Tomato Days

On Labor Day morning in Hooper, once the dog races are run, a cow is let into the rodeo arena. The ground has been marked off in a grid of squares, each about five and a half feet on a side, sold beforehand at five dollars apiece at the Hooper Civic Center and at the info booth in the park. Whoever bought the winning square takes a quarter of the money, up to $500, and need not be present to collect. The Cow Drop is one small entry on the program of Hooper Tomato Days, which Hooper City runs each year in the days leading into Labor Day. In 2026 it ran from August 31 to September 7, with Jamee Johnston as Tomato Days chairman.

Most of the festival happens on one ground: Hooper Park and Arena, at 5600 South 6300 West, with a bowery, serving facilities, restrooms, a playground, baseball diamonds, rodeo grounds, and the arena. The Hooper Cultural Hall stands across the street. The city says the festival has been held for more than 100 years. A Wikipedia article on Hooper puts it at nearly 100 years and counts more than 8,000 people attending each year. Moving Utah reports that admission to the festival itself is free, though some rodeo and tournament events charge entry.

The week at Hooper Park

The 2026 festival opened on Monday, August 31, with a horse show in the arena at five in the afternoon. Riders registered the same day starting at four, and spectators were welcome. At six the city served a barbecue Resident Dinner in the park, limited to Hooper residents, with a $3 donation appreciated. A youth volleyball tournament followed at about 6:30, and a family dance ran from seven to nine.

Through the middle of the week the program moved between the arena and the ball fields. Pickleball teams played from four to ten on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Civic Center courts, with Lifetime balls and games to 11, win by 2. Team roping took the arena at five on Tuesday and breakaway roping at five on Wednesday. A co-ed softball tournament filled the Hooper Park baseball field on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and a 4D barrel race ran Thursday at six.

On Friday, September 4, a four-man golf scramble teed off at eight in the morning at Crane Field. That afternoon at four the Cowboy Mounted Shooters rode in the arena. Each contestant carries two .45 caliber single-action revolvers loaded with five rounds of specially prepared ammunition and rides a course of ten balloons, trying to pop each one. The fastest rider wins.

Saturday: pancakes, smoke, and fireworks

Saturday, September 5, began before light for the barbecue teams. Check-in for the Backyard BBQ Contest opened at six, and teams cooked chicken and ribs around the park for certified BBQ judges. Chicken was due at noon and ribs at 12:30. Meat could be trimmed beforehand but not seasoned, brined, or injected until it had been inspected, and turn-in boxes went in without garnish. Trophies and ribbons went to a grand champion, a reserve grand champion, and the first five places in each meat.

Breakfast ran from 7:30 to 10:30 at the Large Bowery: a pancake fundraiser hosted by CTC at $5 a plate. The flag went up at the park flagpole at eight. At the same hour the Jr. Jackpot Rodeo started in the arena with keyhole, poles, and barrels, the oldest riders going first and the youngest last. At 8:30 runners left the park’s southeast intersection on the 5K Tomato Chase through Hooper’s streets. Children ran free.

At ten the vendors opened and the car show began. The car show is an open show with no categories or classes. Its awards are Mayor’s Choice, Weber County Sheriff’s Choice, Weber County Fire District Choice, the Tomato Days Rodeo Queen and Royalty’s Choice, and the Rotten Tomato. Inside the Cultural Hall, the Cherry Tomato Baby Show judged children up to 35 months in four age groups, from Jr. Prince and Jr. Princess through King and Queen. Prizes went for Best Hair, Brightest Eyes, Bubbliest Personality, and Biggest Smile. Props and make-up were not allowed. At 12:15 came Miss Pink Tomato, for girls aged three, four, and five, with a queen crowned in each age. The winners of both shows are invited to ride in the Monday parade.

The Jr. Rodeo began at 3:30. It had a goat ribbon pull and stick-horse barrels for children five and under, goat tying for ages six through eleven, and dummy roping in five age groups, including an open class. At seven a band called SHUFFLE, billed by the city as a dance band playing classic stadium rock, gave the concert in the park. Fireworks went up over Hooper Park at about 9:30.

