Washington County Fair

The Washington County Fairgrounds is at 115 East Central Blvd. in Cambridge, Idaho, off US-95. For one week at the end of July it holds the county fair. Horses, goats, swine, sheep and cattle are shown in the barns. The exhibit hall fills with quilts, pickles and photographs, and the Cambridge Rodeo runs in the arena. The 2026 fair book carried the theme “Celebrating Small Town America!”, chosen in a contest won by Lanie Gerulf, and cover art by Emily Phillips. Its quick schedule ran July 25 to August 1. The fair’s website gives the 2027 dates as July 25–31.

A week in the barns and the exhibit hall

Some events come before the gates open. On Saturday, July 25, 2026, dogs ran agility and rally courses at Weiser City Park, and the Cat and Cavy Show met at the county Extension office.

The fairgrounds week opened Monday with the 4-H and FFA horse show in the Rodeo Arena at 8 a.m. The llamas and alpacas, pack goats, dogs and Cloverbuds followed. Tuesday brought Horse Play Day at 7:30 in the morning and the small animal show at noon, rabbits first and then poultry. Wednesday was swine at 8 a.m., all goats at about 2 p.m., and a Peewee Goat Show. Thursday had sheep, Peewee Sheep, and breeding beef and dairy cattle. Friday was the beef show. For the last days, the fair book’s entry for the livestock barn reads: “Walk through, meet our youth and see their projects! … Over 2000 exhibits to see!”

The exhibit hall takes open-class entries Monday and Tuesday. Judging is Wednesday, when parts of the hall are blocked off. Every entry must be hand-crafted, homemade, home grown or home baked. It must be the exhibitor’s own work, finished within the last two years. Divisions run from fine art and flowers to food preservation, horticulture, photography, and sewing and quilts.

Local businesses and families put up the special prizes:

• a Best Heritage Recipe award in memory of Frank and Nancy Chandler
• a Best Cookie Box award in memory of Sharon Edwards
• $275 in candy awards from Weiser Classic Candy
• $25 from America’s Rafting Co. for the Most Unique Canned Item
• horticulture prizes for Largest or Tallest, Nature’s Wonder, and Best Dressed Produce

After the 2026 fair the fairgrounds thanked open-class exhibitors for “sewing, quilting, baking, crafting, drawing, Lego making, welding, photo taking and so much more.” On Wednesday evening at 6:30, 4-H members model the garments they sewed at the Style Revue. From Thursday on, the hall stays open until 10 p.m., and the schedule reads, “Come on by... see who won.”

Food comes from three sources: vendors, a 4-H food booth that runs from the first day to the last, and a booth worked by the Midvale and Cambridge FFA. Games during the week raise money for upkeep and upgrades to the grounds.

Sale day in the Show and Sale Barn

On Saturday morning the top youth showmen meet in the Round Robin, where each handles the others’ species. The small-animal round was Friday at 3 p.m. The large-animal round runs from 9 to 11, FFA first and then 4-H. The 4-H and FFA Market Livestock Sale follows at 1 p.m. in the Show and Sale Barn.

The fairgrounds’ thank-you posts after the 2026 sale name who does what.

• The auctioneers have supported the fair for more than 40 years.
• Justin Mink and Jon Mills work as ring men, “knowing the buyers each by name.”
• FFA members from all three chapters carry paperwork to the buyers.
• Pam Swinkfelder, Peggy Mink and Vicki Turnbull come every year to check prices. They write each buyer’s name and amount on papers that the exhibitors hang above their stalls.
• Margaret Fostberg baked cookies for the buyers.

Bidders and neighbors can also “add on” money to a youngster’s project. The posts describe that money as setting the children up for the next year of showing, or for college. In 2026 some also gave donations to Wes Barton and his family.

The 2026 sale, with add-ons, came to just over $700,000. About 130 registered buyers took part, and 340 people sent add-ons. The board extended the August 15 add-on deadline that year “due to the fire,” and another $40,000 arrived after it. The website lists the top twenty buyers of 2025, among them Weiser River Cattle Feeders, SS Cattle Co, Farmer’s Supply Coop of Cambridge, Summers Ranch, Noahs Angus Ranch, and Mink Land & Livestock.

The fair is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit run by a fair board chaired by Kelley Bruce of Midvale. The 2026 fair book, the website and the fair’s posts name Alea Bunker as manager, while the county’s board page lists Mariah Johnson. Perry Goodman does maintenance year round and signs one post “professional camper parker.” Dorthy Bayes keeps the buildings clean. Michael Thatcher, the night watchman, watches the livestock and grounds each night. One thank-you post ends: “And if none of this makes you proud or feel happy, find Justin and he’ll get you a meal ticket.”

Three nights of rodeo and a parade on Superior Street

The Signal American of Weiser wrote in 2023 that the rodeo “has run in conjunction with the Washington County Fair in Cambridge for as far back as anyone can remember.” The Thursday rodeo at 7:30 p.m. is free and limited to timed events. Friday night follows. On Saturday the Grand Parade goes down Cambridge’s Superior Street at 6 p.m., marking the fair’s last day, and the final rodeo starts at 7:30. In mid-July 2023 the Cambridge Rodeo Board added the first annual Jeff Springer Memorial Team Roping. Springer had served on both the county’s rodeo and fair boards.

On Sunday from 10 to noon, families check out their animals and clean stalls, and volunteers come early to haul the livestock away. Days after the 2026 fair, a post signed by Kelley announced that the fair and rodeo grounds were open. It asked anyone bringing animals up to say so, so the water could be on where needed, and noted lots of space for dry camping.

Jewell’s acres, a fire, and a snowfall

James H. Hawley’s 1920 History of Idaho gives the earliest record of the grounds. Edward S. Jewell settled in the Salubria Valley in 1869 and entered 160 acres “upon which the Washington County fair grounds were afterward located.” Jewell was twice elected county commissioner and was a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1889.

The Cambridge Museum on Superior Street keeps the fair’s photographs. Stu Dopf took one of the fair in the 1940s from the Cambridge Elevator. The Baby Parade, begun in 1921, was still a big hit in 1955. A picture from that year shows a child in a bunny costume in front of the old Case Building at the east end of Superior Street. The museum was told the child is Lynn Turnbull, but notes that this has not been verified. It is not sure when the parade was discontinued, “but it should be brought back!!”

Also in 1955, fire burned the old exhibit hall, and a good part of the fair moved uptown. The Burgess Building, now the Cambridge Museum, served as the main exhibit building. The museum’s own page names its building the Jewell Building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The old sale barn burned a few years later.

Carnivals were part of fair week for several years. Some were too large for the fairgrounds and set up on Superior Street in front of the news office, sometimes filling Central Blvd. for a couple of blocks. Photographs taken from the Ferris wheel date to August 1958. An aerial view, which the museum places in the early 1960s, shows an exhibit hall from after 1958–60. It also shows what was left of a carnival that, by the museum’s account, slowly went away in the mid-1960s.

In February 2008 heavy, wet snow brought down the old exhibit hall. The Cambridge Commercial Club stepped in, and the 2008 fair, the museum says, “went on without a hitch.” In July 2026 crews were building an addition to the livestock barn. During that fair week the museum set out a display of past fairs that included a blue ribbon 100 years old.