Tri-County Fair Deer Lodge, MT

08/23/2026

Tonight we stopped by another county fair, and since we were already missing some of our favorite treats from our fair, we had to track down one of our vendors! 😂

We found him, got our treat fix, and ended up having the best conversation. Hearing him talk about our Tri-County Fair truly made my heart happy. He called our little fair a “diamond in the rough” and talked about how hard our Fair Board works to make it something special and it’s so nice he recognized that.

But what meant the most wasn’t what he said about the fair or our board, it was what he said about our communities. He couldn’t say enough about how welcoming and friendly everyone was to them. How people stopped to visit, made them feel at home, and supported their business. He said they absolutely will be back next year!

As a Fair Board, we can work all year long planning and trying to make our fair the best it can be, but we can’t create that kind of feeling on our own. That comes from all of you. Tonight was a pretty great reminder that our little fair really is something special AND so are the people in our community that make it what it is.

——-Amanda

08/19/2026

A well deserved THANK YOU goes to the St. John Luthern Church in Deer Lodge. Year after year they set up and provide a delicious, FREE breakfast during fair, another tradition that we love!
🍽Thank you for serving the fair families.

08/18/2026

🦁 35 YEARS OF PARTNERSHIP

Thank you, Deer Lodge Lions Club!

We received a thoughtful thank-you from the Deer Lodge Lions Club this week, highlighting the 35-year partnership we’ve shared with their organization.

But really, the thank you belongs to them. For all the years they’ve spent serving our community, supporting local youth programs, helping make community projects possible, and carrying out their mission to serve those in need.

We’re proud to stand alongside them. 💙

This year, we were happy to lend our trailer while the fairgrounds are in transition. It’s a small way we can help an organization that has been doing so much for the community for so long.

We’re proud to be a long-standing partner in the work you do and grateful to share a commitment to making our Montana communities better places to live.

Thank you for letting us be part of it!

Lions Clubs International Powell County Chamber of Commerce

08/18/2026

🎊 Congratulations to our People's Choice Winners

Quilt: Colter Pennell
Photo: Joncee Cumin

Thanks you all for casting votes!

08/18/2026

Our exhibit hall looked amazing thanks to many people! We greatly appreciate everyone who brought in their entries.

For the past 3 years we have put forth a challenge to "Fill the Fair" in which we recognize an organization that has the most entries from their entity.

Clark Fork Vet clinic is the organization that has won the "Fill the Fair" award for all 3 years.
Thank you for your participation and your service to our fair. This crew cleaned out the building before set-up.

The open class side also leans on many volunteers. Thank you to our judges and volunteers during the early days of fair who worked hard to get the exhibit barn ready for viewing.

Bethany Ewings
Katie White
Kyle White
Kelly Rubink
Lexi Rubink
Sandy Morley
Rikki McQueary
Gracie Garrison
Logan Yount

08/18/2026

A huge THANK YOU to our amazing Extension Agents, Ben Hauptman with Granite County and Kayleen Kidwell with Deer Lodge County, along with their wonderful secretaries Dee Dunkerson and Paula Arneson! ❤️

These four have been such a huge help to the Tri-County Fair, but especially this year as they stepped up and helped cover Powell County Extension while we wait for our new agent to come on board. They took on the extra work, answered questions, helped keep things moving, and made sure our 4-H kids and families were taken care of during an already crazy time of year.

We appreciate all the extra time and effort more than you know! It truly takes a team to make fair happen, and we are so lucky to have neighboring Extension offices willing to jump in and help when we need them.

Ben, Kayleen, Dee & Paula THANK YOU for everything you did to help make our 85th Tri-County Fair a success! 🍀❤️

08/18/2026

After seeing our Friends over at Madison County start A Food Vendor Contest we decided it was a fun idea! Now we can’t wait till Next year!
Our Classes were
Best Fair Food 🥘
Best Fair Drink 🥤
Best Fair Dessert 🧁
Thank you to our judges who took time out of their day to come judge for us!
Gavin Roselles Powell County Sheriffs Dept
Megan Howell Deer Lodge City Police Department
Sandy Morley Deer Lodge County 4-H Council President
Mary Newman Powell County resident

08/17/2026

HAY BALE CONTEST WINNERS!

We had some pretty awesome creations in our Hay Bale Decorating Contest this year, but these two came out on top!

🥇 1st Place — Cow Poke Ranch Supply with their unforgettable chicken, Richard!

🥈 2nd Place — The Dave “Safer” Morley Memorial Fun Run with Ferdinand the Bull!

Thank you to everyone who participated and helped add a little extra fun and creativity around the fairgrounds. We absolutely loved seeing what everyone came up with!

Also a Big Thank you to Troy & Terri Jo Anderson for bringing the bails to town for us to decorate.

08/17/2026

❤️ OUR MOST IMPORTANT THANK YOU ❤️

We’ve thanked our sponsors, vendors, volunteers and everyone who helped make the Tri-County Fair possible, but there’s one thank you that means a little more to us.

To our families, thank you.

Being on the Fair Board isn’t just something we do for a few days in August. It’s a year-round commitment, and our families live it right alongside us. They put up with the meetings, phone calls, endless messages, late nights, early mornings, crazy ideas, last-minute changes and the full-blown fair brain that takes over our lives.

During fair week, they don’t just support us from the sidelines either. They jump in wherever they’re needed, pick up the slack at home, take care of kids, haul things, run errands, listen to us vent and somehow keep loving us when we’re tired, stressed and running in twelve different directions.

The truth is, we couldn’t do what we do without the people waiting for us at home and standing beside us at the fairgrounds.

So from all of us on the Tri-County Fair Board, our biggest and most heartfelt thank you goes to our families. Thank you for sharing us with the fair, supporting something that means so much to us, and being there through all of it, year after year.

This fair belongs to our community, but it’s our families who make it possible for us to give so much of ourselves to it. We love you, we appreciate you, and we definitely owe you some family time now that fair is over!

08/17/2026