Montrose County Fair & Rodeo

At half past four on the Tuesday of fair week, Montrose County crews bring backhoes into the outdoor arena behind the grandstands for the Montrose County Backhoe Rodeo. On the track in front of the same grandstands, goat roping runs until six. In 2026, at five o’clock, members of the Board of County Commissioners began handing out locally made hand pies from Straw Hat Farms, while they lasted. Deputies from the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office and other first responders stood by to visit with families. That was the free Vectra Bank Community Night. At six the J$ Cattle Company Ranch Rodeo took the arena, with mutton bustin’, calf dressing and a rescue race.

The Montrose County Fair & Rodeo is held on the county fairgrounds in Montrose. Its buildings are Friendship Hall, the indoor and outdoor arenas, the show ring, the barns and the Cattlewoman’s Pavilion. The 2026 fair, counted as the 140th, ran nine days, July 17 to 25, with Montrose County as presenting sponsor.

Nine days in July

The 2026 fair opened on Friday evening, July 17, with a parade down Main Street at seven. Earlier that day, judges interviewed young exhibitors about their general projects in Friendship Hall. Dogs ran obedience and rally on the concrete at the far side of the indoor arena. The weekend went to the junior horse show, western and English on Saturday and ranch and gymkhana on Sunday, with J$ Cattle Company team roping in the outdoor arena on Saturday evening. On Monday, Friendship Hall and the barns opened to the public, and swine, rabbits and beef came across the scales.

From there the junior shows moved through the week: poultry, rabbits, goats, swine, sheep and beef in the show ring, and dogs in showmanship and agility. Each species had a show for the youngest exhibitors on its day. The Chicken Little Show came before the junior poultry on Monday and the Peter Rabbit Show before the rabbits on Tuesday morning. Kids with Kids opened the goat day on Wednesday, and This Little Pig came half an hour before the junior swine. Merry Little Lamb opened Thursday ahead of the sheep, and the Ferdinand & Friends Cow Show went on just before the beef. A My Little Pony Show and Puppy Pals filled out the list. On Friday, Round Robin showmanship put small-animal and then large-animal exhibitors through the ring, and the No Limits Show followed at 2:30.

The Open Show takes entries in art, photography, ceramics, quilting, foods, woodworking, horticulture and floriculture. Flowers and foods came in early Monday, and Room 4 stayed closed all that day for judging. Among the 2026 youth champions, Carter Goza took grand champion for a floral arrangement. Noah Tafoya was reserve grand champion for clothing construction and an original LEGO design, and Asher Wilson took grand champion for a LEGO build kit.

Between shows there were line-dancing lessons at noon in Friendship Hall. Jeneve Rose Mitchell played there on the Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and Black Canyon Gymnastics performed on the hall’s stage. On weekday afternoons a petting zoo set up in the show ring and kids crafts at the Cattlewoman’s Pavilion. Wednesday brought a kiddie tractor pull and the Home Loan State Bank Stick Horse Races in the indoor arena, then a movie night in the Pioneer Room. A barrel race filled Thursday night. On two evenings the pavilion held a fair dance, no alcohol, open to the youth showing at the fair.

Oysters, bulls and the sale ring

The last two days belong to the grandstands. On Friday, July 24, 2026, a pig scramble ran at 3:30 on the northwest side of the indoor arena, and the grandstand gates opened an hour later. At 5:30 the FFA served its oyster fry at the grandstands; the county’s announcement called it the Rocky Mountain Oyster Fry. After mutton bustin’ and San Juan Sparkles & Spurs, the Builders FirstSource BuckIt Bull Riding began at seven. Tickets were $15 for adults and $8 for children 12 and under.

Saturday began with the Olathe Community 4H Club pancake breakfast in the Cattlewoman’s Pavilion and rodeo slack in the outdoor arena. Buyers ate lunch in the indoor arena at eleven, and the Junior Livestock Auction began there at one. Local businesses and residents buy through the Stockmen’s Buyers Club. According to the county, the proceeds help the young sellers pay for future projects and save for college. Bids at the 2026 auction came to $534,900. Add-ons dropped off at Timberline Bank in the following week brought in $192,626 more, for a total of $727,526.

That evening the fair royalty were crowned in the outdoor arena at 6:30, and the Turner Chevrolet GMC CPRA Rodeo closed the fair at seven. The new royalty travel through the year in sponsored chaps, worn at rodeos, parades and community events. The 2026–2027 princess is Allie Harris. Over Labor Day weekend the royalty rode at the Ouray County Rodeo. In September they flew the colors and carried sponsor flags before the crowd at the Mountain States Ranch Rodeo Finals.

The board in the Pioneer Room

The Board of County Commissioners created the Montrose County Fair Board on March 4, 1952. Its job is to organize, promote, oversee and account for the money of the annual fair and rodeo. Members serve three-year terms, and the commissioners last revised the bylaws in January 2024. The board meets at seven o’clock on the third Tuesday of each month, in the Pioneer Room of Friendship Hall. Molli Yorchak was president for the 140th fair.

Volunteer superintendents run the barns and the halls. In 2026 Mark Covington had beef, Luke Kimble swine, KC Millsap sheep, Eric McCullough goats, Lisa Hall poultry and Mike Martinez rabbits. Tayllor Pittman had dogs and the art show, and Linda McIntosh and Donna Hebein had flowers and field crops. The Montrose Cattlewomen, whose name is on the pavilion, marked 75 years in 2026 with a new cookbook. Their last one had appeared 50 years before, and proceeds from the new book go to their scholarship fund. “The fair exists because of the dedication of our volunteers, exhibitors, sponsors, and community supporters,” Yorchak said before the 2026 fair.

A skating rink in 1884

The governor of Colorado created Montrose County out of Gunnison County in 1883. In an August 2024 column in the Montrose Press, Sally Johnson dated the fair from the next year. In 1884, J.J. Ross reported in the Montrose Messenger that the newly created fair would be held in Joseph Selig’s skating rink. It had exhibits of vegetables and produce, and a horse race in the southeastern part of town. By Johnson’s account, the rink later became the site of the first Montrose County courthouse. The county’s own history says the first courthouse was an adobe building, bought in 1885, that had been the town’s indoor skating rink. The photographs that ran with Johnson’s column show a Holly Sugar exhibit and a fruit display from fairs long past.

The fair’s organizers count from a different year. Yorchak called the fair “a tradition that has been part of Montrose County since 1886,” and the 140th anniversary of 2026 rests on that date.

The adobe courthouse gave way to a stone one. On September 15, 1922, the Masons laid its cornerstone, 4,500 pounds of Salida granite, with most of the town looking on. Among the papers sealed inside were a trail map of the county, the story of irrigation in the Uncompahgre Valley, and a life history of Joseph Selig, founder of Montrose.