With more than 100 years of history and tradition, the Douglas County Fair & Rodeo (DCFR) is a county icon. The fair runs every summer, with its award-winning rodeo, celebrating the western heritage and agriculture of Douglas County.

DCFR marks 1918 as its official first year, but several similar events in the previous couple of decades formed a prelude to the current celebration. The year 1892 saw the First Annual Douglas County Fair, with the Second Annual Douglas County Fair in 1894.

The 1892 fair included horse races with monetary prizes, a livestock sale and exhibit, an agricultural exhibit, and a horse show. Competitions included farm and garden produce, best display of fruit, house plants, kitchen and pantry stores, poultry and pet stock, turkeys and cattle. There were also fine arts competitions for landscapes and portraits; fancy quilts, knitting and embroidery; and painting on cloth.

The fair in 1894 did not include monetary prizes, and after that year, it was discontinued because of poor crop seasons. In the first decade of the 1900s there were sporadic fairs held with no regularity. Then in 1918, the county purchased the fairgrounds in Castle Rock, leading to the current fair and rodeo. Like the 1892 event, the 1918 fair was also called the First Annual Douglas County Fair.

Although the 1918 fair did not mention rodeo in its title, it featured several rodeo events, including wild steer riding and roping contests. There were also horse and foot races, dances, exhibition shooting, a livestock sale, exhibits and agricultural competitions. The next year’s fair added home economics competitions, which included baking, canning, candy, honey, dairy products, embroidery, crocheting, tatting (making lace) and knitting.

At first, the fair took place in October, but as the years passed, its timing moved earlier and earlier until reaching its current timing of late July to early August. DCFR has been held annually since 1918, with just a few exceptions: a couple of drought years in the 1920s and 1930s, and 1942-46 because of World War II and a polio epidemic.

Over the years, DCFR grew, and its offerings varied. In 1924, it included school exhibits: examples of penmanship, drawings and maps. In the late 1940s and 1950s, chariot race events were very popular. The 1956 fair saw the first recorded fair queen. The first dog trial (agility and obedience tests), a 4H event, was held in 1976. In 1984, for the first time, the fair offered grandstand music entertainment.

Today, DCFR offers a carnival, marketplace, farm-to-table brunch, petting zoo, food vendors, ProRodeo, live entertainment, mutton bustin’ and more. DCFR runs July 25 through August 3 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, 500 Fairgrounds Drive. The DCFR Parade is July 26 in downtown Castle Rock, starting at the south end of town at 9:30 am.

For more information about DCFR, visit douglascountyfairandrodeo.com. To learn more about DCFR’s history, visit historicdouglascounty.org and search “fair.”

 

By Susan Helton; photos courtesy of Douglas County Fair & Rodeo and Douglas County Libraries Archives and Local History