Hub City Days

On the morning of July 4, 2026, runners in the Freedom Run picked up their packets at 6 a.m. and set off at 6:30 on a 1K, 5K or 10K course. The city’s race page put the start at the Mt Pleasant Rodeo Grounds on North Highway 89. The Daily Herald’s listing put it at the North Sanpete High School track. Breakfast in City Park began at 7. By 9 the park held vendors, food trucks, bounce houses, laser tag and a climbing wall, all running until 6 that evening, and the book sale had opened at the Mt. Pleasant Library. The children’s parade started at 11. The Mammoth Parade followed at 11:30 over the route from 300 North to 700 South, with businesses, families, clubs, classic cars, floats, horses and performers, and bikes, trailers, wagons and vehicles decorated for the day. At 3 p.m. the North Sanpete Veterans Memorial was dedicated. The Hub City Rodeo began at 8 p.m., and fireworks followed it at about 10.

That day closes Hub City Days, which Mt. Pleasant City puts on each year in the week around the Fourth of July. Previewing the 2026 edition, the Herald wrote that the event celebrates “both the 4th of July and how great it is to live in Mt. Pleasant.” In 2026 the program also marked America’s 250th anniversary.

Seven evenings before the Fourth

The 2026 program started a month ahead. On Monday, June 1, people gathered in City Park to paint small canvases, each one answering the question “What do you think of when you think of America?” Free hot dogs and chips were served until they ran out. The canvases were then combined into a single display at the Hub City Art Gallery through June and July. The gallery and the Mormon Pioneer Heritage Area sponsored the evening.

The celebration began in earnest on Saturday, June 27, with a triathlon at the Aquatic Center and a golf tournament at Skyline Mountain Resort. On Sunday, June 28, at 7 p.m., the Heart of Deseret Choir gave a patriotic tribute in City Park, and the city asked listeners to bring a blanket or lawn chair. The same evening, winners of the America 250 Mt. Pleasant Community Essay Contest read their essays. The contest had put one question, “What does America mean to you?”, to writers in three age groups, the youngest starting at age 7.

Monday, June 29, brought the Family Street Dance and Color Throw to Historic Main Street from 7 to 9 p.m. DJ Fox played, and at 8:15 the crowd threw red, white and blue powder. On Tuesday a movie night opened in the park at 8, with the film starting at dusk. Wednesday was Family Fun Night at the rodeo. On Thursday, July 2, sixteen doubles teams, mixed or women’s, played a pickleball tournament in City Park, starting in pools of four before moving to brackets. Children played Survivor youth games there at 6 p.m., free of charge.

On Friday, July 3, vendors and food trucks set up in the park from 3 p.m. Cornhole players who had signed up alone were drawn into teams at random, and bags flew at 3:30. On the pickleball courts, artists in four age groups, from 7 and under to 17 and up, each worked chalk into a square of about six feet by six on the America 250 theme. They used chalk only, judging began at 6, and winners were to be named during the Concert in the Park that followed. The Bombshell Flowers gave a free concert in the park at 5.

Mutton bustin’ and a rodeo queen

The 2026 Hub City Rodeo ran Thursday, Friday and Saturday, July 2, 3 and 4, at 8 p.m. each night at the Mt. Pleasant Rodeo Grounds. The city’s rodeo page offered tickets along with sign-ups for Fun Night, Mutton Busting and a Wild Cow Milking Contest.

The rodeo has its own royalty. In 2024 Kenlee Kelso was queen, with Adilynn Shepherd as first attendant, Brenna Brotherson as second and McKyah Poulsen as third. In 2025 Poulsen was queen, and Shepherd was again first attendant. The city’s page shows the 2025 queen standing with the 2024 queen and the first attendant.

Hub City on U.S. 89

Mount Pleasant sits in the center of Utah in Sanpete County, one of the historic towns along U.S. 89. According to a 2023 KSL profile, the celebration takes its name from one of the town’s nicknames, Hub City. KSL reported that a treaty ending the Black Hawk War was signed in the building that is now the Old Pioneer Museum. The community prospered afterward, and the railroad arrived in 1890. Historic buildings from that era remain in the downtown district.

The 2020 Census counted 3,655 residents, the most the town has had. Mount Pleasant is also home to Wasatch Academy and to North Sanpete High School, whose graduates include Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.

A 1949 Ford in the 2015 parade

The Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area, which counts Mt. Pleasant in its Little Denmark District, described the 2015 celebration with photographs and video by Randy Wootton. By its account the events drew around 10,000 spectators to a town of 2,700 residents. The presentation of the flag brought everyone to their feet. The mayor drove his 1949 Ford tractor in the parade, pulling the City Council members behind him. The page spells his name David Blackham in a photo caption and David Blackman in its text. Candy came off the floats in quantity, and the parade had 90 entries.

The rodeo that year was sponsored by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and ran on July 3 and 4. On July 2 the arena held free games on horseback for children and adults: calf pull, stick horse races, hide races, barrel riding and musical tires on horseback. The Fourth began with breakfast in the park and a $5 Cancer Fun Run with free T-shirts. There was a tennis tournament on the high school courts, and chess and checkers on the library lawn beside the book sale. The Youth City Council ran free games, prizes and wagon rides in the park, and a “Best Pie in Mt. Pleasant” contest carried a $100 prize. Fireworks followed the rodeo.

The same page describes a Mountain Man Rendezvous in the city park. It offered muzzle loader shoot-outs, trading, tomahawk and knife throwing, frying pan tossing, a Dutch oven cook-off, candy cannon explosions, Native American dancers and historical reenactments. Participants camped in teepees and wall tents for the three days of the event, and the page noted that spectators were always welcome.