Rosebud/Treasure County Fair

The fairgrounds in Forsyth lie five blocks north of Main Street. Sixteenth Avenue leads to the main gate, 17th Avenue to the parking lots, and 15th Avenue to the 4-H campground. Gate admission and parking are free. On fair mornings the Rosebud County Search and Rescue serves breakfast from 6 to 10. In 2011 the Billings Gazette described that breakfast as pancakes, sausage and eggs under the canopy next to the Exhibition Hall, served then from 5 a.m. The Exhibit Hall opens at 10 on open-class, commercial and 4-H exhibits and closes at 7, the hour the rodeo starts.

The fair belongs to Rosebud and Treasure counties and is run as a department of Rosebud County. Chaun Scott is fair manager and secretary, and a board chaired by Mike Blakesley meets monthly in the fair office on the grounds.

Four days in July 2026

The 2026 fair ran Wednesday through Saturday, July 15 to 18. The first two nights belonged to the 7th Forsyth PRCA Rodeo, put on with J Bar J Rodeo Productions at 7 p.m. Each performance carried the Rocky Mountain Mini Broncs and Mini Bulls, which the fair’s own post summed up as “Mini broncs, mini bulls and mini cowboys and cowgirls.” Justin Boots named the arena’s dirt the #1 Best Footing Award on the Montana Circuit in 2022 and again in 2023. The fair’s website carries a note from Bailee Murnion, its 2023 champion barrel racer: “Thank you to the Forsyth rodeo committee for giving us the chance to run on fabulous ground & for the beautiful buckle.” For the rest of the summer, the Rosebud Rodeo Club holds a weekly team roping series in the same arena.

The grandstand night shows followed. Forjoury, a Journey and Foreigner tribute, played on Friday. On Saturday Little Texas played with special guest Elvie Shane. Both shows began at 8.

The community stage ran free all four days. Old Bones sang gospel, Cort Fraker and Preston McGregor played, and John Cassidy did magic and comedy. On the opening afternoon Cassidy also took his act to the nursing home. The Junebugs played daytime sets and the afterparties, at 9:15 after each rodeo and at 10:30 on Saturday night. The Knights of Columbus ran bingo on Thursday and Saturday afternoons. On Friday morning there was a session of noxious weed education.

Saturday is the 4-H day. The large-animal round robin starts at 7 a.m. and the small-animal round robin at 9. Exhibitors may collect their entries from 2, and the 4-H Market Stock Sale begins at 3. Since the early 1950s the grandstand concession stand has served 4-H concessions, including what the fair calls the “famous ‘Fair Burgers.’” Fans and a misting system have cooled the seating there since 2022. The Young Men’s Club keeps a $2 beer garden.

The Mighty Thomas Carnival has supplied the rides for more than 25 years. In 2026 it opened at 5 on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday and Saturday it opened at 3, which the fair announced was “due to popular demand.” That year it brought the Orbiter, which the fair said was the ride’s first time in Forsyth and “packing some serious G-forces.” The fair’s website lists the 2027 fair for July 21 to 24, with the carnival on the grounds July 22 to 24.

Grass, a silo, and a bent tent frame

In 2007 federal grants turned the rough carnival midway into an all-grass midway. The fair’s history describes it as the only grass midway in eastern Montana. A donation from Prince, Inc. paved the gravel walkway beside it. Just before the 2023 fair, old-fashioned midway lights paid for by residents and local businesses went up along that walk.

In 2022 a storm struck Forsyth a few days before the fair opened and left the frame of the free-stage tent bent and twisted. The board then built a permanent pavilion on the midway, so the large canvas tent no longer had to be raised and struck each summer.

The Exhibit Hall has had air conditioning since the 2011 fair. It has since been made a year-round building, with a commercial kitchen, winter heat, new doors and windows, and a concrete floor, and it now books weddings. The Nile family used a silo bar at a family wedding and then donated it to the fairgrounds. It stands outside the hall on a concrete pad that Tadsen Dirt and Demo poured for it. The office opened in time for the 2024 fair. It has a ticket window, artwork by local artist Bob Watts, and siding and pillars chosen to match the hall’s original wood cabin structure.

