Jefferson County Fair

The Jefferson County Fairgrounds lie on the south side of Rigby, at 319 Veteran Memorial Drive, near a memorial built to the county’s veterans. The grounds hold several buildings, a main hall with room for 500, a rodeo arena that holds 2,500, and RV hookups. The City of Rigby manages the rodeo grounds and keeps their schedule, which through the year includes demolition derbies and outdoor sports. For one week in August the grounds become the Rigby Fair. The 2026 fair ran August 10 through 15 under the theme “American Roots and Dirty Boots,” Rigby’s part in the county’s America 250 celebrations.

Barns, show rings, and a tent

The week runs on livestock. In 2026 it opened Monday, August 10, with the 4-H and FFA horse show and the style show. Market animals were weighed in Tuesday. The dog show started at 9 that morning, and rabbit showmanship followed at 2 in the afternoon. Wednesday began with rabbits and swine at 8 a.m. and goats at 1 p.m. On Thursday, 4-H, FFA, and open-class exhibitors showed poultry at 8 and beef and sheep at 9. Friday held the 4-H driving show and, at 1 p.m., the Round Robin. In the exhibit halls, entries ran past animals to produce, baked goods, and art.

The fair has outgrown its barns. Austin Davis, a local agriculture teacher who chairs the livestock committee, told Local News 8 that organizers moved into a tent in 2026 after running out of barn space. New pens, arenas, and an auction block have also been added.

Queens, roughies, and peewees in the rain

On Wednesday evening, August 12, the coronation of the Rigby Fair Queens began at 6, and the Amateur Jackpot Rodeo followed. Contestants 12 and older entered bareback and saddle bronc riding, bull riding, breakaway and tie-down roping, barrel racing, pole bending, goat tying, team roping, and steer wrestling. Children under 50 pounds could ride in mutton bustin’. The printed draw put mutton bustin’ first and bull riding last. Between them came goat tying, steer riding, pole bending, breakaway, tie-down, stock saddle, barrel racing, and team roping. Slack in breakaway, team roping, and barrels followed the performance. Two photographers donated the evening to take pictures of contestants.

Hunter Sessions, the rodeo secretary, kept the entries, the draw, and the rodeo’s Facebook page. Entries opened July 27. Within days team roping, mutton bustin’, and steer riding were full, while the page kept calling for roughstock riders: “Where are all my roughies???” On rodeo night the page answered a different complaint: “I understand that the speakers are bad. I cannot do anything about it in the office. I complain to the board every year about it. Contact the city to complain.”

The youth rodeo came Thursday, August 13. Pee Wee events began at 5 p.m. in the Keely Lance Arena, and youth events began at 6 in the main arena, the two running at once. In 2026 rain fell that afternoon. Sessions drove past the arena, found no puddles or standing water, and posted that the call would come around 3:30 or 4, and that lightning would mean cancelling. The next post read, “A little rain never hurt nobody. Let’s rodeo.” The hat rule was waived for anyone worried about ruining a hat, and a ball cap was fine. The peewees rode in the rain, and every child who entered went home with a prize.

Roast chicken, root beer, and the Friday sale

Thursday also held the Community BBQ, served ahead of the annual talent show at 7 p.m., which the Jefferson County Farm Bureau sponsors. The 2026 menu was salt and vinegar roasted chicken, baked beans, corn on the cob, green salad, rolls, watermelon, homemade root beer, and lemonade.

Friday, August 14, was Kids Day. Vendors and children’s activities filled the fairgrounds greenspace from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and children could run booths of their own rent-free. At 6 that evening the youth Market Animal Sale began on the new auction block. Lex Godfrey, agricultural educator at Rigby High School and chairman of the sale committee, put the night’s livestock sales at more than $800,000. He said added contributions, known as boosts, could carry the total past $1 million. “That will go back to these youth in our community,” Godfrey said. “Often people look at these as market animal projects. They are. But the true product is these young people that are developing and learning what it takes to take care of something and be responsible for something.”

On Saturday the trailers backed up for the animals. Tenley Walker, 15, had raised a steer named Big Guns, and the pair took Grand Champion Market Steer. “I’ve had a really good year with him,” she said as loading began. “We’re about to load them on the trailer and I’m already getting a little bit worked up. But it’s okay, just the way it goes.”

A county with two fairs

According to the county’s published history, by Bob Ziel with historian Patricia Scott, Jefferson is one of the few counties in Idaho or the nation with two annual fairs. One is the fair in Rigby. The other is the Mud Lake Fair and Rodeo out west, which that history says “proudly rivals any fair in more populated counties across the Gem State.” Mud Lake held its 78th fair in 2026, the week before Rigby’s.

The county fair has not always been in Rigby. In August 1950 the Rigby Star reported that plans were complete for the 17th annual Jefferson County Fair, to be held at Ririe on September 1 and 2. Several new features had been added alongside the Mid West Carnival, and “those in charge state the fair will be the best ever.”

The county itself dates from 1913. That February Governor John Haines signed House Bill 125, and on November 4 voters approved the new county and chose Rigby as its seat. John W. Hart of Menan sponsored the legislation and is often called the father of Jefferson County. The first elected officials met on January 5, 1914. The animals in the barns come out of farm country. Potatoes grow across several thousand acres in the west of the county, and sugar beets, pea seeds, and barley have long paid. The Great Feeder Canal, opened in June 1895, carried irrigation water across the region. Rigby took the Yellowstone Branch railroad through town in 1900, and by 1910 it was the largest town in the county. When the Teton Dam burst at noon on June 5, 1976, Rigby escaped the water, while Roberts and Menan were flooded and cleaned up with help from outside.

The city calls itself the Birthplace of Television. The claim rests on Philo T. Farnsworth, who, the county history says, was plowing a field near Rigby in the 1920s when he came on the idea of an electronic beam scanning back and forth across a screen, the way a plow works a field for planting.