Idaho County Fair

The Idaho County Fair opens on a Wednesday morning with the 4-H livestock weigh-in. Once the animals have crossed the scale, the ribbon is cut at 8:30 a.m. and the exhibit buildings open at nine. The grounds are at 1500 King Street in Cottonwood, a town of 822 at the 2020 census. It stands on the Camas Prairie of north central Idaho, just west of U.S. Route 95 between Grangeville and Lewiston, at an elevation of 3,521 feet. The Idaho County Fair Board runs the fair. Its chairman, Matt Beckman, opened the 2026 premium book with a welcome: “Welcome to the 92d annual Idaho County Fair. Our theme this year is, ‘You’ve Got a Friend at the Idaho County Fair.’”

The sources give different dates for that 92nd fair. The fair’s website and the premium book cover give August 19 through 22, 2026. A notice in the Idaho County Free Press on August 12 gave August 17 through 22, and the paper’s event schedule begins on Monday, August 17. KOZE radio described the fair as a four-day event that began on Wednesday.

The Agee Pavilion and the open class building

Most of the livestock work takes place in the Vernon Agee Livestock Pavilion. In the 2026 program, the 4-H and FFA livestock judging contest began at 8 a.m. The fitting and showing contest started at 8:30 with beef and swine. The rabbit show was at 9 a.m., the dog show at 11, and the poultry show at 1 p.m. The 4-H market livestock sale also began at one o’clock. Round robin showmanship followed at 5 p.m. In the evening, from 7 to 8:30, 4-H members brought their animals back dressed for the costume contest.

The 2026 fair added a sheep and goat barn with 36 pens. The Free Press reported that the number of Idaho County 4-H’ers and FFA members and their projects had grown over the years, and that the fair board had built the barn to house the new livestock projects.

Across the grounds, the open class building fills with homegrown flowers, fruits and vegetables, homemade quilts, afghans, pictures, and other work. From 1 to 3 p.m. in 2026, community spinners brought their wheels and spun together there. In the Arena Building, the 4-H fashion show presented the awards for all Family and Consumer Science and Specialty Projects.

Beef, fiddles, and a parade down Main Street

The Idaho/Lewis County Cattlemen served their beef barbecue from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Old-time fiddlers played at 1 p.m. The Idaho County Community Choir sang at five, and the band B-Sides played at seven. On Saturday at 10 a.m., the grand parade and the Kiddies Parade went down Main Street.

The fair royalty rides in that parade. Ellie Kouril, the 2026 Idaho County Fair Queen, rode on a royalty float with a Toy Story theme. “I loved hearing all the excitement of the crowd about our float,” she told the Free Press. Her court included First Princess Mikayla Rowland, who said, “Being able to give back as a member of the royalty court has been both an honor and a privilege,” and Second Princess Molly Fowler, a junior at Prairie High School. Six young women competed for the 2027 court. The royalty candidates were introduced and the crowning was held on August 21 in the Schmidt Building. Afterward, the 4-H Ambassadors sponsored the annual Green Swing dance in the Agee Livestock Pavilion. The Ambassadors are teenagers in green and khaki who, the Free Press wrote, can be seen everywhere at the fair helping out.

Pigtails and grand marshals

The pigtail contest is a long-running opening-day event. Melinda Sonnen-Brillon took it over 31 years ago and still measures the pigtails. She was the volunteer spotlight in the 2026 premium book.

The 2026 grand marshal was Judy Forsman, a Ferdinand native. The Free Press opened its profile of her with the line “For Judy Forsman, life has always circled back to Ferdinand.” In 2019 the honor went to Bonnie Duman Gehring. She was born about two and one-half miles north of Cottonwood and spent all of her married life about seven miles south of the town. When the paper photographed her that year, she was holding ribbons from her open class entries at earlier fairs.

The station on Cottonwood Creek

Cottonwood began in 1862 as a series of way station shelters for prospectors and mining suppliers heading south to Florence and Warrens. The town is named for the dense growth of trees that once lined Cottonwood Creek. A county history published in 1903 describes the place as a resting point for teams traveling from Lewiston to Grangeville, Mount Idaho, and the mines. In 1863, Wheeler & Toothacher ran the Cottonwood station, on the site later occupied by Joslin’s shop. The station then passed to John Byram, to Joe Moore and Peter Ready, and finally to Benjamin Norton, “the man who lost his life during the Indian war.” After the fighting ended, L. P. Brown became the practical owner of the townsite by buying out Knighten, Harry Wilson, and others.

According to the same history, F. B. King opened the first store about 1880. A pork packing plant opened in 1893 and was run for a couple of years by Dunham & Company of Chicago. It failed through mismanagement, and the company gave the farmers a bill of sale for the property to pay what it owed them. The town began building rapidly in 1895. By 1903 the writer counted three livery stables, a brewery, a 25-barrel steam flour mill, and a two-story Odd Fellows hall with an opera and dance hall on the ground floor. The writer noted that the town was “convenient to a large stock raising country, and there are six saw mills within ten miles of the place.”

The fair keeps its own record of the years. The Idaho County Stock Show royalty list in the premium book begins in 1934 with Patty Hayden, listed as Mrs Ned Forsmann, and continues with Helen Romain for 1935. The list of grand marshals begins in 1975 with Edgar and Marie Lacey.