139 years of the Cache County fair and rodeo

It’s now about one month away, the 139th edition of the Cache County Fair & Rodeo. This year’s fair will be held August 9th through 11th. A man, who for many years has been the face and voice of the Smithfield Livestock Auction, Lane Parker, is the new fair manager. Parker and Rodeo Chairman Lamont Poulsen were guests on KVNU’s For the People program on Tuesday. Parker said that last fall, Poulsen and some others approached him about volunteering some time.

“I said, ‘yeah I’d be willing to help with that’,” exclaimed Parker. “They said, ‘would you like to help us by managing the fair? We kind of want to change things around. We’ve got this new building coming online and a lot of things are going to change’.

“And so I said, ‘yeah I enjoy that, want to be a part of it, the family’s a part of it’.  So now the reality has hit and there’s a lot that goes on that I thought I didn’t pay attention to,” he laughed.

Parker praised Poulsen for the hard work he has put into the rodeo making it a big success every year. He is often there until 1 a.m. after the rodeo and then back in at 6 a.m., in addition to the thousands of hours of preparation before the event. Poulsen said it was long-time former Cache County Executive Lynn Lemon who got him involved with the rodeo after being with Junior Livestock for about 30 years.

“That was about 2001, so that tells you how long, and our first rodeo was 2002,” said Poulsen. “We (were) a small rodeo then, (the) purse was pretty low and we raised that up to where, now, our added money is $10,000 per event on the rough stock and $5,000. We are now in the top four rodeos in the country that weekend.”

Parker said the new events center, which they are finishing up, will house various arts and crafts along with horticulture. He said the changes in buildings will open up the carnival to be moved up to take over more the northern and western side than before.  For ticket information for the rodeo and carnival visit www.cachecounty.org/fair

AUDIO: Jason Williams talks to Lane Parker and Lamont Poulsen about this years’ fair and rodeo

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