Red, White Pine, and Blue Independence Day Festival

At eleven in the morning on the Fourth of July, Highway 50, Ely’s main street, is closed to traffic and the parade steps off downtown. The tourism board described the 2018 parade this way: Pony Express horseback riders carried the American and Nevada flags at the front, and the Grand Marshal waved from behind them. People along the curb could hope to catch candy or Frisbees. The board advised coming early, since the streets are always crowded, and noted that barbecues get going while people wait.

That parade is the center of the Red, White Pine, and Blue Independence Day Festival, a run of events across Ely and White Pine County managed by the White Pine County Tourism and Recreation Board. By the board’s schedule and The Ely Times, the 2026 festival ran from July 2 to July 5. The county government’s calendar gave July 3 to 5. The Times counted more than 50 scheduled events. The 2026 festival also did double duty, marking the country’s 250th anniversary and hosting a countywide All-Class Reunion.

Highway 50 on the morning of the Fourth

On July 4, 2026, the day began with a free Alumni & Community Breakfast, served from 8 to 10:30 a.m. at the Bristlecone Convention Center on the southeast corner of 6th Street and Lyons Avenue. At 10 came a tribute to veterans at the Courthouse Park Veteran’s Memorial, with a live performance by The Swing Dolls. The Ely Times described the county’s musical tribute to veterans as World War I, World War II and Korean War-era hits performed “in full 1940s style.” The county calendar also listed a military band at Veterans Park from 11:45 to 12:30.

The 2026 parade carried the theme “Freedom, Friendship, & Bobcat Pride,” presented by KDSS. Each year the parade names credited community members Grand Marshal, and the public sends in votes.

Broadbent Park and the railway yard

Broadbent Park, where the 2018 parade began, takes the crowd afterward. In 2026 the White Pine Chamber of Commerce held its Red, White & Blue Blowout there, a Party in the Park with live music, vendors, food trucks, bounce houses, and games. The Ely Volunteer Fire Department opened its bar to the public at 12:15 and started its cornhole tournament at 12:30. Ely Renaissance Village sold food after the parade, and the pool at McGill was open from 11 to 5.

In the afternoon the Nevada Northern Railway ran a diesel train to Robinson Canyon at 1 p.m. At 2:30 it gave a guided tour of its museum with a torpedo demonstration. Out in Ruth, the Commercial Club held a pool tournament at 4. At 6:30 the Fireworks Express left the railway complex, which sits on the northeast end of Ely just south of the White Pine Golf Course. In 2018 that train passed through two tunnels with panoramic views, and candy, soda, and water were for sale on board. Adult fare then was $39, children 4 to 12 paid $20, and those 3 and under rode free.

The fireworks went up at 9 p.m. at the White Pine Golf Course, an 18-hole, par 73 course built in 1928. Great Basin Pyrotechnics presented the show. Kyle Horvath, the county tourism director, told the Times that the 2026 show had the largest budget in White Pine history. Karaoke and drink specials followed at the Outpost Bar.

Open doors on the other days

On Friday, July 3, several downtown buildings held open houses from noon to 2: St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, the Centennial Fine Arts Center, the Ely Masonic Hall Building, and the Ely Theatre. From noon to 3, visitors could tour the high school, the middle school, East Ely Grade (the DEN), and McGill Grade School. Ely Central Theater showed “1776: The Musical” free at 1, sponsored by the Ely Rotary Club. Sunset Lanes Bowling Center offered open bowling with a “Stars & Strikes” special. The Ely Art Bank showed photography by local artist Jason Bath, and the Nancy Riedell Fine Arts Studio & Gallery held “Welcome New Artists” through the weekend. The White Pine Yacht Club Happy Hour at Cave Lake State Park fell on Friday by the tourism board’s schedule and on Sunday by the county calendar and the Times.

The sources also differ on the wine tasting and social. The tourism board and the chamber placed it at Ely Renaissance Village from 5 to 8, and the chamber listed it at $25 for alumni and guests only. The county calendar and the Times put it at the White Pine Public Museum from 4 to 6. At Broadbent Park the WP Athletic Boosters held what the chamber called “The Return of the Historic BFD,” which the tourism board spelled out as BBQ Fun Dance, with a live band and a community barbecue from 5 to 10. The railway ended Friday with its Sunset, Stars & Champagne Train at 7:15.

Thursday was smaller. Nevada Bank & Trust held its annual Independence Day barbecue, and the Art Bank hosted the Class of 1971 under the title “55 and Still Standing.” Sunday, July 5, began with a group mountain-bike ride in Iceplant Canyon, hosted by Great Basin Trails Stewardship and meeting at Broadbent Park, and a four-person golf scramble at 9. The county calendar added the Rockin’ N’ Rollin’ Geology Train to Robinson Canyon, darts at the Ely VFW, and billiards at Shooters Bar & Grill. At Ely Renaissance Village there was an afternoon garden party with a fashion show, on limited tickets.

A cannon from 1876

The oldest pieces of the 2026 festival came from the White Pine Public Museum. It brought out its 1880s antique stagecoach to pull the grand marshals in the parade. It also prepared the 1876 Hamilton Cannon, which the Times said was built to ring in the nation’s centennial 150 years earlier. The museum cleaned and polished the cannon to fire on July 3 in Hamilton, and possibly again on July 4 near the golf course before the fireworks.

Janet VanCamp of the museum told the Times that the county’s identity lies with its early mining families. “White Pine is really about the rough, hardworking men and women who moved to Ely in the early days of mining,” she said. “It’s about homes being built to withstand hot summers and bitter cold winters — and the men who worked in the pit, on graveyard shift in -10 degree weather.” She added: “We have always pulled together.”

Shadrach Robertson, CEO of the White Pine Chamber of Commerce, describes himself as a veteran, a volunteer firefighter, a small business owner, and a former educator. He wrote that the chamber “is proud to carry on the legacy of supporting small businesses as it has for the past 106 years here in Ely and Eastern Nevada.”

Four years of filling the schedule

The earliest program in the record is the tourism board’s page for July 4, 2018. It listed a free breakfast, an “Old Fashioned” parade, a Red, White, and Blue Golf Tournament at 1 p.m., and the Fireworks Express. By June 2025 the Times was calling the “Red, White Pine & Blue Independence Festival” an annual event, running four days from July 3 to July 6. That year’s parade theme was “Freedom, Friendship, the Ely Way.” The 2025 schedule also had sign-ups for a Beard Competition at Sculpture Park, a Labyrinth Ribbon Cutting at the Richfield Gas Station, a Pete Mangum “Ranch Life” exhibit at the Art Bank, a Caltech DSA2000 Radio Telescope Meet N’ Greet, and a WIN-A-RAM raffle drawing.

Horvath credits the festival’s size to four years of community-wide coordination, in which businesses, venues, and residents each took on one piece of the holiday. “It’s everything from the bowling alley to the movies to guided bike rides,” he said. “We just started filling in the schedule, because if everybody does just one thing, then it looks like a big, awesome festival. We’ve been training the community for the last four years, and so this year, it’s actually been really, really easy. Everybody kind of knows what they do.”

In 2026 the festival also arrived just after the downtown road reconstruction was finished. “The road construction is done,” Horvath told the Times that week, “they are literally putting the lamp heads on the light posts this week. It’s all wrapped up for the Fourth of July.”