St. Regis Flea Market

The traffic reaches the interstate first. On the Saturday of the 2026 market, the Mineral Independent reported, the four-way stop in St. Regis was backed up to I-90. The smell of concession-stand burgers and sweet kettle corn hung over the park, and a little blue shuttle carried passengers and their purchases back to their vehicles. The town sits at the confluence of the St. Regis and Clark Fork rivers in Mineral County and counted 313 people in the 2020 census. For three days at the end of May, Saturday through Monday from daylight to dusk, it holds what its organizers bill as Montana’s largest flea market: more than 200 vendors in the St. Regis Community Park and the Community Center beside it, with free admission.

Tent corridors in the Community Park

Visitors come off Exit 33 and follow the signs. A large free parking area runs along the north end of the grounds. Denny Bedard of KYSS FM wrote in 2026 that the high school students who guide drivers to open spaces appreciate a few dollars toward school projects. A free shuttle runs between the park, the Community Center, the campgrounds and other points around town. Dogs come on a leash, and bikes and scooters stay out of the park. The park has an ATM, port-a-potties and wash stations, and the Community Center has restrooms.

In 2018 the Mineral Independent described the goods laid out down long tent corridors. There were gourmet sauces, outdoor furniture and ornaments, used and new clothing, jewelry, and old CDs and VHS tapes, along with pony rides, bouncy rides and gem hunting for children. In 2026 the Mineral County Shooting Sports Association building held its own hall of food vendors, raffle items, paintings, clothing, tools and furniture. Before noon on Saturday a fishing boat and a 2021 pickup had sold there. Memorial Day weekend is planting time for gardeners, and vegetable and flower starts were for sale. In 2014 Bill Micky had a white-tailed deer head on his table, along with a Radiotel hotel radio that, when it worked, gave a patron two hours of listening for 25 cents. Ron Mulcahy walked the rows that year with both arms full behind his wife, Nancy. “She shops, I just do the carrying,” he told the Missoulian.

The concessions serve breakfast and lunch. John Houlihan, owner of O’Houlis Kettlecorn, told KULR in 2026 he had been coming “at least ten or probably 15 years.” In 2018 the St. Regis 4-H club sold Italian sodas from its booth. “We’ve already made $200,” Macy Hill said a few hours into Saturday. In 2025 the weather ran to highs in the mid-70s and 80s, and the lemonade stand drew very long lines.

Who drives in

Sellers and shoppers come from across the Northwest. In 2018 Hal Payne brought cement birds and koi fish from Santa, Idaho, his first time at the show. Dennis La Celle and his wife, Lorna, came up from near Boise with gourmet olive and balsamic oils. They spent the night in the campground through a storm and thought a bear had wandered through their canopy. “The thunderstorms last night were wonderful,” he said. Don and Rodelie Ross drove down from Missoula with jewelry and yard art, including giant turtles and ants made of river rock. “We come down every year, and love it,” Don said. A collector named Greg, from Somers, put up a sign instead of a booth to draw attention to his old radios.

Don Curtis of Billings sold superheroes, action figures and dinosaurs with his brother in 2025, his second year. He told the Mineral Independent he had visited with shoppers from Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and added, “You’re never too old for toys.” Becky Epperson makes upcycled goods in St. Mary’s, Idaho, and had been coming for three years when she spoke to KPAX. “I guess we all have a little gypsy,” she said. Kassie Cheesman, the market’s director, told KULR in 2026 that some vendors “have been here 30 plus years.”

The same weekend brings the town’s Memorial Day parade. The Mineral County Chamber of Commerce lists it, with the market and the Fourth of July parade, among the large annual events in St. Regis.

The council’s fundraiser

The market is put on by the St. Regis Community Council, a nonprofit incorporated in 1950. The council funds public projects such as the Community Park and Mullan Square, works to preserve and restore historic building sites, and promotes national holidays. In 2018 coordinator Anita Bailey put attendance at about 4,000 people over the three days, and the paper counted 174 vendors filling 212 spaces. The food concessions were the largest earner, followed by vendor fees. The money went to the park, historic preservation, holiday events and scholarships for graduating high school seniors. In 2026 Kassie Cheesman told KULR that the proceeds support the town’s schools.

The count of years differs from source to source. The Missoulian called the 2014 market the 38th. NBC Montana called the 2025 market the 48th. The market’s Facebook page and the Mineral Independent called the 2026 market the 49th, while the Visit Montana and Glacier Country listings for the same May called it the 47th. An undated KPAX report marked 45 years. A Mineral County listing for May 27–29, 2006, described the market as western Montana’s largest, with over 150 vendors on 20-by-24-foot lots. It also announced a new 150-car lot, supervised by the St. Regis Youth Baseball group, that brought parking to 300 cars.

Ida, John and Kassie

The pages name the market’s early years only through the people who kept it going. “I started helping Ida when I was eight,” Kassie Cheesman told KULR. Her father, John Jewell Cheesman, helped with the market “in one way or another from nearly its beginning,” according to his obituary. He was born in Philipsburg on May 7, 1942, and came to St. Regis with his parents at four. He served 12 years on the Community Council and 29 on the St. Regis School Board. As council president in 2018 he headed the local volunteers who worked the market.

He knew the trade from the other side of the table. He and his wife, Mary, once worked as flea-market vendors throughout the East. Several times a year he hauled wreaths and dried-flower arrangements to Canton Trade Days in Texas, where he was known as “Pussywillow John,” and he brought wicker furniture and antiques back to Montana to sell. At 72 he and Mary opened Exit 33 Lawn & Garden in St. Regis, where he painted metal yard art and sold it to tourists passing through. “If you don’t have volunteers, you don’t have a community,” he often said. He died at St. Patrick Hospital on August 30, 2026, at 84.

His son Tyler Cheesman is now council president, and his daughter Kassie directs the market. She said next year marks the 50th anniversary, and that organizers planned to make it bigger, with more food and live music. The market’s website gives the dates of the 50th annual as May 29–31, 2027.