It's time for rodeos and crashes in Havre

There’s no question, Havre is a sports kind of town. A town where, football, basketball, wrestling and baseball seem to be big attractions. But once every summer, sports in Havre shift gears.

And the gear shift starts tonight as a week’s worth of sports action gets underway at the Great Northern Fair.

First, it’s three straight nights of rodeo in the Great Northern Fairgrounds Arena, starting with tonight’s Havre Junior Rodeo. The junior rodeo always kicks off the fair, and will again this week, with the ever-popular sheep riding, as well as barrel racing, team roping, breakaway roping, pole bending, goat ribbon tying and steer riding taking center stage.

The junior rodeo is open to boys and girls ages 4-18 and has always drawn over 100 contestants to Havre, from places as far away as Billings and Canada, to Hi-Line cowboys and cowgirls from Chester to Harlem and south to Great Falls.

But the junior rodeo is just the beginning of the action.

On Thursday night, the annual Great Northern Stampede NRA Rodeo starts a two-night run inside the Great Northern Fairgrounds Arena. The rodeo is always a top draw for local cowboys and cowgirls, but is also a big stop on the NRA Pro Rodeo Circuit. It always features some of the best payouts of the summer season. The stock contractor this year is Black Eagle Rodeo Co., and the action will start each night at 7 p.m.

And finally, on a new night, the annual Jaycees Demolition Derby hits the Great Northern Fairgrounds Arena. The demo derby is always the top draw among fair sports and night show events, and with it being moved to Saturday night for the first time in a decade, it should be a record crowd.

The derby will feature preliminary, consolation and championship heats, following the second year of the bump-and-run track racing that begins at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The demo derby should, again, cap a great week of fair sports.

All the Great Northern Fair sporting action begins with tonight’s Havre Junior Rodeo, which starts at 5 p.m. at the Great Northern Fairgrounds Arena.