Plains Day

Railroad Street on the first Saturday in June

Plains Day begins with pancakes. At the 2026 festival, held June 6, Plains VFW Post 3596 served its annual pancake breakfast for early risers, a tradition the Valley Press called long-standing. Fifty-one runners had already gone out on the early morning 5K. The Costner family took both firsts: 15-year-old Simeon Costner finished in 16 minutes, 20 seconds, and 17-year-old Savannah Costner led the women in 22 minutes, 42 seconds.

As breakfast wound down, the parking along Railroad Street filled for the parade. The Valley Press estimated 1,000 spectators along the streets, many of them children holding empty bags for candy. More than 60 entries went by. The grand marshals were the Petersons. The Sanders County Ledger gives the husband’s name as Shawn and the Valley Press as Sean. The couple have lived in Plains 22 years, run or help with the prom breakfast, the community clothing bank, the back-to-school supply program and the Easter Egg Hunt, and work in the soup kitchen at the Church on the Move. He told the Ledger that he is the marshal and his wife, Jessica, is the deputy. Becky Fields and her Warrior Fitness float, driven by Sherry Bradley, won Best Overall. The South Side Sparks 4-H Club won Most Enthusiastic and Steve and Kathi Roque of Plains won Most Patriotic.

The festival’s own page calls Plains Day a street festival “in celebration of our town,” bringing local businesses, vendors and artists together with the community. In 2026 visitors could choose among 63 vendors and nine food trucks. After the parade the crowd moved to the car show at Dental Park, the lawn behind MT West Dentist, whose owners, Blake and Dana Sherwood, donated its use. Rehbein Ford sponsored the show. Thirty-seven vehicles were entered, from a 1925 Ford Model T owned by Ken Matthiesen of Plains to a 2007 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Best of Show went to a 1952 GMC 3100 owned by Cole Young of Arlee, and People’s Choice to a 1969 Pontiac Firebird owned by Trenis McDonald of Plains. Live music played among the cars, including the band SPA City Sound with Chad Revier. Joel Collett of Studs Building and Home lined up the musicians.

Laser tag at Fred Young Park was new in 2026. Mark and Elizabeth Riffle of the Waterway Ranch of Thompson Falls brought the equipment, at $5 a person per round, with games running to 300 points or seven minutes, whichever came first. “For smaller courses or an event like Plains Day, we’d go three-on-three, so there could be a group playing while we prepare the next group,” Mark Riffle told the Ledger. The Ice Cream Social returned, and the Assembly of God’s Church on the Move set up a bouncy house for the children.

Saws, watermelons and huckleberry pie

The crosscut saw competition, another old Plains Day fixture, is held in the parking lot of the VFW building on Lynch Street. Heather Allen, one of its coordinators, counted nine teams in 2026. Hunter Fielders and Adam Hertz won the Jack & Jack division in 1:40.37 and took the $60 prize. Sisters Alida and Solveig Feiro won Jill & Jill in 2:20.19, earning $10 each. Solveig Feiro then teamed with Isaiah Schork to win Jack & Jill in 1:57.72.

Back at Dental Park, the watermelon contest ran in three age groups. Six-year-old Kaysen Bright of Plains won the 7-and-under division. Twelve-year-old Braegan Allen took the 8-to-14 title for the second year running. Seventeen-year-old Keily Hardy of Noxon won the 15-and-over division in her first watermelon contest. Volunteers cleaned up the rinds and seeds before the pies came out. Em’s Café in Plains supplied 20 huckleberry pies. Its owner, Emily Sexton, brought the pie contest back for 2026 with separate children’s and adult categories. The children ate first, each facing a pie covered in whipped cream, and eight-year-old Shiloh Pinter of Plains won. In the 15-and-over division, 32-year-old Aaron Harris of Heron took top honors and, the Valley Press reported, plenty of pie in his beard.

Potluck and limbo after dark

In April 2026 the festival’s Facebook page announced: “THE RYAN’S ARE BACK THIS YEAR!!!” It promised dances and a barbecue in the pool park, told readers to “put on your Plains Day dancing clothes,” and added that there would be a limbo contest. Jubal Ryan, speaking for the family at a spring planning meeting, said the Ryans would run the potluck, the limbo contest and a drive-in movie at Greg Welty Memorial Park beginning around 5:30 p.m.

Daniel and Roxsanna Ryan organized the evening with their family and more than 25 volunteers. The Church on the Move, Plains Alliance Church, Plains Bible Church and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints contributed facilities and volunteers. More than 400 people came to the potluck dinner. Dan Ryan opened the evening by singing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and Neuman Ryan served as master of ceremonies and danced with Rayven Huffman. Eight-year-old Melody Owens of Plains won the children’s limbo, along with $20 and a basket of candy. The adult limbo went to 15-year-old Olena Kotewko of Hot Springs, who took the $100 top prize. Luke Harmon of Missoula placed second and went home with a portable pickleball set.

A new association and the old horse name

The 2026 festival was coordinated by the Plains MT Events Association, which the Ledger described as a new nonprofit. Dennis Spurlock was its president and coordinated the parade. Emily Sexton was vice president, Emily Kujala treasurer and Mark Riffle secretary. Blair Blizzard, who ran the festival in 2025, worked on the vendor side with Corey Booth, owner of the Mangy Moose. About a dozen people met at Em’s Cafe in the spring to settle details. “Everything is going along smoothly,” Spurlock said. The association chose “Wild Horse, Wild Spirit” as the 2026 theme. Eleven students from Plains School submitted drawings for the T-shirt and stickers. The first T-shirt vote ended in a three-way tie among freshman Kiara Brown, eighth-grader Emmy Russell and freshman Kylie Silva, and Silva won the second vote. Kindergartener Grayson Mitchell drew the most votes for the stickers.

The theme recalls the town’s earlier name. The town’s history page says American Indian tribes valued the grasses of the Clark Fork River valley for wintering their horses. A historical marker in Dorothy V. Johnson Park, at Railroad Avenue and McGowan Street, describes a circular valley at 2,450 feet. It says tribes traveling through in the early 1800s wintered their ponies there, harvested salmon and held great councils. White settlers arrived in the late 1860s, and farming, ranching and lumbering followed. By the marker’s account, the Northern Pacific Railway arrived in 1881–1883, the town grew, and the name was shortened to Horse Plains and finally to Plains. The town’s own page says Plains was officially founded in 1907 as Horse Plains and was commonly called Wild Horse Plains for the many wild horses in the area. The same page says the name became simply Plains when the Postal Service established a presence in 1905. It does not reconcile the two dates.

Beside the marker stands the original Wild Horse Plains log schoolhouse, built in 1878. The plaque left of its door reads: “In Memory of Wild Horse Plains Pioneers 1878 - 1976.”