The 2026 Park County Fair will be flush with history. 

This year’s fair, which begins July 21 (some showing events start a week prior) celebrates 100 years since the fairgrounds was officially established by the federal government. 

In the early years, the fair bounced between Powell and Cody, but April 3, 1926, the U.S. Congress approved a land patent for Park County to use a stretch of land on the east side of the Powell townsite for a county fairgrounds. 

In the first years at the fairgrounds, there wasn't much in the way of venues. 

“At that point it was just, they built a set of bleachers and a race track, and that's all they had here,” Park County Events Manager Billy Wood said. 

Now, the fair is not only celebrating that milestone but America’s 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. 

That anniversary will be seen in many open exhibits and some showing events, such as categories for patriotic pictures involving American flags, red, white and blue agronomy baskets and patriotic dress-a-goat. 

Wood hopes it’s not a one-off, but the start of yearly themed exhibitions as he said is done in some other fairs. 

Wood is hoping to stick around for the long haul and bring in more of his ideas for future fairs.

“I still have dreams that I want to accomplish here,” he said.

But for now he’s focused on his fifth as events manager. While the office works on the fair year round, he said starting July 1 things really get going. 

That’s the deadline for most fair entries to be submitted, and it’s also the opening of the box office, which is when people can come to the office and buy tickets for the fair, including for the various grandstand events. 

Grandstand events

There’s only one big change on grandstand events this year, as the fair advisory board decided to drop a concert in favor of making boxing, which made an appearance at the fair last year, a full grandstand event to replace last year’s Wednesday night concert. 

Wood said with only around 500 tickets sold, last year’s fair was once again a big money loser, especially compared to events like the always sold out demolition derby on Saturday and the ever growing Figure 8 races Friday. Those two popular events will be joined, as always, by pig mud wrestling on Tuesday and truck pulls, back for the third year, on Thursday. 

For the first time the fair is selling box seats for pig mud wrestling, which Wood said will provide some more premium seating for the event and help make an event that is often a wash potentially a bit more profitable. 

Horse show changes

The fair is adding para equestrian classes to the horse show this year to help riders with disabilities be able to compete. 

“We're going off of the U.S. paraequestrian qualifications, so we've had a couple of exhibitors that were extremely excited about this,” Wood said. “They've got their own showmanship, horsemanship, trail, and driving.”

Speed events have also been moved to Monday after all of the positive responses made after last year, when a torrential downpour Saturday, when the events were scheduled, forced a move to Monday, the day before the bulk of fair events begin. 

Camping

There’s also a change to camping at the fair as the Fair Advisory Board determined to award camping spots based on how far campers live from the fairgrounds, as a way to ensure those county residents who live in Meeteetse or on the South Fork, for instance, are able to camp if they wish. 

Park County commissioners, acting in their capacity as the fair board, then unanimously agreed to prioritize Park County residents first over those of other counties, who are able to get a camping site if there are still some left over.  

Wood said while the full hook-up camping spots will likely be gobbled up by county residents traveling from further afield, the fairgrounds also has dry camping spots that may still be available.