LaSalle Days

LaSalle Days opens on a Friday evening in Main Park. At the 2026 festival, the 45th, that evening was July 17. From 5 p.m. there were free yard games and sidewalk chalk, food trucks, ice cream and coffee, sno-cones and cotton candy. At 5:30 the first games of Pete’s Pitch, a horseshoe tournament, began at the pits on the west side of the park along N 3rd Street. A movie in the park closed the night. In May the town asked residents on Facebook to choose the film from three titles: Zootopia 2, the live-action How to Train Your Dragon, and the Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

The Town of LaSalle runs the celebration from Town Hall at 128 N 2nd Street. That spring the hall sold LaSalle Days T-shirts at $12 in red, navy and black, and white 40-ounce tumblers with the festival logo at $15. The 2026 theme was “American Heart, Hometown Soul,” a patriotic theme marking the 250th birthday of the United States.

Saturday from the top of Main Street

The second day starts early. In 2024 it opened at 7 a.m. with the BMS Foundation Pancake Breakfast. In 2021 Boy Scout Pack #4 came in early to help with the pancakes. At 7:30 a.m. Toni’s Trot sets off from the top of Main Street, beside the Community Center and the water tower. Packet pick-up is on the Community Center’s east lawn. The 2026 race was the 36th annual. It is a three-mile run with cash for the three fastest men and women and awards for each age group from 7 to 10 up through 60 and over. After the main race, children six and under run the Tiny Trot on an uncertified course, and each gets a gift bag. Proceeds go to the town Recreation Department.

The parade steps off at 10 a.m. Anyone may join, and no form is required. Entries line up from 9 a.m. at the corner of E Taylor Avenue and Elm Street in the order they arrive. The town asks entries not to stop along the way, with one exception. Performances happen only in front of the Fire Department. The flier adds, in capitals, that there is no water spraying there. After the route, entries continue west across the train tracks. The 2026 honorees rode in the parade: Grand Marshal Don Shaffer, Honorary Educator Lars Thorgesen and Honorary Senior Terry Workman. Earlier parades have carried floats and classic cars. In 2013 the Valley High School mascot marched with the school’s cheerleaders.

Mud, bags and bounce houses

From about 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Main Park fills with vendor booths in 10-by-10-foot spaces. Free bounce houses come from LMA. No pets are allowed in the park, and silly string, snap-n-pops and stink bombs are banned. Parking near the park is tight. On the Saturday of the 2026 festival the school district, WCSDRE-1, ran a shuttle bus from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. between the Valley Middle School bus zone on N 4th Street and the horseshoe pits.

Mud volleyball has long been part of the program. Teams play seven to a side, and every player must be at least 16. The town plays under high school federation rules with co-ed changes: when a team touches the ball more than once, a woman must make at least one of the touches. In 2021 sixteen teams played for the title the Greeley Tribune called “champion of the pits.” The paper reported that “the mud and trash talk flew.” The cornhole tournament, in its third year in 2026, is played in pairs at the ballfields at 235 Todd Avenue. Games go to 21 points, are capped at 25, and must be won by two. Leaners do not count.

The program ends after dark. In 2024 the fireworks began at 9:30 p.m.

The 40th, after a missed summer

The town did not hold LaSalle Days in 2020 because of COVID-19. The 40th annual celebration opened on a Friday in July 2021. That year there was a memorial horseshoe tournament, live music, the Smokin’ Bros. Barbecue truck, bounce houses, and a park screening of The Croods: A New Age.

On Saturday the park held craft tables, balloon artists and caricaturists, with music from Pirate Radio 104.7 FM. The Two by Two mobile petting zoo brought a mini donkey, baby goats, sheep and an alpaca. The afternoon included the Dance Factory, a classic car show, a LaSalle Recreation cheer camp demonstration, and a memorial dedication at the fire station honoring LaSalle veterans. “I think we had 75 vendors,” said Town Clerk and Treasurer Gail Odenbaugh. “Not every space is filled, so not everybody showed, but we have a pretty good turnout.”

Among the vendors were Donald and Jennifer Denoncourt of Greeley, who displayed handmade cigar box guitars, one of them in a steampunk style. “This is what people would do when they wanted to have an instrument,” Jennifer Denoncourt said. “They would put them together and make music from it and enjoy it. Now it just looks beautiful.” Her husband said, “It’s nice to be back out again and go to things like this.” The day ended at the Community Center, 101 Todd Avenue, with the Don Juan dinner, a performance by Inspire Dance Studio and fireworks. A co-ed softball tournament was played Sunday morning at the Todd Avenue ballfields.

A caboose across from the park

Eight years earlier, the 2013 festival drew several hundred people to Main Park for specialty booths, police K-9 demonstrations, face painting, crafts and games. The Tribune noted a street dance, movies in the park and mud volleyball that year. Before the parade, Aliyah Jameson, 8, picked out balloons on Main Street. During it, Kain Bedan, 7, aimed his water gun into the crowd. Marcos Balderama, 8, was in town visiting friends. Asked for his favorite part, he said, “The fireworks, of course. That bouncy thing is pretty fun, too.”

That year, a private museum stood across the street from the park. Residents John and Paula Cochran opened their front-yard caboose to visitors. It was a 1959 Union Pacific caboose weighing 58,000 pounds. The couple had seen it sitting beside U.S. 85 in Gilcrest with a for-sale sign that had been up a long time. Fearing it would be sold for scrap, they bought it in late 2012 and had it moved. Paula Cochran estimated the purchase and move cost about $20,000. Dozens of friends and family donated time and materials, and by July 2013 the caboose was close to fully restored. “We couldn’t just let it die,” Paula said. “LaSalle was built on the railroad. It wouldn’t be here if not for the railroad.” Marcos Balderama had heard about it: “It’s a real train. Duh, I can’t wait to see it.”

Esther Pierce-Pfeifer came up from Denver to visit a niece in Gilcrest. She described the appeal of a small-town festival: “You get the hotdogs and hamburgers and the memories without the cleanup.” She added, “LaSalle is one of our favorites because the fireworks are always good.”

The depot at the top of Main Street

The railroad Paula Cochran spoke of began laying track from Denver toward Cheyenne on September 13, 1869. The town’s own history says the Denver Pacific line was finished on May 8, 1870, when Union Pacific Number 28 became the first train to steam through present-day LaSalle. Upstate Colorado, citing Weld County 150 and Greeley museum staff, says the line reached the townsite on May 11, 1870.

The sources also differ on the town’s name. The town credits an early settler, D. S. Ellis, who came from LaSalle, Illinois. Upstate Colorado calls the “most likely theory” that the town was named after the LaSalle railroad station in Chicago, itself named for the French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.

In 1881 the Union Pacific bought out the Denver Pacific and ran a line 151 miles southwest from Julesburg to meet the Cheyenne line at LaSalle. The original depot burned in 1906, and a larger one replaced it in 1907. By 1910 LaSalle had become the Union Pacific’s northern base of operations, with an engine roundhouse, a large livestock yard and a big water tank. The town gives the tank’s size as 65,000 gallons; Upstate Colorado gives 60,000. On April 18, 1910, residents voted 67 to 39 to incorporate. The all-volunteer fire department was incorporated the same year. The water tower on the east side of town went up in 1917.

In 1952 Maurice “Mac” McMahan, owner of the Weld County Service Station, was elected mayor. He held the office for 28 years, until 1980. The 1907 depot was restored as the town’s community center and named for him. It is the McMahan Community Center, beside which the runners of Toni’s Trot gather on the east lawn before 7:30 on Saturday morning.