Septemberfest

On the Monday of Labor Day weekend, the Rangely Fire Station serves pancakes from 6:30 to 8:30 in the morning at five dollars a person, under the sponsorship of the Rangely Rural Fire Protection District. At nine the parade comes down Main Street. By ten the craft fair and the car show have filled Elks Park, and they hold it into the afternoon. That was the Monday of the 2026 Septemberfest, which ran September 5 through 7. By the count of the Western Rio Blanco Metropolitan Recreation and Park District, which runs the festival, it was the 46th. The festival is always held on Labor Day weekend. The district gives its reason plainly: “According to some, Rangely is one of those places where you must create your own fun, which is what folks had in mind when they came up with Septemberfest.” In the district’s words, the work falls to “the Rangely Recreation Center, its business members and lots of volunteers.”

Saturday in Elks Park

Most of the weekend happens in Elks Park. The park has two playground structures, horseshoe pits, a sand volleyball court, fire pits, two lighted softball fields at Kevin Poole Memorial Field, and plenty of shade.

The 2026 Saturday opened at 8:00 a.m. with the Fast, Flat and FREE 5K. At the same hour, the Uintah Railway Tour left the True Value Garden Center. It is an all-day trip from Rangely to Mack, Colorado, over the old Uintah Railway, and those who go supply their own vehicle, lunch, drinks, and snacks. At 9:30 the Wagon Wheel West Trail Fest left from the park’s west parking lot: a free family run, by OHV, on the trails around town. Through the morning the Rangely Police Department held a bike rally at the Rangely Automotive Museum.

From eleven to three, the park was given over to free inflatables for all ages. A parent signs a waiver for each child, and it holds good for one year. The chili cook-off came at five. At 6:30 Vocalocity gave a free concert in the park. The district’s notice for that evening’s a cappella concert said the singers had “entertained Rangely for several years with their beautiful Christmas performances” and were “switching things up with a fun summer concert.” It asked listeners to bring a chair or blanket.

The program shifts from year to year. The 2021 festival held an open barbecue cookoff at Elks Park, and its cooks could start at midnight for judging at 3 p.m. that Saturday. In 2023 the barbecue contest had beef and chicken categories, with four preselected judges scoring appearance, tenderness, and taste. The rules let cooks use whatever means they chose, but they could not dig pits. That year’s schedule also listed a cornhole tournament.

A water tank that holds a note

For decades Rangely had an unused water tank, prized for its internal resonance: sounds inside it may sustain for up to 40 seconds. The 65-foot tower is now The Tank Center for Sonic Arts, a concert and recording venue. During the 2026 Septemberfest it kept an open house from nine to one each morning. On Saturday at 8:00 p.m., David Hykes and his Harmonic Presence Choir sang there, for a ticketed audience. On Sunday at seven, the Resonance Women’s Chorus sang, with free admission.

Sunday afternoon belonged to the Rangely Outdoor Museum. Its annual Ice Cream Social began at 1:00 p.m. and ran, in the schedule’s words, “until the ice cream is all gone,” with donations appreciated. The museum now holds the large one-room schoolhouse built by 1913 for the area’s ranching and farming families. At two, the cribbage tournament sat down at the Rangely Rec Center.

Main Street on Labor Day

The Town of Rangely sponsored the 2026 parade, titled “Our Story, A Legacy Worth Celebrating.” Afterward the district thanked Jeannie Caldwell “for organizing and running another beautiful parade.”

Back in Elks Park, the car show marked its 30th year in 2026, with music, raffles, and prizes. Its classes run by decade, from “1929 & older” through “2020 & newer,” with a separate class for pickup trucks. The craft fair brought vendors and local makers. From 12:30 to 2:00, the Barbecue in the Park served for a minimum donation of five dollars a person.

An oil town on the White River

Rangely is a town in Rio Blanco County on a high desert plateau. The White River runs through it from east to west, and the 2020 census counted 2,299 people. The town takes its name from Rangeley, Maine, the native home of a local businessperson. Wikipedia names him as Lee S. Chase, a cousin of the early settler C.P. Hill.

The Rangely Area Chamber of Commerce says the town’s history “tells the story of crude oil in the Rocky Mountain region.” The sources tell the first deep well differently:

• The chamber’s account: Chevron drilled the first deep well in 1931, and by 1933 it was producing 230 barrels a day from the Weber Sandstone at 6,335 feet.
• Wikipedia’s account: The well was Raven A-1. After a year of drilling, it reached the Weber formation in 1932 at more than 6,000 feet.

Both agree there was no market for the oil, and the well was capped until the Second World War. Rangely then became a booming oil camp. One well became 478 by 1949, and by 1956 the Weber formation was yielding 82,000 barrels a day.

The R.A.I.D. Committee

Writing in 2019, the Herald Times found the festival’s origins “spotty at best,” and the accounts disagree on when it began. Local historian Bob Haag and longtime Rangely Town Manager Don Peach recall it starting in the early 1980s. The paper’s account puts the beginning in 1976, when the celebration was held around the Fourth of July weekend. On one point, the paper reported, everyone agrees: Flossy Eddy and Barbara Wade organized the first Septemberfest.

Rangely now keeps a separate Fourth of July celebration, with fireworks shot in the canyon over Kenney Reservoir. Eddy and Wade, organizing that first summer festival, called themselves the R.A.I.D. Committee: Rangely Area Independence Day.