Paul Bunyan Days

Once the logging events finish on the Sunday afternoon of Labor Day weekend, blankets go down across the lower field of St. Maries City Park. The festival asks that they be held flat with cans of food, not stakes, because irrigation lines are buried under the turf. After the show the cans go to the St. Maries Food Bank. In the 2026 schedule, a ground display of themed fireworks sculptures began at 7 p.m. and the main show followed at 9. The Paul Bunyan Day Committee calls it the largest fireworks display in the Northwest. The Gazette Record of St. Maries called it one of the largest in the Inland Northwest in 2023, and the chamber of commerce calls it one of the country’s largest arena shows. Loretta Graham, who chaired the information booth, told The Spokesman-Review in 2014, “I have people stop by the booth and tell me that the fireworks show is better than Disneyland’s.”

The show is paid for entirely by donations, collected in cash and checks during the show itself. The Sunday noon auction on the same field also helps pay for it. The auction is the committee’s main fundraiser of the year, stocked mostly with items given by local businesses and individuals.

The festival runs Friday through Monday of Labor Day weekend, in City Park and along Main Avenue. There is no charge for parking or for admission to the park. Only the demolition derby charges at the gate: $10 for adults and teens, $5 for children 6 to 12. Animals are not allowed in the park. The committee estimates attendance at 27,000. The Spokesman-Review expected more than 25,000 in 2014, the Coeur d’Alene Press reported nearly 30,000 in 2021, and committee chairman Dale Hill has put the number at up to 40,000.

The weekend opens Friday at 5 p.m. with the doll and pet parade for children 3 to 12, who check in at the Grub Box parking lot at 8th and Center. On Sunday morning, area churches hold Worship in the Park at the City Park Amphitheater. In 2026 that meant a free breakfast at 8:30, a service with live music and guest speaker Lee Arnold at 9:45, a prize giveaway at 10:50, and a canned-food drive aiming at 2,000 pounds.

The lower field and the city pool

The logging events on Sunday afternoon are open to amateurs: pole climbing, axe throwing, crosscut sawing, choker-setting, and more, with cash for the top three in each event. The Gazette Record printed the 2026 results. Cody Crane won All Around Logger, and Suzanne Sotin won All Around Loggerette. Sotin also took Women’s Choker Set, Women’s Crosscut with Tami Holdahl, and the Jack & Jill crosscut with her husband, Paul Sotin. Zack Sotin won Men’s Choker Set. Kevin Germeaux and Vanessa Vint won the axe throws, and Ethan Grassl reached the top of the pole fastest.

The water events come on Saturday at the City Pool, at Main and 11th Street. They are also for amateurs, and teens must have a parent present to register and compete. In 2016 the Coeur d’Alene Press watched children cross a tightrope strung from one end of the pool to the other. The program also included canoe jousting, log birling, and a rafting race. Loleina Later had timed a trip from Hawaii to match the festival. Watching two of her friend’s children wait their turn, she said, “I hope they can stay on the rope.” In 2026 Jim Morton crossed the adult rope in 24.75 seconds. Hudson Felmley won the teen rope in 37.50 seconds, won teen birling, and took the All Around Teen title. Children 6 to 12 get their own pool events on Sunday, registering at noon.

Saturday also holds the Junior Olympics, which the Press in 2014 said had been a festival tradition for 25 years. That year more than 100 children from 3 to 12 took part. Four-year-old Griffin Hammons ran the long jump, and the three- and four-year-olds closed the program with potato sack races.

The Crash for Cash Demolition Derby runs Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Benewah County Fairgrounds. Full-size and compact classes each pay $1,500 for first place, and pickups run as an exhibition. A Press photograph from 2023 shows Amie Strange plowing “Sharkie” into Spencer Strange’s “Batman.”

At 7 p.m. Saturday the co-ed tug-of-war teams, held to 1,500 pounds per team, take the lower field. In 2026 Young Guns finished ahead of Beef Cakes.

