Malheur County Fair & Rodeo

At two o’clock on the afternoon of July 28, 2026, the Malheur County Fairgrounds posted its opening notice: “It’s 2 o’clock and all is well. The FAIR IS OPEN!” The grounds lie at 795 NW 9th Street in Ontario, the largest city in Malheur County. Ontario sits on the Snake River near the Idaho line and calls itself “Where Oregon Begins.” The 2026 fair ran five days, through August 1, under the theme Barnyard Block Party, in purple, gold and green. The fair’s own pages put attendance at more than 20,000 visitors a year.

The week before was spent getting ready. A clean-up day came twelve days out. Nine days out the Fairgrounds reported: “Banner are hung, flags are flying, flowers blooming and the grounds are looking amazing.” Two less welcome notices followed. On July 25 the grounds had been sprayed and were to be fogged the next night, and fairgoers were told to pack mosquito spray: “The mosquitoes are horrible.” The following morning’s post opened “Good Smokey Morning,” with thoughts for Jordan Valley and Burns, then under fire.

Camels in the Dairy Arena

The calendar listed July 29 as running from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., at $5. Tickets were sold ahead at Red Apple in Ontario. From July 29 through August 1, local businesses could bring their staff in free at lunch, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., by signing in. Food vendors set up across the grounds, a few of them new.

On July 31 the camels came. The Fairgrounds post read: “The animals are coming, the animals are coming….. oops ! I ment CAMELS!!!!” It set shows at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the Dairy Arena, with a meet-and-greet after. Children had a Mars exhibit, kept open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. When its volunteers left early in the week, the Fairgrounds asked for five more and offered fair passes in return, noting “The kids love this exhibit.” The stage carried Malheur’s Got Talent on the evening of July 29. On July 31 it carried Dangerously Fun Juggling with James Reed and, that night, Matthew Balling. The fair also held its 36th Annual Pretty Baby Contest, with no pre-registration. Parents signed their babies up at the event.

The Malheur County Fair Board runs the fair and the grounds. Its rules bar dogs and other domestic pets, except for dog-show exhibitors, and keep horses to the Grandstand area. Bicycles, skateboards, scooters and motorcycles are not allowed on the grounds. Camping is first come, first served, with no reservations. Sites have 30- and 50-amp pedestal hook-ups and limited water, and there is room for dry camping. The rates are $30 a night with water and electric and $15 a night dry. A “CAMP BOX” near the camping area holds envelopes for payment. The RV dump station stands outside and east of the Main Gate.

Showmanship beside the swine barn

In the week before the 2026 fair, the Fairgrounds’ posts kept returning to the young exhibitors. One read, “These kids work so hard for months upon months on their projects.” Another said, “Please come and watch the kids. They have worked hard to be there.” The 4-H fair book covers sheep, swine, beef, dairy cattle, and dairy, meat, fiber and pygmy goats. It also covers rabbits, poultry, dogs, exotic pets and horses. Hand-washing stations stand near the barns, and visitors are asked not to touch the pens or eat in the barns.

The Argus Observer’s account of the final day of the 2024 fair, published August 3, 2024, gives the scene. The 4-H/FFA swine showmanship next to the swine barn “packs a crowd,” the paper wrote, drawing all ages. Macardy Babcock of Adrian Livestock 4-H won overall grand champion showman in intermediate swine showmanship with her pig, Brandan. Judge Rudy VanWinkle of Melba stood beside her for the photograph. Asked her favorite part of 4-H, she named the people and “how everyone is like a little community.” Bonnie McKrola of Vale was in her first year showing, with the Willowcreek Creekers. She rested in the shade with her Suffolk lamb, Roxie, which she hoped to sell at market: “I’m kind of sad about that.” Coral Maret of the Harper FFA Chapter took the champion ribbon in her weight class in FFA market goat, with a goat named String Cheese. Taggart Bayes of Adrian 4-H led his steer, Copernicus, to a competition. On the last day, market beef, swine, sheep and goats, along with dairy projects, went to auction at 10 a.m. in the beef arena.

Elsewhere on the 2024 grounds, Pastor Paul Malek of St. Paul Lutheran Church and Helen Caudillo of Giggles and Grace took orders and made scones at their food booth. Mariah Furtado of Adrian showed her handmade beaded jewelry. Riders went up on the Rock Star and down the giant slide, and Jess Wall of Ontario threw as hard as he could at a floating cup in the Buoy game.

Work on the barns went on after the 2026 fair closed. On August 28 the Fairgrounds posted video of “the second load coming in this morning of the new sheep and goat barn.” On September 2 it posted the containers’ new location, “One more step closer.”

Bucking under the LED lights

The 2024 rodeo was an ICA rodeo, held on pink night. A pre-rodeo with mutton bustin’ began at 7 p.m. and the main show at 8. The card included bareback riding, breakaway roping, tie-down calf roping, saddle bronc and ranch bronc riding, and steer wrestling. Team roping, novice bull riding and bull riding rounded it out. By July 2026 the arena had a new affiliation. “Come watch the RODEO. We are now NPRA,” the Fairgrounds posted, adding, “Not to mention our new LED lights that light up the arena.”

A corn festival and a balloon ascension

The fair began in 1909 as the Ontario Corn Festival. The town was then twenty-six years old. In 1883 four residents of Baker City, William Morfitt, Daniel Smith, James W. Virtue and Mary Richardson, claimed adjoining sections of desert land to plat a town. Virtue named it for his home province of Ontario, Canada. The Oregon Short Line reached Ontario in the winter of 1884-1885, and its stockyard became the largest on the line. Malheur County was carved from southern Baker County in 1887. Vale beat Ontario for the county seat by popular vote in 1888, and the question went back to voters until 1913, when Ontario conceded. The legislature incorporated Ontario on February 11, 1899.

The county-seat paper, the Malheur Enterprise of Vale, covered the fair at Ontario. On October 16, 1920, it announced a tractor demonstration on every day of the fair. The demonstration was to run on five acres acquired for the purpose beside the Fair Grounds, under the Fordson tractor dealers of the county. Anyone interested in tilling soil by modern scientific farming was invited.

The Enterprise of September 16, 1922, previewed the fair of September 20, 21 and 22. It promised $3,000 in premiums and $5,000 in purses and prizes. Opening day brought a free barbecue and a parade at 11 a.m. sharp. Every day there were running races, Roman races, auto, motorcycle and wild horse races, and bucking contests, with band concerts afternoon and evening and balloon ascensions daily. The midway advertised 25 attractions and five “monster riding devices.” These were the same shows, the advertisement said, that would occupy the midways at the Idaho State Fair at Boise and the Utah State Fair at Salt Lake City. The Oregon Short Line sold tickets at one and one-half fare.

Two features were new that year. A dairy show was run as an educational course, with an authority from the O.A.C. to judge and lecture, and the Payette Co-operative Creamery helped. The first annual Snake River Valley Potato Show drew entries from growers in Idaho and Oregon. The potato market was dull, the paper allowed, but “the Snake River Valley can surely produce the stuff when it comes to raising potatoes.” Corn club boys from Oregon Slope and Jefferson competed for places on their clubs’ judging teams.

The baby show ran on the second morning, 9:30 to noon, in the Masonic hall. Babies from six months to three years old were judged on age, weight, skin, throat and glands, teeth and body symmetry. Twelve prizes were offered, merchandise worth $2 to $5 donated by Ontario merchants. Ontario entries closed at 10 o’clock, so the last two hours were kept for the people coming from the country and surrounding towns.