NEWELL—For three days, the little town of Newell expanded to welcome friends, family, visitors, competitors and anyone else looking for something fun to do during Labor Day weekend. The 67th annual Newell Labor Day celebration kicked off Saturday, September 5, and ran through Monday, September 7, with action-packed activities each day.
On Saturday, September 5, the early morning crowd headed to the Newell Evangelical Church parking lot for the Labor Day 5K Fun Run/Walk/Bike, which started at 8 a.m. Next, the excitement moved out to the Newell Rodeo Arena for the Ranch Rodeo and Calcutta, beginning at 1:30 p.m. Newell Museum and Quilt Show, both located at City Hall, were open for visitors from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The Quilt Show had 54 quilted items on display.
Around 5 p.m., the action moved over to the Newell Volunteer Fire Department for the Fireman’s BBQ. The Fire Department fed hungry supporters a variety of beef, pork and lamb sandwiches with all the fixings for a free-will offering.
Newell FFA Chapter hosted a Goat Roping at the Newell Ram Sale Building beginning at 6:30 p.m. The fundraiser had over 120 teams sign up to compete, with the team of Devin Garza and Craig Nelson winning first place. Cooper Cermak and Clancy Todd placed second, and Rachel Braun and Colton Lougie ended up third.
The first night of the celebration ended with a dance at the Newell Bar, where Williams & Wright provided live music.
Sunday, September 6, brought another day full of Labor Day activities and a bunch of people to town to enjoy the festivities. Beginning at 10 a.m., crowds divided their time between the J.D. Mutchler Memorial Team Roping and Breakaway Roping at the arena and the Car Show at the South Park. The park was full of spectators looking under the hoods of all the show cars, pickups and tractors. Visitors were asked to cast a vote for their top three favorite cars and their favorite truck and tractor.
The Cornhole tournament began at 2 p.m. in South Park. The Newell Community Club put on the event, which featured two-player teams paying $60 to enter. Winners received cash prizes.
Down the road on Girard Avenue was the Tractor Pull. Spectators backed their vehicles up along the track and put out lawn chairs to sit in and cheer on the tractor drivers as they tried their best to pull the heavily weighted sled as far as they could. Mimi’s Food Truck provided good eats for the day.
The Quilt Show and Museum were open for the afternoon once again.
Monday morning, a large number of paradegoers lined the parade route to enjoy the floats, horses, tractors, fire trucks, old cars and other festive entrants. This year’s theme was Let Freedom Ring, and the Parade Marshal was Butte County Veterans. There were a lot of happy kids picking up a lot of candy thrown out by each float.
Following the parade, the crowds headed to the South Park for First National Bank kids’ games that included a bouncy house and a bouncy slide.
There were a variety of food options available for lunch depending on what one wanted to eat. The NVN Senior Center offered sloppy Joes and hot dogs for a free-will offering, Midwestern Meat Locker Cookout had all-beef brats for $4 and the Newell VFW served up hamburgers and hot dogs for all veterans at no charge.
There was a lot of foot traffic between the South Park and City Hall, where the quilt show and museum were open to explore for the final day. Along that route was the NVN Center, where one could stop and play both regular and chicken bingo. Chicken Bingo is a fun event where 36 squares are sold for $5 each. After all of the squares are sold, a live chicken is released onto the bingo board, and wherever the bird decides to relieve itself, the square that it lands on is declared the winner. The winner took home $90. All proceeds from Chicken Bingo and regular Bingo go toward the NVN Senior Center.
The Labor Day celebration culminated with the Labor Day Rodeo, beginning at 1 p.m. This was the first rodeo where attendees got to experience the finished covered grandstands. The Newell Community Club had been working hard to replace the old wooden grandstand with the new covered grandstands.
The turnout for the rodeo was impressive, with all of the seating areas filled and crowds standing along the outside of the arena. Justin Tupper was the rodeo announcer and kept the crowd entertained and the events moving along. The National Anthem was performed by Vonda Mahaffy.
It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, and the heat was high inside the arena and out. Inside the arena, there was a full slate of traditional rodeo events, beginning with bareback riding and ending with bull riding, with barrel racing, team roping and breakaway roping all in between.
This rodeo is unique because they allowed kids to compete in their own events alongside the adult events. Youth events included steer riding, mutton busting, junior breakaway roping, peewee barrels and junior barrels.
Between events, a boot scramble for kids 10 and under was held.
Newell was once heralded as the Sheep Capital of the Nation. Keeping with this theme is the unique Sheep TeePeeing event. According to the announcer Justin Tupper, this is perhaps one of the only places that offers such an event. It is wild and fast-paced and makes the crowd cheer.
Teams of two run down the arena on foot to a flock of sheep. The duo must catch one and get it away from the rest of the flock while placing a teepee/tent over it. The sheep must stay under the teepee until the team makes it back across the finish line while holding hands. Rylan Vavruska and Trig Olson had the unofficial fastest time of the rodeo.
High Plains Restaurant and Bar once again donated the All Around saddle to the winner who scored the most points in two or more events in the Labor Day Rodeo.
While most events were held during the three big days of the Labor Day celebration, a handful of activities took place during the week before the start of the celebration. They included the crowning of the 2026 Labor Day Royalty, which took place Saturday, August 29. Winners were Newell Labor Day Rodeo Queen Kaydence Lei; Newell Labor Day Jr. Miss Ella Roberts; and Newell Labor Day Little Miss Windsor Erickson. The Cowboys for Christ Church Service was held on September 3, and the Quilt Show and Newell Museum opened Friday, Sept. 4.
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