A beer garden with no roof

The Blue Ox stands inside the tennis courts just below Main Avenue. It is open only to those 21 and over, and everyone must show ID. The festival bills it as the biggest topless bar in Idaho, “and possibly the Northwest!” It adds: “But you’ll need to keep your clothes on — this bar is only topless because it has no roof.” A 2023 Gazette Record photograph shows James Lesperance and Raymond Hossfield putting it together for its Friday opening.

Donna Darnold, a board member working the souvenir booth in 2014, described the usual reaction: “The first response is shock. At first they’re thinking, ‘Oh, it’s shirtless.’ I tell them they have to come and see.” The booth sold Blue Ox T-shirts, hats, and suspenders. Graham remembered college students driving up from Moscow and Pullman: “they’re pretty disappointed.” Dale Hill, grand marshal in 2016, named the fireworks and the Blue Ox as the two reasons crowds come to town. “So many people come in from out of the country and are curious about where the topless bar is at because they’re thinking the wrong thing,” he said.

For 2026 the Blue Ox added a Friday karaoke night with Cedarwood Sound, run as a blacklight glow party. The band Sverwood played Saturday and Sunday from 8 p.m. to midnight. Free concerts run both afternoons on the Main Stage in the park.

Vendor booths line the midway and stand in the trees next to the BINGO shelter. Frank Adams of Santa, Idaho, had run the Treasure Box booth for at least 10 years by 2014. He sold hats and toys and made wax casts of visitors’ hands. “I’ll get those Chinese finger traps and I give them out to kids,” he said. “They maybe cost me a penny apiece.”

The carnival has been run since 2022 by Paradise Amusements of Coeur d’Alene. Single tickets cost $1, and most rides take 5 to 8. In 2026 a two-hour unlimited wristband sold for $25 on Monday only.

Main Avenue on Labor Day

The parade leaves at 10 a.m. Monday from Ken’s Custom Auto Body at 13th and Main. Entries keep to the middle of the street so both curbs can see them. Candy is thrown only by walkers, toward the sides, so children do not run into the road. In 2014 Hill counted about 80 entries over a route of about three miles. “We get a lot of people from Lewiston and Eastern Washington farm communities,” he said. The 2023 parade, with local man Phil Epler as grand marshal, included military vehicles and an Abbott FV433 tank. The St. Maries Public Library handed out more than 300 children’s books along the route. Mark Todd, a founding member of the festival, organized that parade. The 2026 parade went out as the Mark Todd Memorial Paul Bunyan Days Parade.

The parade also carries the winner of the storefront decorating contest. For 2026 businesses were judged on patriotic displays for the nation’s 250th birthday that also worked in Paul Bunyan Days. The winner receives a rotating trophy, presented before the parade starts.

When the parade ends, the Show & Shine car show fills the lower soccer field from noon to 2 p.m. Spectators vote, and trophies go out for Best in Show, Best Bike, Best Hot Rod, Most Unique, and other categories.

From Lumberjack Days

St. Maries had a sawmill in 1889, 24 years before it became a city. The Spokesman-Review described the festival as a celebration of that industry and of the people who work the logs. The Coeur d’Alene Press wrote in 2016 that it was created to honor the early French Canadian and Swiss loggers who settled in the St. Joe Valley. It has run on Labor Day weekend since 1968. Graham had attended since she was a child, “back when it was known as ‘Lumberjack Days.’”

According to the Gazette Record, Al Townsend headed the fireworks show from the first year, 1968. In 2023 his fundraising partner, Bill Byes, took it over and planned a show of about $35,000. The committee also gives more than $2,000 a year in scholarships to graduating seniors and helps the city improve the park.

The count of editions depends on the source. The Spokesman-Review called the 2014 festival the 46th annual. The Coeur d’Alene Press, covering the same weekend, called it “the 101st Paul Bunyan Days,” with the theme “Circus Circus.” The committee’s 2026 auction page speaks of a 55-year tradition.

The Spokesman-Review that year described St. Maries as a timber town of around 2,500 people. Many visitors camped without hookups along the St. Joe and St. Maries rivers. Camping at Aqua Park was allowed only during the festival and, for the first time that year, carried a small fee to cover new restrooms and electricity. Asked about crowds of more than 25,000 coming into a town that size, Hill said, “that’s not too bad.”

The 2027 festival is set for September 3 to 6.