North Park Fair (Jackson County)

The road to the North Park Fair leaves Highway 125 at Airport Hill, just north of Walden, and turns east at the sign for the fairgrounds. The sign carries the dates of the year’s fair. Past the airport the road ends at the Jackson County Fairgrounds and the Jerelin Wattenberg Center. Admission and parking are free, and the local chapter of Future Farmers of America runs the concessions.

The fair comes at the turn of the North Park year. According to the Visit North Park tourism site, most ranches have finished haying by the end of August, because hard frosts damage the crop and there is no second cutting in the mountains. By fair time the aspens are going gold, cattle trucks are carrying stock to market, and hunters are arriving for the fall seasons. Counties at lower elevations have already held their fairs. In North Park the vegetable gardens are only beginning to come in, and the same site notes that “Fair time also means harvest time.”

The fair was called the Jackson County Fair until 1952, and the tourism site still uses that name. Visit North Park places it on the first weekend after Labor Day weekend. The Town of Walden’s 2024 posting ran it from September 4 through 8. The 2023 fair, the 75th anniversary, ran September 7 to 10. Visit North Park’s newsletter gave the 2026 dates as September 11 to 13. The Colorado State University Extension office in Jackson County handles inquiries, and the North Park Stockgrowers Association posts the fair book and results. The fairboard it listed for 2021 had Faith Anderson as president, Samantha Martin as vice president, Christy Utley as secretary-treasurer, and Clint Harvat as chairman of the sale committee. That year the shooting sports shoot and the horse show were held ahead of the main fair, on August 14 and 15.

Rabbits, lambs, and a pen of three

The Town of Walden’s 2024 schedule sets out a typical fair. The first day was weigh-in, and no animals were shown. Judging began the next morning with a dog show at 9:00, followed by the 4-H/FFA rabbit show at 1:00 and the poultry show, tentatively, at 3:00. A community dance started at 7:00 that evening. The third day opened the Home Arts Display from 9:00 to 6:00, with the lamb and goat show at 10:00, the chili cookoff at 2:00, Old McMorgan’s Farm at 3:00, and then the swine show. The fourth day brought the beef show at 10:00 and the 4-H/FFA Round Robin at 1:00.

Visit North Park lists sheep, cattle, turkeys, pheasants, and pigs under judging, and sometimes horses and rabbits. The ranchers have a class of their own. The Extension office describes a pen show on Saturday morning, where North Park ranchers bring “a nice pen of 3” to show. The entry money is jackpotted, and the North Park Stockgrowers and North Park CattleWomen add to the purse.

The home arts hall holds crafts, artwork, textiles, garden produce, canning, woodworking, and photography. The tourism site describes this work as a survival of homestead years, when skill at canning, cooking, and quilting helped families through harsh winters. It invites visitors to judge the entries for themselves and see whether they agree with the local judges.

Chile, pie, and the barbecue

In one year’s listing, the North Park Area Chamber of Commerce sponsored a chile and chili cookoff on Friday, September 5, at 2:00. Prizes went for the hottest and the best green chile or red chili. Entry was free, and $5 bought the right to judge. Baked goods went to a silent auction during the fair. Homemade pie sold for $5 a slice, or $7 with ice cream.

On the last day the barbecue begins at 5:00. The Junior Livestock Sale follows it and closes the fair. The Extension office calls the sale “the finale of a year’s long work” by 4-H and FFA members who raised and cared for the animals. Visit North Park writes that the auctions help local young people earn money, most often for education.

A committee in 1948

The fair’s history comes from A Tough 100 Years, by Oley Kohlman, written with Lloyd Hampton and Jerelin Wattenberg. The North Park Stockgrowers reprint an excerpt. The book traces the grounds back before the fair began. One of the first fair or rodeo grounds stood about where the Jackson County Shop now stands. A race track and rodeo grounds were later built on the Riggen Field, half a mile south of Walden. Sometime in the twenties, a rodeo ground was built on the hill north of town.

The first fair was held July 10, 1948. Dr. A.G. Keithly chaired the first committee. Its members were Kenneth Carlstrom, Elmer Wattenberg, John Mallon, Carl Hanson, Victor Carlstrom, Lloyd Hampton, Victor Hanson Jr., Pete Chedsey, Clayton Rich Jr., Jack Dickens Jr., and “Doc” Blevins.

The sale that now ends the fair began on Saturday, September 14, 1957, with the first 4-H steer sale. Six steers were auctioned. David Meyring sold his first-place steer to the North Park State Bank for $42.50 per hundredweight.

In 1960 snow and blizzard postponed the fair. Electricity reached the fairgrounds in 1966. The fair first ran two days on September 14 and 15, 1968. The next year the North Park Stockgrowers became its only sponsor, because the Woolgrowers had become inactive. Swine first appeared in the Fair Book in 1972. The first three-day fair was held September 8 to 10, 1978.

Flood lights from the Kerr Coal Mine

New events came in through the next decade. The carcass contest is first noticed on September 12, 1979, at Pierce Pack in Pierce, Colorado. It moved to Big Country Meats in Craig in 1983 and to Mountain Meat Packing in Craig in 1987. Shooting sports joined the schedule in 1984. The 40th anniversary fair, in September 1988, was dedicated to “THE PEOPLE OF NORTH PARK.” Mini 4-H is first mentioned at the 1989 fair.

The fair of September 7 to 9, 1990, was the last to hold the Junior Livestock Sale and barbecue at the Jackson County Shop. The Baled Hay Contest was added that year.

For September 6 to 8, 1991, the fair moved into the new Jerelin Wattenberg Center, though the building was not finished. The arena where the barbecue and the livestock sale were to be held had no lights. Greg Ray, who was in charge, borrowed flood lights from the Kerr Coal Mine. The history’s entry for 1992 reads, “everyone enjoyed the new facilities.”

The 50th anniversary fair, September 10 to 13, 1998, was dedicated to the North Park Stockgrowers and North Park CattleWomen. The book’s entry for the next year, September 9 to 12, 1999, reads: “it seems we now have a four-day Fair!”