors set out items and treats for the whole day. The kids’ games were held right at noon in 2024. In 2026 they moved to 11:00, hosted by Paul and Bree.

In 2024, Thomas said, the cheerleaders sold pop and water and ran the dunk tank. The dunk tank and a soda and water fundraiser were back in 2026, along with an ice cream fundraiser. Sales of Hartline Days T-shirts go to the Hartline Cemetery.

Lunch is served at noon. In 2024 the community lunch featured smoked brisket. In 2026 it was served “by donation” at “high noon” in the church parking lot across the street from the park. The theme was “All American,” in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary.

Lynn Franklin, another organizer, calls the auction the high point of the day. It started at 1:30 p.m. in 2024 and at 1:00 in 2026. The 2026 announcement told people to “get comfy in your lawn chair at the park and outbid your best buddy.” The money goes to scholarships for students at Almira/Coulee-Hartline High School. The sponsoring group, Hartline Community Days, describes itself as an organization that raises and awards scholarships to the area’s graduates every year.

“At last year’s auction we raised a little over $4,500,” Franklin said in 2024. “And we had money left over from the year before, so we actually awarded $5,100 in scholarships.”

The donated lots come mostly from businesses and people in Almira, Hartline, Coulee City and Wilbur. That year’s list included:

• a 42-inch TV
• a hanging basket lounge chair
• gift cards
• a dentist’s gift basket with sonic toothbrushes
• a child’s pedal tractor valued at about $600

Don Nutt, an artist from Coulee City, generally contributes some art. In 2026 a silent auction and a 50/50 raffle were added.

Pickleball closes out the day. In 2024 Thomas said beanbag toss and pickleball competitions would follow the auction. In 2026 the organizers announced a pickleball tournament as new that year. Its championship round started right after the live auction ended.

A harvest celebration, moved

The 2024 event was Hartline’s 43rd. “It started out being a harvest celebration years ago,” Thomas said, “and then we moved it and just called it Hartline Community Days, even though it’s only one day.”

The calendar still bends to the fields. “Some (years are) better than others,” Thomas said of the turnout. “It depends on farming, who’s still harvesting and who might be seeding, but that stuff’s winding down.”

The town takes its name from the German surname Hartlein, Americanized in spelling. Some of its longest residents have ridden at the head of the parade. Nellie Ellen Schrock’s family moved to Hartline in 1939, when she was a baby. Her father had worked as a blacksmith on Grand Coulee Dam. She claimed to have lived in Hartline longer than anyone still there, about 78 years. Before her marriage to James H. Schrock in 1957, she worked at the cemetery and at Carl Ingram’s grain elevator. In later life she took up Hartline history and genealogy.

According to her obituary, “a few years” before her death in February 2019, she and Jim “got their turn riding in the convertible” as grand marshals of the Hartline Days parade. Her family asked that memorials go to the Hartline Fire Department, the Hartline Cemetery and the Historic Hartline School.