Valley Community Fair

On the Friday of the 2026 Valley Community Fair, August 7, the Exhibit Hall at 3089 2nd Street opened at eight in the morning to take in entries and closed to them at noon. The schedule prints the rule in capitals: no late entries. Pies for the “Fruit of the Season” class went to another door, at The Fair Shack in Valley Station Square, a building also called Bells and Whistles. Educational posters were checked in at the Wood Department. Through the afternoon the hall stayed shut to the public while the judges worked.

Valley is an unincorporated community in Stevens County on Washington State Route 231, 8.5 miles north of Springdale. The 2020 census counted 149 people there. Daniel C. Corbin named the town because it sits at the entrance to the Colville Valley, and the fair carries the town’s name. The Valley Community Fair Association states four aims:

• to preserve an “old-fashioned” fair atmosphere
• to enhance community pride and spirit
• to give area youth a learning experience
• to promote interest in agriculture, livestock, and rural home life

Wikipedia’s entry on the town says the fair’s emphasis falls on children and youth learning traditional craft, baking, and preservation skills. It gives the fair’s day as the second Saturday of August.

Horses, lambs, and a herding dog

While the hall was closed on Friday, the program moved outdoors. Horse Department judging began at nine. The Little White School House was open from ten to two. At noon the small animal barn on the fairgrounds held a Goat and Lamb Fitting and Showing Clinic. At three, Clifner Livestock gave a herding dog demonstration. Troop 892 ran a corn hole competition on Valley Station Square at 4:30, and from five to eight there was music and food in the park.

Saturday on Valley Station Square

Saturday, August 8, began at 7:30 with runners lining up in front of The Fair Shack for the annual Fun Run. The run started at eight, with the Kiddy Run after it, and animal judging opened at the barn at the same hour. From nine until close there was music on Center Stage, with food and other vendors around the square. Kaitlyn Graham painted faces, and an Old Maid Game started up and ran into the afternoon. At the south end of the Exhibit Hall, Nils and Melinda Johnson demonstrated a “Process for Cooking Oil” at ten and again at two.

Parade units formed at the Fire Training Center, 3060 3rd St. The VFW Honor Guards and a flag salute came first, then the Kiddy Parade, then the Main Fair Parade.

In the afternoon the small animal barn held a Livestock Judging Contest and a Sheep/Goat Costume Contest, and Clifner Livestock brought the dogs out again. Children’s games were set up beside the Exhibit Hall. On the square the Fruit of the Season pies were judged and then auctioned.

The day closed at five o’clock at Center Stage with the drawing. Tickets cost $1.00 at The Fair Shack and were sold right up to drawing time. Filled-out tickets went into a “ticket can.” The top prize was $500 cash, and its winner did not need to be present. The smaller prizes went only to people standing there. Winners of the children’s coloring contest were announced during the drawing. Afterward exhibitors carried their work out of the hall and, once stalls and pens were cleaned, led their animals out of the barn.

A school fair in 1932

The fair’s home page for 2026 marks 94 years. The fair’s own history begins in 1932, when the first Valley Fair was held as a school function under Superintendent Earl Druse. Hazel (Phillips) Kulzer was in charge of many of its activities, and the history calls the fair a huge success.

In 1935 the Valley Grange was asked to sponsor it. The Grange kept holding the fair at the school until it bought the old Farmers Union Store building and remodeled it for its hall.

A 2019 press release from the fair, printed in the Chewelah Independent, tells the founding differently. By that account, Frank Stroyan “and numerous members in the community” started the event in 1932.

The fair’s history page names Stroyan among the seven people who legally organized the nonprofit Valley Community Fair Association in 1949, as the fair grew. The others were John Daisley, Margorie Buck, Leo Kulzer, H. Helseth, J.D. Hanley, and Emma Dunlap. Buck served as secretary from 1935 to 1961. The same page names other early volunteers: Frances Edwards, known as the Bingo Lady; Mary Pool; and Beth Blomgren, who kept working at the fair through 1985.

Jackie Franks and Grange #1048

The 2019 release was written to honor Stroyan’s daughter, Jacqueline “Jackie” Franks, who was one year old when the first fair was held. According to the release, she had been part of the fair all her life, and she took over as president of its committee in 1982.

In 1986 she became Master of The Valley Grange #1048. She had seen that membership was low and wanted to keep the Grange active and open. Above all, she wanted to make sure the buildings the fair used stayed available to it.

She and her husband, Ernie, were the fair’s Grand Marshals in 1997. Away from the fairgrounds, she worked more than 25 years as an ARNP and nursing director for the Tri-County Health Department, and she taught watercolor technique to many people.

That year the fair ran August 9 and 10, and the release told readers where to find her: in the Exhibit Hall.