Platte County Fair

The fairgrounds lie on the east edge of Wheatland, where Front Street meets Antelope Gap Road. Antelope Gap Road is also Wyoming 316, which runs east past Phifer Airfield. To the west, beyond Interstate 25, the blue cone of Laramie Peak stands on the horizon over most of Platte County. The town sits at 4,751 feet, and its July days average a little above 90 degrees. On the grounds are the Agriplex, which holds grandstands; an Exhibit Hall; indoor and outdoor arenas; a Small Arena; a beef show ring; and a bandshell.

The 2026 fair ran at the end of July. The Rocky Mountain Association of Fairs listed it as July 24 through August 2. The state’s 2026 fair-dates sheet gave July 24 through August 1. A Wikipedia article on Wheatland, drawing on the county chamber of commerce, says the fair is usually held the second full week of August. The 2026 theme was “Red, White & Blue This Fair’s For You,” and it counted for something. In the parade at 10 a.m. on Saturday, August 1, a float had to depict the theme to win the grand prize. The fair’s program told entrants to get the trailer “cleaned off and decorated.” Earlier that week, on Sunday, July 26, the second day of the 4-H horse show opened at 8 a.m. in the Small Arena with working cow horse and timed events.

Ewes, pigs and a traveling trophy

Bingo was called on Tuesday and Thursday nights at 5:30 in the grandstands of the Agriplex. Disgo’s Wild West Magic Show gave three performances on Thursday and three on Friday. The Lions Club ran a junior pedal-tractor pull, which works like a tractor pull with pedal tractors. In a grilling contest called Chopped, cooks had to use every mystery ingredient handed to them. The Wheatland wrestlers held a cornhole tournament for cash prizes, open to players of any age. Youth Night brought food, games and dancing for children. A goat roping was put on by Get Hooked Productions. Adults could enter Over the Hill Showmanship, which tests whether a grown exhibitor can still win the purple ribbon.

On Tuesday, July 28, at 7:30 p.m. in the Outdoor Arena, six teams sponsored by local businesses met in the Redneck Challenge. Admission was free. The event merged two older contests, the Businessman’s Challenge and the Redneck Races. The winners took a traveling trophy and the title of Redneck. Entrants had to be 18 or older.

Saturday, August 1, belonged to the livestock. Mutton bustin’ began at 6 p.m. The fair’s program describes it as “tough-love parenting meets a PETA activist’s worst nightmare,” in which small children ride angry ewes while their parents watch: “Call it rodeo for rug rats.” Teams also wrestled pigs that evening, with a calcutta starting an hour ahead at 5. At the youth livestock sale, a free barbecue was served in the beef show ring at 4:30 p.m. before the bidding began. The music on the 2026 program came from B.J. Jamison, a classic-country singer from Kearney, Nebraska. He grew up on a ranch near Ashby and later lived in Arnold. At the 11th annual Josie Music Awards in Nashville he was named Artist of the Year in the Country Traditional/Classic category.

Ranch work in the arena

The fair’s ranch rodeo puts local ranch teams through the chores of a working day: team sorting, branding, cow milking and trailer loading. The teams have one night to compete for cash, prizes and a chance to go on to the Wyoming State Fair. In the Cyndi Lock Ranch Bronc Riding, cowboys climb onto bucking horses in their own saddles, as in saddle bronc riding. The event added $2,000 to the purse. The first eighteen paid entries rode a long round, and the top six came back for a short round. The Jr. Ranch Rodeo gives children a turn at rodeo events, whether they were raised on a ranch or are new to the stirrups. In 2026 the Platte County Team Roping returned on a new day of the schedule.

The bucking-horse tradition runs close to Wheatland. The horse Steamboat, model for the horse and rider on the Wyoming license plate, was stabled near the town. His barn is kept as a historical structure by Mike and Linda Holst. Freckles Brown, a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world champion bull rider, is listed among Wheatland’s notable people.

A board of five and a fair office

The fair is run by the Platte County Fair Board. It has five members, each appointed by the county commissioners to a five-year term, with one seat filled at the start of each year. The board meets on the second Monday of each month at the fair office. A full-time fair manager works for the board, allots space on the grounds, appoints the department superintendents and sees that the premium catalog is printed. Jenny Davis is the fair’s listed contact. Under the board’s by-laws, revised April 13, 2022, the fair must fall between mid-July and mid-August and no later than September 1. The board sets the dates at its April meeting a year ahead. The by-laws also state that the grounds “are the property of the residents of Platte County,” to be kept as a “show place” reflecting their “pride.”

The grounds stay in use after the fair. The Agriplex and Exhibit Hall rent by the day, and the arenas by the day or the hour. A large commercial kitchen and two buildings are available for meetings, parties and weddings. Horse stalls rent by the day, which the fair notes suits people “traveling through town.” Payment goes in a drop box, and horses are kept off the grass. Through a program called farm school, town children in 4-H and FFA can keep their livestock on the grounds, with animals allowed from April 1. The fair has announced its 2027 dates as July 30 through August 7.

Water on the Wheatland Flats

The town takes its name from the Wheatland Flats. A 1918 state history calls the Flats a plateau of some fifty thousand irrigated acres in the Laramie Valley. WyoHistory.org measures them at about 20 miles between the Laramie Mountains and Chugwater Creek, and about 22 miles from the Laramie River south to the Richeau Hills. According to that encyclopedia, local lore credits Judge Joseph M. Carey, businessman Andrew Gilchrist and poet Johnny Gordon with turning cactus-covered prairie into an irrigation district. In 1878 Carey and Gordon worked out a plan to carry Laramie River water to Blue Grass and Sybille creeks and onto the Flats. The Wyoming Development Company was formed in 1883. By that fall, according to Wikipedia, a 2,380-foot tunnel was diverting water into Bluegrass Creek, and the first two canals were built. Farmers began settling the district in 1884. The Cheyenne and Northern Railway reached the Flats in 1887.

Lots in the town of Wheatland were sold in 1894, and the next year the state census counted 1,315 people. A flour mill opened in 1896. The 1918 history counts a creamery turning out 250,000 pounds of butter a year and many carloads of grain and livestock shipped out over the Colorado & Southern. The Wyoming Development Company later became the Wheatland Irrigation District. Wikipedia calls it still the largest privately owned irrigation system in the country.

In 1911 the Legislature created Platte County. WyoHistory.org says the new county was carved from the northwestern part of Laramie County, while Wikipedia says it came from part of Albany County. Governor Carey signed the bill on February 9, 1911. The organizing commissioners, Chris Hauf of Glendo, T.J. Carrol of Wheatland and Robert Grand Jr. of Chugwater, first met on March 8. Voters approved the county in November 1912, and its government was organized on January 7, 1913, with Wheatland as county seat. The courthouse followed in 1917. The county fair began in 1911, the same year as the county bill. The fair’s own account of what came after is one sentence: it has “only gotten stronger and better year after year with the help of this wonderful community.”