Good Ol' Fashioned Fun at the Morton County Fair

The Morton County Fair’s variety of events provided endless entertainment. From the edge-of-your-seat rodeo entertainment to smaller events like axe throwing, the Morton County Fair buzzed with excitement.

The rodeo slack took place on Friday. The slack featured ladies barrel racing, tie down roping, steer wrestling, team roping, ladies breakaway, and senior men’s breakaway. With the bright midday sun blaring down on the contestants, the cowgirls kicked up dust in barrel racing while the cowboys wrestled steers into submission.

Although rodeo slack is an overflow competition, some of the slack competitors were able to rank in the normal competition and win money. Over half of the participants in the ladies barrel racing slack ranked in the top 10, including Kally Sorenson from Watford City, who earned 1st place with a time of 17.556. In the tie down roping slack, Jon Peek earned 1st with a time of 9.500. A few competitors placed in the team roping slack out of eight teams. This included Braden Pirrung and Riley Curuchet from Killdeer, who won prize money with a time of 5.5. Lastly, out of the senior men’s breakaway slack, JB Lord from Menoken took 2nd place out of eight competitors with a time of 2.400.

Apart from the rodeo, other entertainment could be found throughout the same day. An axe throwing stand allowed visitors to test their skills in axe throwing by attempting to hit the wooden target. Meanwhile, small town artist Myra Klein led a small art activity on Friday. Parents and children attended this event, where they created their own art pieces with instruction from Klein. Attendees were given all the necessities for a kid’s art project; glitter, glue, and laughs.

On Saturday, the NDRA Rodeo took place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. This rodeo had the same events as the slack event, but with the addition of saddle bronc, bareback riding, and bull riding. A notable mishap was the last bull’s behavior in the bull riding event. The bull spent around five minutes in the ring and circled the arena as rodeo clowns and others tried to get the bull out. The bull did not harm anyone, but managed to earn a few laughs from the crowd due to his stubborn behavior.

A dance wrapped up Saturday after the rodeo. Slamabama, a music group from Fargo, performed their music and brought a mix of country, rock, and pop to the dance floor. The Slamabama concert lasted from 9 p.m. to 12 p.m., bringing an end to the Morton County Fair’s Saturday shenanigans.

Whether it be music, the people, or good ol’ fashioned rodeo, the Morton County Fair brings fun and laughter to the county, proving to be one of the highlights of the year.