Powder River Fair & Rodeo

Highways 59 and 212 cross at Broadus, the seat of Powder River County in southeastern Montana. The town is ninety miles from Miles City, from Belle Fourche, South Dakota, and from Gillette, Wyoming. MSU Extension’s 2023 report counted an average of 3,000 cars and trucks passing through each day, 445 people living in town, and about fifty cows for every person in the county. For one week in late July the county fair takes over the fairgrounds on South Wilbur. The 2026 fair ran Tuesday, July 21, through Saturday, July 25, under the theme “Aloha Fair.” Clubs and organizations decorated their booths to the theme for a Fair Board prize, with separate youth and adult categories.

Barn, showring, and Community Center

The 2026 schedule began in the barns with set-up, interview judging of 4-H non-livestock projects, and a market livestock weigh-in. The 4-H horse show started at seven in the morning. On Friday the swine show began at nine and open class exhibits were judged at half past. At one o’clock came the judging of bum lambs, goats, and calves, with no prior entry required. The Extension Office’s 2023 notice called this the “bum” show, adding that “every family has at least one bum that is special!” The sheep, goat, and alpaca show followed, then poultry and rabbits at three.

Saturday opened with the beef show and the Powder River Ranch Horse Versatility Show. At eleven, children hunted for Money in the Straw in the showring, an event the 2023 notice opened to ages four to twelve. Market livestock were ultrasounded before the afternoon round robin showmanship and the Pasture Prime Showmanship Event, for which the fair asked the public to nominate a favorite past showman. The silent auction closed at three, the 4-H awards followed, and the 4-H Market Livestock Auction began at four. Exhibits were dismissed at five. After the auction came the Aloha Appreciation Supper, with food vendors open.

Much of the eating happens at the Community Center. In 2026 it held a watermelon-eating contest sponsored by the Broadus IGA, the Fireman’s BBQ at noon on Saturday, and an ice-cream eating contest. Laser tag ran on the street by the arena, Fun on the Go blow-ups stood in the parking lot by the baseball field, and the Powder River Rising Stars painted faces. The 2023 fair added a baked pie contest and music by Christine Appleman under the tent, and Lucas Capp played at the Fireman’s BBQ. That Thursday night also brought the muddy pig wrestling contest. Spectators bought their “pig” at a 6:30 calcutta, and twenty or more teams wrestled in three age categories.

The 2023 entries give the scale. Extension counted 271 non-livestock and 193 livestock entries. A hedgehog named Spike came in as Kaley Rumph’s Pocket Pet Project, and Kaylan Reaves showed her two-year-old beagle, Jefferson, in the dog project. The livestock auction brought $167,352 for 19 steers, 12 lambs, 35 hogs, one pen of fryer chickens, and a market goat. The Extension Office called the hogs a record number. Another $10,908 from re-sales went to charitable organizations.

Friday night in the arena

Timed-event slack ran at ten on the morning of Friday, July 24, 2026, and the main NRA rodeo performance began at six that evening. Joe Kusek wrote for the Northern Rodeo Association that the Broadus Fairgrounds grandstand, “still glinting in newness,” seats about 600, in a town of fewer than 500. Admission was free, and so was the Reeves Brothers concert on the fairgrounds at 8:30.

“The community is ag-based,” said Jesse Fleming, the rodeo committee chairman and organizer. “There is a lot of roots in rodeo. The county deserves a good rodeo.” Fleming is an insurance agent who splits his work week between Broadus and Wolf Point. He planned to team rope with his son Cort, and his daughter Mesa was entered in breakaway roping. “My wife Ashley will be working the books,” he said. His father, Philip Fleming, had team roped with his sons Jesse, Brett, and Derick. Derick is a two-time NRA team roping champion.

The rodeo was new to the Northern Rodeo Association and Northern Women’s Rodeo schedule, and money won counted toward the NRA Finals in Kalispell. Sanctioning by the North Dakota Rodeo Association and the Northwest Ranch Cowboys Association drew entries from the Dakotas and Wyoming. Paul Eiker’s Big Circle Rodeo Company supplied the stock. “Paul Eiker is a rock star,” Fleming said.

The Powder River Examiner printed the results. Tucker Zingg of Crow Agency won the bareback with 68 points. Ty Manke of Rapid City, South Dakota, won the saddle bronc with 74. Sterling Lee of Rhame, North Dakota, threw his steer in 5.1 seconds, and Sierra Lee, also of Rhame, won ladies breakaway in 2.9. Mesa Fleming of Broadus won junior barrel racing in 18.34. Enos Miller of Broadus took first in ranch bronc riding, ahead of Jax Zimmer of Sheridan, Wyoming.

