Inter-Mountain Fair

On the Thursday morning of the 2026 Inter-Mountain Fair, the sheep show began at nine in Vestal Arena, a covered show ring on the fairgrounds at 44218 A Street in McArthur. Fair hours did not begin until noon, when the grand opening ceremony started the five days, September 3 through 7. McArthur lies about 70 miles east of Redding on the edge of the Modoc Plateau, according to a 2015 Shasta Land Trust notice, in country of farms and ranches. The fair’s camping page places the region between Mt. Shasta and Mt. Lassen. The fairgrounds sit in the center of the community, and the parade goes through town. A 2017 hiring notice said the fair serves eastern Shasta County, northwestern Lassen County and southwestern Modoc County.

Five days on A Street

Each day of the fair carries a name. In 2026 Thursday was Veteran’s Day, Friday Senior’s Day, Saturday Cattlemen’s Day and Sunday Kids’ Day. On Senior’s Day, admission was free to those 60 and older. A 2025 television report put the line at 62. Monday, Labor Day, was free to everyone, with the carnival closed.

The carnival runs on the carnival lawn, noon to ten on opening day and until midnight after that. A 2025 visitor from Red Bluff, Reid Miller, told Action News Now: “I like the Viper and the Black Widow, and all the rest of the rides.” Outdoor concessions and the saloon and cantina stay open past midnight on the weekend nights. In 2026 the cantina had a mariachi band from five to seven and again from eight to ten, El Chino Jaliciense on Saturday and Los Embajadores on Sunday. On the lawn by the fair office at the main entrance, the gazebo stage carried free sets at two, four and six each afternoon: Jeff McNeil on Friday, No Strings Attached on Saturday, 2 Way Street on Sunday.

Most evenings belong to the Bob Thompson Arena, the main outdoor arena. On Thursday the Moonshiner’s Derby starts at seven. Drivers try to complete the most laps in five minutes through twists, turns and bumps. Between heats comes the Little Tykes Derby, free to enter, for drivers eight and under in their own Power Wheels, helmets required and no passengers. The same Thursday night, the queen scholarship pageant took the stage in George Ingram Hall. The 2026 pageant was the 62nd.

Friday night is the rodeo, sanctioned by the CCPRA, with barrel racing, roping and mutton busting. After it in 2026, Chad Bushnell sang country and Christian songs in the arena. The fair describes him as coming from four generations of cowboys and singers, some of whom shared a stage with Bob Hope. Saturday night was the concert: Bryan Martin, who comes out of the Louisiana oil fields by way of Nashville, with Jesse Daniel of California’s San Lorenzo Valley opening. Sunday night closes the arena with the demolition derby, which the fair bills as a sellout and its loudest night. Each arena event has its own ticket on top of fair admission, which was $8 a day in 2026.

Sunday also opens early. A round robin runs in Vestal Arena at eight, Kids’ Day events start on the gazebo lawn at nine, and the Little Country Church Service is held at 9:30. Parade entries line up at FRHS from eleven, and the parade steps off at noon.

Indoors, the still exhibits are open to all ages. They include preserved foods, floriculture, agriculture and horticulture, clothing and textiles, quilts, photography, arts and crafts, mechanics and fine arts. The fair’s own examples are a jar of jam, a pumpkin, and a photograph of Mt. Shasta. There is also a Create a Cow contest. The 2015 Land Trust notice described local paintings and photographs, locally made quilts, and trophy vegetables and fruits.

Barns, branding and the auction block

Junior Livestock, the 4-H and FFA program, runs through the whole week. In 2026 the swine show was Friday at eight and the beef show Friday at two, after Thursday’s sheep. The small animal and rabbit shows were Saturday morning in the Dick Neminic Sale Barn. “We have a large showing of 4-H and FFA kids that the community really backs,” Renee Schneider, then the fair’s marketing coordinator, told the Record Searchlight in 2017. In 2025 the fair manager, Robee Knoch, said exhibitors spend months preparing their animals for judging.

Saturday is Cattlemen’s Day, and its main event is team branding. The 2026 Sweet 16 Team Branding began at noon in Vestal Arena after a morning slack. The 2015 Land Trust notice described the contest: teams of three local cattlemen compete to put a paint brand on two calves. Spectators could bid in a calcutta on the team they expected to finish first. That year’s Cattlemen’s Day also included an ultrasound demonstration on judging beef quality, a commercial cattle pen show, and the presentation of local scholarships.

