SE Spokane County Fair

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church stands on the west side of the fairgrounds in Rockford and the United Methodist Church on the east. For three days each September, the Southeast Spokane County Fair fills the town park between them. Rockford is a wheat and ranching town of 522 residents by the 2020 Census, about 25 miles southeast of Spokane. From Spokane Valley the way in is south on Highway 27, left on Emma Street, and right on First. No one takes tickets. The 2026 fair, the 83rd, ran September 25 through 27 under the theme “Harvesting Memories.” For the occasion, the State Bank Northwest branch in town decorated with historic photographs of harvests and fairs past.

The work starts a week ahead. Dianne and Jeff Sainsbury, who farm, move into their camper on the grounds to paint, fix things, and set up the animal pens, “so when the kids get here, the pens are all ready to put animals into,” Jeff Sainsbury told FāVS News in 2026. The couple have been large animal superintendents for 20 years. Dianne helps with the quilting department, and Jeff served six years as fair president. For them, they said, the fair is “a way to live Christ in our community.”

There is no paid staff. A nonprofit board of six handles the business side, with Connie Reinhardt as president in 2026 and Lorrie Engle as treasurer. The rest of the town receives the livestock, builds the displays, and places the vendors. Money comes in through the year from events such as a Denim & Diamonds dinner and auction in April and a garage sale in June. Gail Burton began in 1992 at the Fire Department booth. She went on to serve as vice president and president and to organize games for the youngest children. “We are here putting animals in the fair,” she said. “We are here putting pictures in the fair, putting canning in the fair, and then just seeing all of our friends once a year that we don’t see all the time.”

Aprons, apple pies, and the Ag Building

Entries come in the Tuesday before the fair: quilts, sewing, needlework, fine arts, jams, salsas, pickles, and dried goods. Baking and flowers follow on Thursday morning and are judged that afternoon, so the exhibit building is judged and ready when it opens at noon Friday. In 2026 a homemade apple pie sat in the bakery section waiting its turn. Jeanne McRoberts entered an apron made from a man’s dress shirt in the repurposed category. “[The fair] is quaint,” she said, and more peaceful than the big fairs with their traffic. At the information booth by the entrance, any fairgoer may enter the yearly raffle.

The display booths stand in the agricultural building. Vets on the Farm, the Lions Club, 4-H, the Fairfield Community Church, and the Valley Ford Community Church each tell their story in one, and each booth is judged on presentation and on the year’s theme. About five years before the 2026 fair, the woodworking class at Freeman High School rebuilt all of them. The Inland Empire Bee Keepers set up in the same building. Freeman students also figure in the Children’s Craft Area. The state inspects the fair every two years, and after the 2025 inspection the Washington State Fair Commission gave the fair a large black-and-white “Special Award” ribbon for the area’s “outstanding display and the exceptional collaboration between the SE Spokane County Fair and the Freeman School District.”

The Lions Club built the Ag Building in 1990, and it also holds the Farm Museum of the Rockford Area Museum and Historical Society. The museum’s farming and ranching implements are on view on the three fair days. During the 2026 fair, visitors puzzled over one object displayed on an old cookstove. Gail Seehorn Kopp afterward put the question to the Rockford history group online, noting she had found no patent number. The society’s 2027 calendars, dedicated to the memory of the late Paul Gillespie, were sold at the Farm Museum and at the Pioneer Museum, a two-story building of 1894 on South First Street.

At the food booths, St. Joseph’s sells sandwiches. In the booth to its left, the United Methodists sell pies, cakes, cookies, and ice cream. Donna Davie phones the congregation’s members, friends, and relatives for the baking. “The funds go to the United Women in Faith group to be given to charity,” she said.

Flag raising to go-karts

The fair opens Friday at noon with the raising of the flag and a prayer by the Methodist pastor. Livestock fitting and showing fills the late afternoon, and Jacob Barr plays country-western covers into the evening. In 2026, with rain expected Friday, the truck pulls moved to Saturday afternoon at $10 a person or $30 a family. The fair afterward thanked Jason Burton and the sponsors for them.

Saturday begins at 7 a.m. with the pancake feed put on by the Lions and the Fire Department. In 2026 it cost $12 for anyone 10 and older and was free for children three and under. The Harvest Hustle fun run goes off at 8:30. The children’s parade steps out at 10 and the grand parade at 10:30. The 2018 route ran from Maple and Emma streets to First Street by the fairgrounds. The Kenyan Fields bagpipes play when the parade ends. Then a cornhole tournament sets up on First Street in front of Rockford Auto Repair, and Coppertop Coffee serves the parents while the children work off parade candy at the fun park and pony rides. Saturday afternoon brings a tractor show and bingo. The fair royalty receive visitors at 1:30; in 2026 they were Queen Madisen and Princesses Kaylene and Grace. The first 100 people to the community wall each paint a square. The main stage runs a pie eating contest, a chicken calling contest, and at 5 o’clock the greased pig. Denver Rhiannon performs after that, and Moss and Stone, a husband-and-wife band, close the night.

Sunday opens with an equine play day at 9 and a community worship service at 10. The soap box derby starts at the same hour. It is free to enter, with donations welcomed, and it was new in 2018, when it ran behind Banner Bank. The afternoon holds the lawn mower races, a hotdog eating contest, the spouse calling contest, and the Stan Seehorn Memorial Go-Kart Races. The sewing entries style show comes last, at 4.

A harvest party of 1943

The fair’s own history, and the FāVS account drawn from it, say the people of Rockford held a community celebration of the fall harvest in 1943, and the fair grew from that. The Spokesman-Review also gives 1943. HistoryLink’s essay on the town says the event started locally in 1946. By the fair’s account it grew into three days that draw exhibitors and visitors from Spokane County, Whitman County, and parts of Idaho. Its stated purpose is “to give youth, adults and organizations a place to exhibit their skills, produce and animals for educational purposes, comparison with their neighbors and the enjoyment of the public.”

In 1947 the Lions Club built the first cattle sheds on the grounds. Kopp posted a photograph of them in the week before the 2026 fair, writing that she was not sure when it was taken or who was in it.

By September 1997, the Spokesman-Review counted the fair in its 53rd year. About 500 people lived in Rockford then, and on Sunday afternoon a few thousand visitors left hardly a place to park. A Pepsi cost 50 cents, a waffle cone with a scoop of ice cream a buck and a half, and the poultry barn could be walked in under an hour. “I feel safe to let my kids run around,” said Cheryl Loeffler.

The main attraction that Sunday was the Rockford Rock ‘n’ Rollers, also called the Rockford Interplayers. A cast of about 20 put on a 1950s show of songs and skits for a couple hundred people. The men wore blue jeans with rolled cuffs and white T-shirts, and the women swayed in pink and white poodle skirts. The cast included Mike Cooper, a church pastor; Micki Harnois, a planning consultant for Rockford and the towns around it; and Cheryl Reed, who had “lived here my whole life.” “It’s just fun,” Harnois said. “The only time we get to sing is in church or here.” Marty Morphy, the master of ceremonies, said, “We can act really stupid here and get away with it. I’ve been crazy like this my whole life.” When the singers forgot the words, they looked to the front row, where Reed’s daughter, Kaci, held up cards with the lyrics in big letters.