The Guthrie County Fair is Sept. 3-7 and brings back favorite attractions, adds new entertainment and celebrates generations of family, agriculture and community.

By Rich Wicks | Guthrie Center Times

The Guthrie County Fair is just around the corner. The 2026 event will include many traditional and favorite aspects from previous years along with some new additions. The fair runs Sept. 3-7.

Admission costs remain unchanged this year. A weekend pass is $35, while a daily pass is $15. Children 5 and younger are admitted free, as are active-duty military members.

The word “free” crops up often, as all grandstand entertainment and carnival rides are included with admission. Various free entertainment also will be offered at the Little Amphitheater throughout the fair.

Some scheduled events include:

• Antique tractor show, throughout the fair
• Parade, Saturday, Sept. 5, at 10 a.m.
• Tractor ride, Monday, Sept. 7, at 9 a.m.
• Field demonstrations, 1 p.m. daily during the fair

Grandstand entertainment includes the “Bulls, Broncs and Big Action” Grand River Rodeo on Friday evening, Vais Promotions Figure 8 Races on Saturday evening and the Nag Races on Sunday evening. For those unfamiliar with nag races, it involves a couple (usually husband and wife) attempting to drive a golf cart through a marked course. But the driver is blindfolded and must navigate based only on verbal cues from the passenger (or ‘nagger”).

Other free entertainment will be offered at the Little Amphitheater:

• Friday, Sept. 4: Curt Strutz Dinosaur Dimensions Show, 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
• Saturday, Sept. 5: Pedal Pull at 1:30 p.m. (registration begins at 1 p.m.); Big Balloon Show, 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.
• Sunday, Sept. 6: 7 a.m. church service; Kile Jackson live music at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.; Keith West magic and illusion show at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.; introduction of the 2027 Guthrie County Fair Queen at 6 p.m.

The full schedule of happenings at the fair can be seen online at
www.guthriecountyfair.com.

 

PARADE CONTINUES TO BE A GUTHRIE COUNTY FAIR HIGHLIGHT

Again this year, Cathy Sheeder is serving as coordinator of the fair parade, which is held Saturday morning of the fair and is one of the highlights for many visitors. She described some of the parade’s history.

“Mary Jo Laughery and her crew did it for years and years, and when she was ready to stop, she asked me. But even longer than that, Eldon Wolfe was helping back when Mary Jo did it,” Sheeder said. “My crew includes my sister, Carol Ness, and my niece, Amanda Sheeder, as well as Eldon Wolfe. And Bob Brummer has driven the convertible for our grand marshals for a lot of years, as well. We come up with a new theme every year. That’s a job that I got tasked with, as well. This year, it’s ‘Welcome to Fairadise.’ ”

One unique aspect of the parade is that everyone can join in.

“People are free to just come and line up — first come, first served,” Sheeder said. “It’s normally close to a two-hour parade. I’m sure it’s usually 100 to 150 entries by the time you get everybody in there.”

Lineup for the parade begins at 9 a.m. The parade route will be the same as in recent years, beginning at 10 a.m. on School Street, then going to the Casey’s intersection and turning west toward the fairgrounds. Sheeder voiced her appreciation to law enforcement for helping with traffic control during the parade.

Sheeder enjoys helping with the parade and said it goes on rain or shine.

“It’s fun and just a small way to contribute toward a really nice event for a lot of people,” she said. “I don’t know that we’ve ever stopped because of weather. We’ve gotten rained on a few times, but they’re a pretty hardy bunch.”

 

TRACTOR SHOW PRESERVES HISTORY

Another longtime event at the Guthrie County Fair is the antique tractor show. Organizer Matt Cline shared some history and information about the show.

“It’s kind of a team effort with myself and William Frels. We work together as the contact people for it,” Cline said. “It probably started around 25 or 26 years ago.”

Cline noted that the definition of an “antique tractor” is somewhat fluid.

“That definition for us is pre-early 1970s,” he said. “A lot of people like to collect what they grew up with or what their grandparents had on the farm. For the most part, the exhibitors are from Guthrie County or a few from the surrounding counties. We have had some come from as far as Nevada (Iowa) a couple years ago, and one gentleman came from Le Mars, but it’s mostly a local thing.”

Cline said the show generally brings in quite a few tractors, giving attendees a wide variety to check out.

“It depends on the year, but we can usually count on 80, and some years have had up around 120 or more,” Cline said. “Probably the oldest tractor we’ve had would be the one brought by the gentleman from Nevada. He brought what’s called a Moline Universal, and it was made around 1920.”

Cline added that there is more to the show than just old tractors.

“We start on the Friday, and we’ll have little activities through the weekend. This year, we’re featuring the old stationary gas engines that they used for power to wash clothes, grind feed, pump water and things like that. And we’re hoping to be able to do a vintage soybean harvest this year. Those field activities start around 1 p.m.,” he said.

“We’ve definitely had some weather fun over the years. We used to set up a big tent, and one year it rained pretty much all weekend, and water was standing everywhere so we were making walkways into the tent out of the corn cobs that we had from shelling the corn.”

