New livestock barn debuts at Wallowa County Fair

Published 6:00 am Friday, July 25, 2025

ENTERPRISE — A year’s worth of work will come to fruition this summer as the public gets to see work that’s been done at the Wallowa County Fairgrounds in Enterprise.

Workers were finishing setting up chutes Tuesday, July 22, for sheep and hogs in the new 100-by-100-foot livestock barn that was built between the main show barn and the fat stock sale arena.

The building has a concrete slab for a floor rather than the dirt floor of the old barn. It replaced dilapidated pens that have been used for sheep and hogs for many years, said Brinda Stanley, chair of the Wallowa County Fair Board.

“That’s our new deal,” she said. “The swine barn and sheep barn so we have a big new barn to house all those animals.”

She said the building no longer has holes in the roof, with its new metal roof.

“That’s our huge, big project,” she said. “It should last for a long time. It’s a beautiful new building.”

The building — and other projects — were paid for largely through state funds received because of the pandemic, Stanley said. She wasn’t sure just how much of that went toward the new barn.

Other projects completed in time for this year’s fair, which runs Aug. 1-9, include new panels in the outdoor arena and the warmup arena has been moved, Stanley said.

She said she expects mostly the same exhibits on hand this year. There was some doubt whether birds would be allowed because of outbreaks of bird flu elsewhere, but those concerns seem to have been allayed.

“As far as we know, they’ll be able to be there,” she said.