Labor Day on 5500 South

Monday, September 7, began with a community wake-up at seven. The parade stepped off at nine from the intersection of 5100 South and 5900 West. It ran south on 5900 West to 5500 South, then west along 5500 South to its end at 6300 West. Horses lined up on 5100 South and the other entries along 5900 West. Entrants are encouraged to throw candy, small toys, and advertising goods to the crowd, and the city advises spectators to bring lawn chairs and candy bags. Equestrian units turn south at 6300 West toward contestant parking below the park. Other entries turn north toward the Hooper City Cemetery.

The park filled after the parade. Children’s games ran from ten to four, and a tractor show from 10:30 to two. Magnet fishing went on in the ditch along the east side of the park. A free six-on-six volleyball tournament was played with true co-ed teams of three men and three women, the winners to be named Hooper’s best volleyball team. At eleven the dog races were run in the arena. Entry was $3, taken at the arena gate on the day, with classes for extra small, small, medium, and large dogs. Wikipedia calls the dog race the festival’s most popular event. The Cow Drop followed.

Horse pulls held the arena from one to five. At three the Sawdust Scramble began at the Small Bowery, a free event in which children dig through piles of sawdust for sweets. The children run in ten-minute heats, starting with ages three and under and ending with twelve and under. Bingo ran from four to five under the Large Tent. The Cowboy Mounted Shooters rode again at 6:30.

The main rodeo started at seven. Calf riding for ages six to eleven and mutton bustin’ for children five and under opened the evening, followed by bull riding, bareback and saddle bronc riding, team roping, and barrel racing. A hide race and the Ring of Fear ran during the rodeo, and slack followed at about 9:30.

Tomatoes, stems off

The Home Arts and Produce Exhibit filled the Cultural Hall from ten to four on Labor Day. It showed quilts, rugs, tatting, oil and acrylic paintings, wood finishing, canned fruits and pickles, and loaves of bread. The produce ran from five carrots to a quart jar of barley to two watermelons, all grown by the exhibitors. Ribbons pay cash: three dollars for blue, two for red, one for white, and seven for Best of Show. The tomato classes call for ten cherry tomatoes, five green, or five ripe, all with stems off. A single tomato may also go into the Largest Specimen class.

Those classes carry the festival’s name. According to Wikipedia, Tomato Days was known in the past for celebrating the harvest of the town’s tomatoes, grown by local residents. The large tomato fields have since declined, and the event now brings the farming community together.

From Muskrat Springs to a city

Fur trappers probably reached the Hooper area as early as 1826, according to the Utah historian Lynn Arave. The first visit on record came in September 1843. John C. Frémont, Kit Carson, and others came down the Weber River by boat, through what is now the Ogden Bay Bird Refuge, and into the Great Salt Lake on their way to Fremont Island.

In pioneer days the place was called Muskrat Springs, for an artesian well where the animals were plentiful. It was part of the Weber Herd Ground, where Capt. William H. Hooper ran cattle, and in 1854 his herdsmen built the first house, two stories tall. Arave calls Hooper Utah’s first delegate to Congress, and Wikipedia calls him an early one. Arave adds that Hooper probably visited only occasionally. He was the original director of ZCMI and later its second president, succeeding Brigham Young.

In 1863 James Hale built two dugouts on the lakeshore and gathered salt from evaporated sloughs to sell. He moved out for a while whenever the rising lake forced him to. By 1876 settlers had come in, among them the Belnap, Hull, Read, Parker, and Cox families, and Arave writes that most of them still have descendants in Hooper. They petitioned to have the cattle moved, and Hooper took his herd to Skull Valley, west of Grantsville. The settlement was called Hooperville for a short time, then Hooper. Its first crops were sugar cane and corn, and alfalfa and fruit trees soon followed. By 1877, with about 100 families, Hooper was second only to Ogden in land area and population in the Weber-North Davis area. Arave notes that the name is said “Hup-er.”

Hooper became a township in 1997, about 15 years after a failed vote to incorporate. A second vote passed on May 2, 2000, and the city was incorporated on November 30, 2000. Its boundary runs west across the Great Salt Lake to take in Fremont Island. On March 30, 2007, Glenn Barrow became the first Hooper mayor to visit the island.