Cline said the tractor show is a fun and interactive way to preserve history. 

“Anybody’s welcome to bring an exhibit or antique tractor,” he said. “We don’t care how pretty they are, even if it’s old, rusty, and hasn’t been painted in 80 years.”

 

A CW THOMAS FAMILY TRADITION

The Guthrie County Fair has long been a tradition for many local families. That is definitely true of CW Thomas and his family. If there were such a thing as a Guthrie County Fair “Mount Rushmore,” one of the faces would certainly be CW Thomas. He listed some of the contributions he has made to the county fair and the Iowa State Fair during his lifetime.

“We go back several generations. I have a share of stock that was bought by my great-great-granddad, John G. Thomas, when they were building a new grandstand in 1914. It was $25 a share,” Thomas said. “That’s how far we go back.”

Thomas said his first involvement was when he was about 10 years old. 

“Our neighbor, Roy Burkett, raised a lot of sheep, and he came by and asked if I wanted to show a lamb at the county fair. I said sure, so I did that two years in a row,” he said.

From that simple beginning, Thomas never looked back.

“Then when I was 12, one day my dad surprised me with a purebred Hampshire gilt. She ended up having seven pigs, so I raised them up and took them to the county fair,” Thomas said. “I showed them all the way through high school.”

In 1964, after his father passed away, Thomas took over the farm, and the family raised hogs and showed them at the county and state fairs. He also gradually became more involved in the county fair.

Thomas noted a couple of major improvements at the Guthrie County Fairgrounds that he helped implement. The new grandstand was built in 2007, and the new community building was built in 2010.

Thomas served on the Guthrie County Fair Board for many years, including as president. He also served a 10-year stint as president of the Iowa County Fair Association.

After that, a friend approached Thomas about joining the Iowa State Fair Board.

“He said, ‘I’m going to retire off the State Fair Board, would you be interested?’ And I was, so in 1999, I got elected to the State Fair Board,” Thomas said. “I started on the State Fair Board in 2000, and I was the president in 2004 and 2005, and I’ve been on that board for 26 years.”

Currently, Thomas is president of the Guthrie County Fair Foundation, which handles the organization’s fundraising.

Thomas’ daughter, Kris Arrasmith, added more information about his involvement.

“He was a 4-H leader for 10 or 12 years, and he was also president of his FFA chapter in school,” Arrasmith said. She also noted that her dad makes a point of going to each of the 17 county fairs in the district that he oversees on the County Fair Association. He was also given an award as the 2011 “Fairman of the Year” by the Association of Iowa Fairs.

Thomas believes fairs can be assessed by the level of youth involvement.

“My first question at every county fair is, ‘How is your Clover Kids?’ because that’s our future of 4-H,” Thomas said.

Arrasmith recalled her first experience showing a lamb at the county fair. Although things did not go according to plan, it all worked out in the end.

“I was itty bitty. The lamb was about 122 or 124 pounds. She was twice my size, and she got away from me and dragged me all around that ring. I remember tears were coming, and the next thing I knew, the judge came over and awarded me Grand Champion,” she said. “I showed through the rest of high school, and then I showed horses, too.”

As an adult, Arrasmith assumed that chapter of her life had ended, but family traditions do not give up easily. Her three children, Bo, Hunter and Keely, all became involved, thanks to her father.

“Never in a million years did I think that I would come back to showing sheep,” she said. “And here we are. When our kids were old enough, Grandpa bought the kids each two lambs, and that’s how we started. My husband was a town kid, but now he is the sheep superintendent, and I help him with the show, and I do the announcing. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s kind of a full-circle thing.”

Arrasmith noted that she has seen many kids, not just her own, who have blossomed through their involvement at the fair. She pointed out that kids learn much about time management, life balance, hard work and commitment.

“I cannot say enough good things about 4-H and FFA and the fair experience. What it does for a kid,” she said. “It’s amazing.”

Bo Arrasmith shared his experiences at the Guthrie County Fair. As far back as he can recall, the county fair was a big deal.

“I showed there many years, but even before that, when my grandpa was on the fair board, we were always down there helping out and doing random stuff, whether it was riding in the parade or walking around talking to everyone,” he said.

Bo noted that he has seen many of the upgrades at the fairgrounds over the years.

“The new show barn was a big thing for me, because it was better for the animals and there’s more room for everything,” he said.

Bo stated that, in his experience, showing animals at the fair helped him develop better communication skills, and he made many friendships over his years at the fair. As a child, Bo generally showed rabbits at the fair, but he found it more enjoyable overall when he later showed sheep. Still today, Bo is raising sheep to help pay his college expenses.

As demonstrated by this family, fairs are much more than summer entertainment. Thomas recalled a question he has been asked numerous times during his involvement in county fairs and the state fair.

“I’ve been asked if I can sum up the fair in one word, and I said, ‘Yeah, I sure can — tradition’,” he said.