Twin Bridges Flotilla and Alumni Weekend

At noon on the Saturday of the fourth weekend in July, a parade comes down the Beaverhead River through Twin Bridges, in Madison County. Its entries are rafts, drift boats, kayaks, and, in the words of the Twin Bridges Community Association, “just about anything that floats.” Each one is decorated to the year’s theme. In 2026 the theme was Stars, Stripes & Montana Skies, marking 250 years of American independence. The association calls the parade the Floating Flotilla Fish Fantasies. Around it the town fills two days with pasture golf, horseshoes, a car show, and an alumni banquet.

Rafts on the Beaverhead

Floats line up about 11:30 a.m. along the river at the south end of the Madison County Fairgrounds, on the Riverside Park side. A registration coordinator works from Camperville, and volunteers help with staging and launch. Entrants may sign up that morning at the fairgrounds near the put-in. The boats launch upstream and drift past town, by the fairgrounds, working lands, and local businesses, while people gather along the banks and cheer from the bridge.

The take-out, at the boat launch in Jessen Park by the bike camp, comes shortly after the bridge. A large part of the crowd watches from that stretch, so the 2026 entry form asked crews to keep their floats together and “parade ready” through it, groups close and displays up, before coming ashore. The parade offered People’s Choice awards of $100 and $200. In 2026 an entry from Twin Bridges Middle School sports took first and the Trailblazers 4-H club took second.

Once the last float passes, rubber ducks are released into the current, and the crowd watches them make their way downstream. Twin Bridges businesses sell the tickets beforehand at $5 a duck. The 2026 race went to Dennis Day, with Kaden Staples second and Nichole Day third.

Madison County Public Health sets out a box of bright yellow life jackets in assorted sizes at Jessen Park, free to borrow from Friday evening through Saturday evening for floating, fishing, paddling, or cooling off. Two days after the 2026 weekend, the association posted a short notice: “Please return the life jackets!”

Pasture golf, horseshoes, and a baby goat

The weekend opens Friday evening with pasture golf at the fairgrounds. Sign-up at the fairgrounds office starts at 5 p.m., play costs $10 a player, and tee time is 6 p.m., with prizes and cash awards. In 2026 the game was courtesy of Sunny Harmon of The Cabinet Stop.

Saturday begins at 9 a.m. in two places. At the fairgrounds horseshoe pits, players sign up for the Walter “Lucky” Shular Horseshoe Tournament, usually played as a bracket of returning players and first-timers. At City Park, the Twin Bridges Farmers Market, held Saturdays from May through September, sets out produce, baked goods, and handmade goods until 1 p.m. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., volunteers on the fairgrounds side of the river near the horseshoe pits sell burgers or hot dogs, chips, and a drink at small cost, with proceeds going to the event. Children fire stomp rockets nearby.

At Route 287 Trading Company, the Cruise In Car Show runs all day alongside a swap meet and food trucks. Trophies go by People’s Choice in several classes, and a Rugrat class invites children to bring their favorite “ride.” Southwestern Montana News reported a strong turnout in 2026, with custom-built vehicles, classic cars, and modern models.

Elsewhere in town in 2026:

• Volunteers ran a Buckaroo Play Zone with stick horse barrel racing.
• Kayla Robbins of Helping Hooves brought a baby goat for children and families to meet.
• At Jessen Park, the Snow Cone Lady, coordinated by Ruby Valley Medical Center, had children pick from a kiddie pool full of balloons holding surprise prizes, some of them tickets for a free snow cone.
• A stand sold fresh-squeezed lemonade for free-will donations to Twin Bridges Kid Country Daycare.
• The public library held story time at 10:30 a.m. and invited visitors to design squares for a community paper quilt marking the anniversary.
• Neil Sauter of Sauter Balloons walked the farmers market, the car show, and the parade route on stilts and in patriotic dress, giving away balloon creations.

After the car show, live music played at Lost Cabin Bar and The Vault. A map of the day could be picked up at a dozen businesses, among them the post office, the Blue Anchor, The Old Hotel, and 3 Rivers Quickstop.

Dinner at the high school

At 6 p.m. Saturday, alumni sit down to dinner at Twin Bridges High School. The 2026 banquet was the 94th annual, catered by Pig Out BBQ at $25 a ticket. It centers on alumni, but anyone in town may attend. The program awards scholarships to students continuing their education and makes Hall of Fame recognitions. In 2026 it honored the Miotke Family and recognized Jody Sandru, a retired educator, for her lasting impact on local students.

A grant in 2010, two toll bridges in 1867

The Twin Bridges Community Association runs most of the rest of the weekend. It was founded in 2010 through a community development grant. Its own history says that over the 16 years since, it has hosted the Flotilla River Parade and the pasture golf tournament during the town’s alumni weekend.

The regional travel site Southwest Montana gives a different sponsor. It credits the parade to the Greater Ruby Valley Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture and lists a three-on-three basketball tournament among its events. The chamber was one of the 2026 sponsors, along with the association, 3 Rivers Communications, Route 287 Trading Company, and American Legion Post 31; Southwestern Montana News added Harrington Pepsi. The association’s 2026 event page promised longtime favorites and a few additions “as we continue to build it back to what it has been at its best.”

Near Twin Bridges, the Beaverhead, Big Hole, and Ruby rivers come together to form the Jefferson. The brothers Judge Mortimer Lott and John Lott, from Colorado, reached the site in 1864 and settled the town in 1867. They noted that four Indian trails converged at a natural crossing of the Beaverhead and Big Hole rivers, and there they built two toll bridges, which gave the town its name. Jessen Park, where the parade comes ashore, got its bike camp in 2009. Interpretive signs there and at the fairgrounds across the road mark the valley’s past.

The Corps of Discovery passed the future townsite on August 3, 1805. Meriwether Lewis wrote that day that the party “found the river as usual much crouded with islands, the currant more rapid & much more shallow than usual. in many places they were obliged to double man the canoes and drag them over the stone and gravel.”