A digital board hangs on the back of the grandstand. It was installed in 2023 with a public-health grant and posts fairgrounds events. In spring 2024 a construction accident severed the town’s main water line and drained the water tower, leaving Forsyth without water for a day. During that emergency the board posted notices of the shortage, then the boil-water order, then its lifting.

Other parts of the grounds have changed as well. A barn on the west edge had housed 4-H livestock at fair time for many years. It became unsafe and was razed in 2015, and a 4-H pavilion, wash rack and stalls now stand in that area. In spring 2024 trees were planted along the northeast fence, where 4-H families camp during the fair.

Race horses, night shows, and the derby

Until the 1980s the fair’s entertainment was mainly parimutuel horse racing, variety shows and ranch rodeo. Since then the grandstand has booked night shows. Performers have included Charley Pride, the Bellamy Brothers, Ronnie Milsap, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Pam Tillis, the Mission Mountain Wood Band, Clay Walker and the Charlie Daniels Band.

The Gazette’s preview of the 2011 fair records a crowded program. Tracy Lawrence made his first visit on Saturday, July 23. On Thursday the Ultimate Showdown Association put on mixed martial arts. Friday’s ticket covered both a ranch rodeo, with wild cow milking and team doctoring, and the Cheyenne Invitational Indian Relay Race, in which up to 10 teams ran a three-horse relay around the track. The free stage that year had Uncle Curly the Clown and a performer billed as “Marcus: Funny Man Who Does Tricks.” Marcus caught a bowling ball with his face and juggled ping pong balls using only his mouth. The paper said the fair first presented its ranch rodeo in late summer 2010 and then added it to the fair lineup. The fair’s own history says the ranch rodeo ran for eight years, from 2012 to 2019.

The Demolition Derby began in the early 1970s. The Lowlanders Car Club sponsored it first and the American Legion post later. It was retired after 2012, and a Bump-n-Run took its place for three years starting in 2013. The derby came back in 2017 and was retired again after 2021 because of insurance restrictions. It ran on its own in September 2023 and returned to the fair in 2024. A Southeast Montana travel listing schedules the Rosebud County Showdown Derby for the fair’s Saturday night. Monster trucks appeared in 2021 and 2022, and the Big Air Bash in 2023.

In 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic cut the fair to a much-abbreviated format. A PRCA-sanctioned rodeo returned that same year and has been held at every fair since.

A tent, a $2,206 bid, and the WPA

The fair began in 1906. Its early dates were in September, after harvest. It later moved to August, and around 1990 it settled in late July, which makes it one of the earliest county fairs in Montana. A 1962 photograph by Bruce Blakesley shows the carnival of that year.

The county history They Came and Stayed records that a large tent served as the exhibit building before the grounds had any buildings. On June 23, 1916, the county commissioners accepted F. E. Eggleston’s bid of $2,206 to build a grandstand, an exhibit hall and rest rooms. A 4-H building followed at an unrecorded date. According to the book it still stands across the race track and houses the Rodeo Office.

In the 1930s the Works Progress Administration supplied money and labor. It enlarged the grandstand and built barns, a 4-H poultry building and, according to the book, “the present exhibit building.” The fair’s own history dates the exhibition hall only to “sometime in the early part of the 20th century.” Volunteers built new rodeo chutes in 1952. In 1960 a concession building went up, the exhibit building gained an addition on its west wing, and the fair office moved under the grandstand. The present grandstand, concession facilities and restrooms were built in 1975.

The fair has been cancelled twice. In 1934, the book says, the county was plagued by drought, grasshoppers, Mormon crickets and the Depression, and no fair was held. In 1945 prisoners of war were housed on the fairgrounds from May to December. The fair’s history identifies them as German.

The same book describes the fair’s three days in town in earlier years. “All business houses would close at noon for everyone to attend the fair. Main Street was as deserted as a ghost town until after the afternoon program. Then the stores would open for a couple of hours. There are still a few stores that close the afternoons of the fair, but most of the businesses stay open but do give their help one afternoon off.”