Nez Perce County Fair

From US 12 the way to the Nez Perce County Fairgrounds runs south on 21st Street and climbs, the street becoming Thain Grade and then Thain Road. It bears southeast to Burrell Avenue and turns east to number 1229. The fair is held there the third week in September, Thursday through Sunday, and the event listing puts the crowd at about 22,000 visitors over the four days. Overflow cars park off Airway Avenue at the east and north ends of the Orchards Swimming Pool.

Barns, stages and the colored gates

The fair’s own grounds map numbers the place building by building. The Exhibit Building, with an ATM, is number 1. Then come the Rabbit and Poultry Barn, the Beef Show and Sale Barn with its hog section alongside, the Sheep and Goat Show Barn, and a barn annex. A petting zoo stands at 6 and the 4-H dining canopies at 8. Two outdoor stages face each other across the grounds, East Stage at 9 and West Stage at 15, and the horse arena is 17. The concession area, the exhibit areas and the carnival are lettered A, B and C, and an information booth is marked I. Visitors come and go through gates named for colors: Blue, Orange, Yellow, Red and Green.

The fair states its purpose plainly: to showcase “the talents and efforts of 4-H and FFA members” and the residents of the county. Livestock fills the barns. The open classes run to baked goods, photography, crafts, gardening, needlework, canning and flowers, entered by anyone who cares to try.

Four days in September 2026

The 2026 fair, the 82nd, ran September 24 through 27 under the theme “Red, White and Blue, We’re 82.” Gates opened at 10 o’clock Thursday morning, and admission was free until 3 o’clock, courtesy of Lewiston GMC. Thursday was also School Tour Day, when classes arrived before 12:30 with a list of booths recommended for learning. Sammy Eubanks played the Z-Rock stage that afternoon at 4 and again at 7. In the exhibit halls the fair’s own notices listed “massive pumpkins, reindeer, gorgeous flowers, beautiful quilts.”

Friday was Senior Day, with admission $4 for those sixty and over. Care-facility groups came in the late morning. Rain fell that afternoon. The fair posted that the carnival would open at 1 o’clock as scheduled, though some rides would stay shut “until they can safely run.” By evening all rides were running.

The food ran to deep-fried Oreos, footlong corn dogs, funnel cakes, baskets of fries and macaroni-and-cheese bowls. Vanessa Adams, the general manager, holds that a hand-dipped corn dog is hard to beat, though in 2026 she was waiting on the shrimp skewers.

Among the exhibitors and vendors were neighbors with other business. Reliance Ministries parked Fern, its large turquoise mobile medical unit, on the grounds for all four days. Fern ordinarily carries pregnancy and sexual health services around the region. At the fair it served as a free, private, climate-controlled room for changing diapers and feeding infants. “Sometimes it looks like giving a tired mom a clean, private place to feed her baby or change a diaper at the fair,” said Heather Lawless, the ministry’s founder and chief executive. The Nez Perce County Historical Society kept a booth through Sunday at 3, selling its new 2027 historical calendars and huckleberry products from the museum store. Cheryl, Greg and Garry staffed it the first morning.

The fair closed at 3 o’clock Sunday afternoon. The 83rd is set for September 23 to 26, 2027, under the theme “Barnyard Scenes and Childhood Dreams.”

The people who run it

Vanessa Adams managed her sixth Nez Perce County fair in 2026. She grew up in 4-H showing rabbits at the local, state and national level, and met her best friend in the rabbit barn at the San Joaquin County Fair in the sixth grade. She spent thirteen years at the Cow Palace in California before coming to Lewiston. Her favorite hour of the fair is the Opening Ceremony presented by the VFW, especially when the bagpipes come.

Abby Walser, business manager and fair coordinator, keeps the accounts and oversees the vendors. She raised sheep, served as a 4-H sheep leader, and was for years a superintendent at the Latah County Fair. Away from the ledgers she spins, knits and quilts. A maintenance crew of four keeps the grounds through the year: Matt Albertson, supervisor, with Otto Tauffen, Jesse Merritt and Bob Boyle. In fair week they handle setups, cleanup and repairs. The fair’s account says they also build whatever the manager has thought up, starting from “I have an idea…”

The fair board serves without pay. Leslie Smith of Lewiston, chairman since her appointment in 2020, has volunteered in the Flower Department since 2001 and has entered flowers every year. She has missed only two tear-down days, both for the flu. Tony Havens grew up near the fairgrounds, celebrated many birthdays at the fair, and still raises sheep and steers for it. Bob Carlton led the Tail Twisters 4-H Club with his wife and was Sheep Barn Superintendent for years. Kim L. Cannon of Kendrick, an electrical contractor, joined in 2008 because his trade was needed. Joanie Wittman has worked the needlework department. Patti Schmitt keeps the fairgrounds flowers alive through the summer. The newest member, Betsy BoyerSmith, showed pigs as a girl and serves as Flower Department Superintendent.

Petitions to the courthouse, 1953

The fair dates its beginning to 1944. In the 1950s, according to the board’s own history, a meeting of businessmen and interested exhibitors appointed a committee of fifteen to manage the fair. A 21-person committee later carried on as the Fair Board. In 1953 a new effort began to found a county fair board under the Idaho Code. Petitions representing 4,500 county residents asked for a permanent board.

On December 15, 1953, the petitions were carried to the Nez Perce County Commissioners at the County Courthouse. A photograph on the fair’s history page shows Herbert Powell, chairman of the Lewiston Chamber of Commerce Petition Committee, presenting the stack. With him stand Bert Schroeder, J.D. Richardson, Wayne Talbott, and Art Barnes and Kermit Malcom of the Chamber of Commerce.

The first appointed board took office in 1954. It had eight members: Ed C. Rettig, John Thiessen, Art Barnes, Herb Powell, Hugh Parks, Jack Clifford, Buford Webb and Joe Dahmen. Some stayed a long time. Powell and Thiessen served until 1978, Webb until 1976, and Parks until 1975. Joe Dahmen served a single year. The roll of later members runs on through the decades, with Janet Sprute serving from 1994 to 2020 and Gwen Heitstuman from 1999 to 2023.

The fair’s history slideshow follows the same years in photographs. One shows the 1959 fair with Noreen Davis, Judy Ingram and Mrs. Ed Schmidt. Others show the Fair Pavilion under construction and the fairs of 1961, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1974 and 1976. For the 75th year, in 2019, the fair struck a souvenir pin marked 1944 – 2019. The fair office still had a limited supply, at $5 each or two for $8.