The fair ends Monday morning. In 2026 the buyer’s breakfast was at seven, the auction at nine, and the fair closed at three. The auction was held in the sale barn, which the fair’s post spelled Dick Nemanic, “in memory of an essential member of the livestock sale and its history.” The fair also unveiled a Pam Giacomini Memorial Auction Block sign, to travel with the block wherever the sale is held. Henry Giacomini, past president of the fair’s Heritage Foundation, came with his family. The buyers were local. Heather Saiki Health & Heritage Insurance bought Tate Lindgren’s supreme champion beef, and Del Logging bought Sawyer Young’s supreme champion lamb. Hat Creek Construction bought three animals, among them Brylee Small’s supreme champion hog. The Top Hand Award went to Copp’s Irrigation.

Ingram’s hall and Jennifer’s pavilion

The fair has been held every year since 1918, with 1943 the lone exception, according to the Record Searchlight. That paper called it the official Shasta County fair. The 2017 hiring notice called it Shasta County’s original fair. One of its organizers, according to a Shasta Historical Society biography, was Joseph Glenn Chatham. He was a Bella Vista rancher who started out with eighty head of sheep from an aunt and served as county supervisor for District 4 from 1931 through 1959. The same account says that up on the Pitt River he once speared a twelve-foot sturgeon with his pitchfork and pulled it in with his lariat.

George Ingram managed the fair for 42 years, and the hall at the center of the grounds bears his name. It was built in 1949 and 1950, 60 by 90 feet, with a stage, two dressing rooms and a kitchen, and seats 378. For the grand opening in 1950 there was a dance, and every woman who came received an orchid corsage, according to Glorianne Weigand’s Roses to Rodeos (1996). Since then the hall has held weddings, memorial services, plays and dances. It has also served as an evacuation center. The Heritage Room off its side, 40 by 25 feet, was refurbished and renamed by the Heritage Foundation. A covered concrete picnic and barbecue ground lies behind the hall.

The largest building on the grounds came later. In August 2005 Jennifer Skuce died of breast cancer at forty. She was an avid equestrian who loved the Fall River area, where her parents, Betsy and Dave Skuce, have a home. In her memory they joined the Intermountain Junior Rodeo Association, which had saved funds for about ten years, to build a multi-use arena. More than 400 people gave money, raffle items or labor, and the fair says 96 percent of the funds raised were private. The Jennifer Skuce Pavilion covers 51,000 square feet. Its dirt arena floor measures 133 by 300 feet, with removable Priefert panels, a roping chute, and bleachers for 610.

A foundation and a lease

California’s budget crisis nearly halved the fair’s funding, the Record Searchlight reported in 2017. The Inter-Mountain Fair Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit formed in 2009 to have community members improve the grounds and pay for upgrades, became what the paper called a lifeline. The foundation now manages the fair privately. After what it calls extensive negotiation, it secured a 20-year extension of the fairgrounds lease from Shasta County. It has repainted barns, put new pens in the lamb barn, and laid decomposed granite under the lamb and swine barns. Joey Marchy is its president. Robee Knoch is general manager, Clay Jacobson livestock manager, and Mimi MacFarlane exhibit manager.

The 2017 fair was the 99th. That year the fair brought back a ticketed Saturday-night concert in the grandstands, with Jackson Michelson headlining and Chad Bushnell, of Red Bluff, opening. The McArthur Farm Games gave local farmers cash prizes for hay loading, hay squeezing, hay stealing and a tractor barrel race. For 2025, the 107th, the fair’s older website listed a Thursday enduro race, Lou Gramm of Foreigner with the band Asia on Saturday, and the Bill Hovis Destruction Derby presented by the Burney Lions. Daily admission was $7.

The grounds stay in use after Labor Day. The 53-site RV park is open April 1 to October 31. On September 24–26, 2026, nearly twenty carvers worked wood and pumpkins with chainsaws at the free Sasquatch Carving Contest, with an auction at four on the Saturday. Volunteers called Friends of the Fair help run a Shrimp Boil, a Santa Stroll, a Leprechaun Leap and a Balloon Festival.

Knoch counted visitors in 2025 from Oregon, Redding, Alturas, Chico, Mt. Shasta and Reno. One of them, Jake Kyle, came with his children: “I grew up here. I came to the fair and I live in Medford so I wanted to show her how fun it was.”