Minidoka County Fair & Rodeo

Reece Smith, sixteen, of Heyburn, was shaving his pig for the next morning’s show. “This is my pig, Bo Nix. I named him after the best quarterback in the league,” he told an Idaho News 6 reporter at the Minidoka County Fairgrounds, 85 East Baseline Road in Rupert. He had been coming to the fair for about ten years. “It’s hard work, it teaches you moral ethics... I love it so much – that’s why I keep coming back.” The station found no carnival rides or flashing lights at the fair. It found hundreds of 4-H youth showing pigs, cattle, goats and more, a year’s work in each animal.

Carver Smith, twelve, also of Heyburn, was showing cattle. “My cow is Oreo, and my sister’s cow is Snickers... and he’s a real pain in the butt – drags me and my dad across the yard,” he said. Reaghan Person, nine, of Rupert, had two goats: “This is Penny, she’s a Nigerian-Boer cross – and the brown one is Chocolate, she’s just a pure Nigerian.” Kayben Mort, the Minidoka County 4-H Teen President, laid out his week: “I’m bull riding this Friday, I’ve my market-goat show this Thursday, I sell it all on Saturday.” He remembered coming as a boy “wanting to be one of the big kids, wanting to be in the rodeo and wanting to be in the show ring. Now I’m here.”

Cobbler, pie, and a sale at nine sharp

The 2026 fair ran from Monday, July 27, through Saturday, August 1, under a schedule the fair itself marked subject to change. Monday opened with a 4-H and FFA dog show in the Pavilion at 8:30 in the morning. A cat show followed at four and rabbit showmanship at six, and small children rode in the Tiny Tot Horse Gymkhana in the arena that evening. The exhibit buildings, including the Green 4-H Building, stayed open to the public until ten most nights of the week.

Tuesday evening was given to food. The Lions served an all-you-can-eat barbecue in the Pavilion from six to nine. At seven the fair board put out ice cream and cobbler, free to anyone. “Come on out tonight for some cobbler after the Lion’s BBQ then watch some team sorting!” the fair posted that afternoon. The team sorting, free to watch, marked what the fair called its return to the program. In the 4-H Building children baked for Cupcake Wars. Outside stood a 4-H shooting sports trailer with a shotgun trap simulator, open evenings to anyone eight or older for a dollar.

On Wednesday the swine were fitted and shown in the Pig Show Barn, and at three the pies were judged at the McGregor Center. In 2026 the county commissioners judged the LeAnn Pie Contest. The flavor that year was pumpkin, and the fair allowed that most of those present had never eaten pumpkin pie in 90-degree weather. The commissioners named chocolate cream for the following year. Thursday brought sheep, market goats and poultry to the Pavilion and a free Bug Extravaganza to the 4-H Building. The free children’s hours that week went by names such as Sock-Topus, Stars, Stripes & Sticks, and Caterpillar Creations.

Friday afternoon the Minidoka County Farm Bureau sponsored a livestock costume contest. Then came round-robin showmanship, in which exhibitors handled beef, dairy, sheep, swine, horses and goats in one ring, and dogs, cats, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, pet goats and ducks in another. The 4-H and FFA livestock sale opened in the Pavilion at nine o’clock sharp Saturday morning. Afterward the fair board and Commissioner Dan Schaeffer thanked the buyers: “The FFA and 4H youth spend all summer preparing their animals for the fair and sale.” That August the fair also sent condolences to the family of Mike Bott, who had served on the Livestock Sale Committee for years. At one o’clock Saturday, antique tractors pulled on the horse race track. By noon Sunday every 4-H and FFA animal had to be off the grounds and every pen cleaned, “NO EXCEPTIONS!”

Mutton busters and three queens

The junior rodeo ran Wednesday and Thursday nights at seven in the rodeo arena, and on Thursday a Rodeo Princess was crowned. The open rodeo followed at 7:30 on Friday, July 31, and Saturday, August 1. Before each one came the Ryder Arthur Memorial Mutton Bustin’, a pre-show sponsored by Project Mutual Telephone, for riders at least four years old and no heavier than fifty pounds. PMT handed out swag, and on Friday Minidoka Memorial Hospital gave away a bicycle. A Rodeo Queen was crowned Friday night and a Grandma Queen on Saturday. The 2026 queen was Cheyenne Olive and the princess Kayla Critchfield, who carried Minidoka County’s colors in the Cassia County parade later that August.

When the week was over, the fair board thanked those who ran the gate and stood watch. The Wranglers took tickets and kept security, the Sheriff’s Department was present the entire fair, and EMTs attended each rodeo. The board called them “mandatory each year for a successful fair.”

The grounds on East Baseline Road

The county describes the fairgrounds as a highly diversified facility. Across the year they hold antique tractor pulls, auctions, Hispanic rodeos, high school rodeos, the Idaho State Horse Junior Rodeo, posse meets, rabbit shows, snaffle bit shows, and the Minico High School FFA Ag-Expo and graduation celebration. During the July 4th celebration they hold a carnival, horse races and chariot races. On September 11 and 12, 2026, dirt bikes, ATVs, side-by-sides and pickups raced there under the lights, with drivers as young as three. “You bring it, you can race it,” the notice read. Chikn Wingz n Thingz cooked wings for the last night.

A seven-member county fair board, chaired in 2025 by Travis Lammers, runs the fair. James Frost keeps the grounds. The county gave the 2025 fair the motto “Sew it, Grow it, Show it.” The board’s fair book says the board and visitors alike love to see the antique items and flower displays in the open class building. For more than twenty years the antiques building had a superintendent, Gary Schorzman, who wrote books on Minidoka County’s homesteading families, schools and irrigation projects and led the committees for Rupert’s centennial in 2006 and the county’s in 2013. He died May 21 at age 82 on the family farm north of Rupert. “Gary’s name was almost synonymous with the history of Minidoka County,” said Rick Parker, president of the county historical society. The society’s museum stands a short way up the road at 99 East Baseline. In 2012 a stagecoach replica built by David Wheeler spent a week at the county fair before being raffled for the museum and the centennial committee.

Racehorses and a miniature rodeo, 1966

Idaho News 6 counted the fair at 78 years. Carver Smith reckoned it longer: “I get to carry on what this whole community has been doing for over a hundred years.”

On August 24, 1966, the Twin Falls Times-News printed plans for that year’s Minidoka County Fair. Parimutuel horse racing was scheduled at the fairgrounds, ten races a day, with thoroughbreds among them. Clyde Preuss chaired a tractor pulling contest in four weight classes. Blain Nielsen chaired a flower show, sponsored by a Rupert woman’s club and held for the third year in the National Guard armory. Barbara Schenk and Beverly Cribb superintended a style revue in the Minico High School auditorium. Lamont Smith was general superintendent of the 4-H agriculture division, whose projects ran to beef, dairy, pigs, field beans, potatoes, small grain and sugar beets, judged for blue, red and white ribbons. Ralph Jurgensmeier sat on the fair board committee with Preuss and Smith.

That year Vern Oyler and his sons provided a miniature rodeo, directed by members of the Minidoka County Wranglers. It offered calf riding and bronc riding in several age classes for boys up to fourteen, and no rider could weigh over 120 pounds.