Verde Valley Fair

On the first afternoon of the 2024 Verde Valley Fair, the Gyberg Building held a game bird show, a rabbit show and a cavy show, all set for 1 p.m. Across the grounds the show barn ran through public speaking, breeding sheep, breeding goats, pygmy goats and dairy goats between 3 and 6 p.m. The next day began at 8 a.m. with market swine in the barn and waterfowl in the Gyberg Building, and it ended with the beef show at 6 p.m. Between them came market lambs and goats, dairy cattle, turkeys, a pigeon show followed by poultry, and three rounds of small stock round robin, senior, intermediate and junior.

Five days on East Cherry Street

The fair runs five days in late April and early May at the Verde Valley Fairgrounds, 800 East Cherry Street, Cottonwood. The 2027 fair is set for April 28 to May 2, 2027. It is put on by the Verde Valley Fair Association, Inc., a nonprofit 501(c)3 that says it relies on public donations and support. The Arizona Fairs Association lists Coleen Gilboy as director. The association’s stated purpose is youth development: an educational and entertaining event where FFA, 4-H and organized youth groups show their products and skills to the public. The 2024 theme was “On With the Show,” with the fair as the production and the visiting students as its cast.

A carnival midway runs beside the barns. A Larson Newspapers photograph from the 2024 fair shows Kayla, 6, and Charlotte Warren riding the carousel, and the Sedona Red Rock News put the crowd at thousands of people from across the Verde Valley and beyond. Listings for the 2026 fair named vendors, artwork and crafts, quilts and sculptures. A 2019 calendar entry added horticulture and floriculture and free entertainment, and one 2026 notice mentioned funnel cakes. Admission in 2024 covered the rodeo, live music, the livestock shows and the community exhibits.

Each day has its own terms. Wednesday is Senior Day, free to those over 60. Thursday is Armed Forces Day, free with a military ID. Thursday is also Buddy Night: between 2 and 7 p.m., a second ride wristband goes for half price, and the buddy must be present at purchase. In 2024 Thursday was also Hispanic Night, with Hispanic music on the main stage. For the 2025 fair, Cottonwood-area schools closed on Friday so students could attend. Sunday Fun Day sells fair entry and a ride pass together, $20 at the ticket booth in 2025. The pass was good on every ride except the Freak Out, which took a wristband and three more tokens. In 2024 a free shuttle ran from Riverfront Park to the fairgrounds Thursday through Saturday, 4 p.m. to midnight.

The Saturday sale and the rodeo dance

The Youth Livestock Auction was held on Saturday at 3 p.m. in 2024. The Cottonwood Journal Extra called it the culminating project of the year. Most of the young people selling had been raising their animals for more than a year, and besides the sale they could win awards such as Grand Champion and Senior Showman. That evening, and the evening before, the rodeo started at 7 p.m. in the arena and was followed by a rodeo dance. The Grand Canyon Professional Rodeo put on the 2024 rodeo.

A beer run of 1,640 feet

The fairgrounds also hold a Fall Festival, with vendor booths, a scarecrow contest and a quilt show. The 2026 festival is set for Friday and Saturday, October 23 and 24, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The association has listed live music, food trucks, art and craft vendors, a goat show, a barrel race, a tractor pull and an art show for the Saturday. A tractor club will be there with its machines, and the association says the club wants new members.

On the morning of October 24, 2026, at 10 a.m., comes the association’s first .5K Beer Run. The course is 1,640 feet through the festival, with ten tastings of Arizona craft beer along the way. “No running,” the association wrote, and the run is for those 21 and over. Groups are encouraged to pick a theme, and prizes go to the funniest costume, the largest group and others.

Calves behind the Civic Center

The first Verde Valley Fair was held in downtown Cottonwood in 1965. Carlton Camp, FFA advisor at the high school now called Mingus Union, worked with Don Goddard, Chuck Mabery, Everett Brown, Pat Patterson, Mickey Ryan and Ross Rhoton to bring 4-H members into the FFA Calf Sale. The association’s account says the change spared the local 4-H members the long trip to Prescott and the contest for buyers against Prescott 4-Hers. The calves were shown in the baseball field behind the Civic Center, which the Red Rock News calls the Old Town baseball field. Doc Pardee was the auctioneer. The 4-H exhibits went into the American Legion Hall and the rest into the Civic Center. A barbecue was held, and George Thomas made biscuits in Dutch ovens.

Tents, snow and a $7,000 barn

The association’s history says the fair moved to the fairgrounds in 1966, the year the association was reorganized. Two big tents were rented out of Phoenix for shelter. Portable panels for stock pens were borrowed from the Arizona State Fairgrounds, for that fair and for many years afterward. During the fair a storm came up and blew the tents down. The Red Rock News, writing for the 60th anniversary in 2025, dates the move to 1968, after Ersel Garrison bought land from the Verde Land and Development Co.

The first livestock barn was built for the 1967 fair. That winter heavy snow caved it in, and the County helped rebuild it.

In 1968 came the Blue Exhibit Barn. Before the bank would lend for it, a clear deed to the land was needed. Garrison had bought the surrounding land from the Verde Land and Development Co., since defunct. He gave the association a clear deed but reserved the slag dump. Eight members signed personal loans totaling $7,000 before the fair to pay for the building, among them Mickey Ryan, Ross Rhoton, Chuck Mabery, Clyde Hance and Carlton Camp. Ernie Broughton supervised the work. The barn was later named for Frank Gyberg, and after his death Mrs. Gyberg set up a $1,500 trust for the fair. It is the building where the rabbits and pigeons are shown.

Also in 1968, the Fair Board sold an acre to the VFW for $1 for a meeting hall on the grounds, and the association could use the hall during the fair. The VFW put up a new building on the site in 1983. The old American Legion Clubhouse was moved onto the fairgrounds from Clarkdale. The old Tillie’s Salon building from downtown Cottonwood came onto the grounds in 1968 as well. After that it was known simply as the stucco building, and it has since been removed.

For years the sale ran on donated labor. Doc Pardee, Sheldon Antone, Johnny Whisenant and Mark Nelson auctioneered without pay. Everett Brown, Carlton Camp, Pat Patterson and John Reddell served for many years as ring men. CTI, Phoenix Cement (now Salt River Materials Group), Marcus J. Lawrence Hospital (now Verde Valley Medical Center) and local doctors were long among the major buyers. Pat Patterson, George Kirkwood and the Tavasci Bros. hauled the animals to Phoenix for processing at no charge to the Fair Association.