During a break, the Broadus Volunteer Fire Department met the Powder River County Sheriff’s Department in wild cow milking. Clint Hahn, Kaydin Trent, and Kelly Ostendorf rode for the firemen. Devin Boman, Russ Kinzer, and Lane Robinson rode for the deputies. The calcutta raised $9,350, half to go to the winning department. The VFD won, and the calcutta winners gave their money back to the fire department.

Accounts of the rodeo’s past differ slightly. Fleming said Broadus had a pro rodeo through the mid-2000s, followed by a Broncs and Bull event. The Examiner put the pro rodeo “as recently as the 2000’s,” followed by Broncs and Bulls and later a ranch rodeo. Records of the School Community Development Council show a 2002 grant to the Broncs & Bulls Committee to replace the pens behind the bucking chutes. The same year it funded a new fairgrounds concession stand for the East Fork Roping Club. Fair concerts in those years included Dan Seals in 2002 and Lacy J. Dalton in 2003, and in 2005 the council helped sponsor a family act called The Standards. “We had a ranch rodeo that was going great,” Fleming said. “But people wanted to see some rough stock events. We’re going to give them rough stock events.”

A premium list in 1920

“PREMIUM LIST FOR FIRST COUNTY FAIR,” read the headline of the Powder River Examiner on August 27, 1920. The fair was held with the Broadus Roundup on September 3 and 4. It took exhibits of barley, winter and spring wheat, oats, rye, three types of corn, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, squash, alfalfa, sweet clover, blue joint, millet, sudan, watermelon, and cantaloupe, with a prize for the best collection of garden products. “Twenty-six farmers and ranchers had exhibits on display and all were a credit to the county,” the paper reported on September 10.

Two years later the list had tripled. It now included paintings, rugs, quilts, canning, bread, and work teams. It also listed Durham, Polled Hereford, and Polled Angus bulls, Percheron, Belgian, and Shire stallions, cow and calf of any breed, and draft mare and colt. Extension Agent Mary Rumph said in 2020 that the list had grown “limited only by imagination and materials.”

The 100th fair, in 2020, was set for August 4 through 7 under the theme “Powder River Let ‘er Buck.” The county commissioners and Public Health approved it with distancing at judging and the auction because of the coronavirus. In 2023 the fair moved to July for the first time in county history. With school starting earlier, Extension reported, many families liked the change.

Each year’s Fairbook carries a dedication. The roll begins in 1975 with Father Patrick Berther. The 2026 book opens on Bruce and Lori Dinstel. Bruce was raised on a ranch near Ridge and served on the Fair Board and as a volunteer firefighter. Lori came from Nebraska to teach at Ridge’s one-room schoolhouse. When their daughter Jonni took up the violin, wrote Megan Stephens, “even the dachshunds learned to ‘sing’ along.”

The Robinsons and the horse show

The 2020 dedication went to Bob Robinson, posthumously, and to Virginia Robinson. Virginia Rumph was born on August 12, 1920, at Kruger, a burg on Butte Creek that no longer exists. She met Frank P. “Bob” Robinson at a dance on Butte Creek. Bob had trailed horses and cattle from Wyoming to a ranch near Biddle seven times, camping out at night. During the Second World War he enlisted at the Fort Robinson remount station in Nebraska. He was discharged in December 1945 with his expertise listed as “Horse Breaker.” His captain once said, “There’s a man here who isn’t the best bronc rider but is best at keeping a horse from bucking.”

The couple ranched in Powder River and Carter counties from 1950 to 1979 and rodeoed around the country. Bob often competed in roping events, and Virginia kept the books. In 1966 they started the Powder River County Horse Show. That year’s Fair Board minutes record that “Virginia Robinson, representing the Powder River County Horse Show, ordered trophies from the Billings Trophy Company. Mrs. Robinson then met with the Fair Board and the group discussed the 1967 horse show being run in conjunction with the Fair.” The show continued as the Working Ranch Horse Show. The 2023 notice urged owners to bring their ranch horses to town and claim “bragging rights.” Bob entered the Cowboy Hall of Fame in January 2014 and died that year. Asked in 2020 about her coming 100th birthday, Virginia said she would celebrate it “if I live that long!”