Wasco County 4-H Kids Get Their Fair After Grasshopper Fire Forces Move to Odell
Lilah Sesma, 11, of Wamic put her sheep Sheriff Tiny Toots in top notch condition in preparation for auction. Sesma, a member of the Wasco County Wrangler 4-H Club said she and her family made the quick move to the Hood River Fairgrounds after the Grasshopper Fire made it unsafe to hold Wasco County Fair events in Tygh Valley.
Odell, Ore., Aug. 15, 2026 — It wasn't the Wasco County Fair they expected, but for 11-year-old Lilah Sesma, getting the chance to show her sheep was what mattered.
“I was really happy I got to show,” Sesma said Friday as she cleaned her sheep with a wool dryer outside the sheep barn at the Hood River County Fairgrounds.
Sesma and her family came from Wamic to join fellow members of her Wasco County Wranglers 4-H Club after the Wasco County 4-H and FFA Fair was quickly relocated to Hood River in the wake of the Grasshopper Fire.
The move came after the Wasco County Fair Board canceled the traditional fair at the Wasco County Fairgrounds amid concerns about the nearby wildfire and changing evacuation conditions.
Rather than cancel the youth livestock portion altogether, organizers scrambled to find another venue where 4-H and FFA members could complete projects they had worked on throughout the year.
According to Wasco County 4-H, fair superintendents, 4-H staff and the Wasco County Youth Livestock Auction Board began searching for alternatives immediately after the Fair Board's decision. Organizers said two people involved in the effort drove more than 200 miles looking at potential venues and working through the logistics of relocating animals, exhibitors, families and shows.
Ultimately, the Hood River County Fairgrounds opened its gates.
Parents, leaders and 4-H members were extremely thankful for the efforts of the Hood River Fair Board and fairground staff to make it possible on Friday.
“Not the fair we planned, but the one we’ll remember,” Wasco County 4-H said in announcing the move.
By Friday, the last-minute relocation had begun to look and sound like a livestock fair.
Ainslee Eiesland, 17, of Dufur shows off her steer “Water Buffalo” on Friday afternoon at the Hood River Fairgrounds.
In the bovine barn, 17-year-olds Ainslee Eiesland, Piper Murders and Harvey Emerson, all of Dufur, were tending to their steers and looking ahead to Saturday's youth livestock auction.
For the three teenagers, the relocation meant the months of work invested in raising and preparing their animals would still end where they had expected — in the show ring and at auction.
The Wasco County 4-H and FFA livestock shows are being held Friday and Saturday at the Hood River County Fairgrounds, with the Youth Livestock Auction scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15.
Admission is free.
The relocated event is limited to 4-H and FFA activities. Open Class livestock, normally part of the Wasco County Fair, is not included.
Wasco County 4-H credited the Hood River County Fair Board and fairgrounds staff, along with volunteers, county officials, fair superintendents, 4-H staff, the Wasco County Youth Livestock Auction Board and Wasco County Fair Board, with making the rapid relocation possible.
For Sesma, however, the complicated logistics behind moving a county's youth livestock program mattered less than the simple fact that she and her sheep had made it.
