County Fair Honorees | archuletacountyfair

2019 Fair Honorees

The 2019 Fair is dedicated to the Memory of
Paul A. Day

The Archuleta County Fair annually seeks to remember and honor the memory of a person who served the Fair and the local community during their lifetime. The 2019 Fair is dedicated to the memory of Paul A. Day, a great family man, businessman, and community member, who passed away in 2015.

After his high school graduation, Paul moved from Missouri to Pagosa Springs with his parents in 1946. While in Missouri, his family worked a 1200 acre farm and operated a sawmill…the original Day Lumber. After moving to Pagosa they logged local timber (primarily Pine, Douglas Fir, White Fir, and Spruce) taking the sawmill to the logging site. In 1974 the sawmill was sold and property was purchased on Highway 160 where the lumber yard was established and has been operated since then. Day Lumber donated wood and materials to the Fairgrounds to build the Rodeo ticket shed, now also used as the Fair’s Volunteer check-in hut. Son, Rocky, now operates the lumber yard.

Paul and his wife, Etta Faye, were married for over sixty-one years. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. Locally, they were involved in the First Baptist Church. Two of their children, Tracy and Rocky, still live and work in Pagosa Springs. Both Paulette and Ben live outside of Colorado.

It is with great respect to the family that we dedicate our 2019 County fair in remembrance of Paul Day.

Misti Smyth

Super Volunteer

The Fair Board has the pleasure of meeting and working with some of the best volunteers in the County through our County Fair! This year we have selected Misti Smyth as our Super Volunteer based on her years of faithful volunteer activity with our Fair. She has devoted her time to service on the Livestock Committee and to the Livestock Auction. Misti began by serving as the Treasurer for the Livestock Committee in 2014.

Misti and her husband Bill, soon to be celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary, have been in Archuleta County as permanent residents since 2008 after spending several years here during vacations. She said that although she loves the surroundings, her favorite thing about Pagosa is the people. They fell in love with the community and decided it was the place to raise their children, Keaton and Ashley. Misti enjoys anything that enables her to spend time with her family and one way to do that was to become involved with the Fair when her children joined the 4-H program. Their entire family has embraced both 4-H and the Fair. Through the Livestock Committee she has found ways to be involved in the traditions and history set by that committee.

Misti said that serving on the Livestock Auction is one of her favorite areas of the Fair. This group works extremely hard to put together a venue in which children have the opportunity to showcase and sell their market animals. She finds the excitement from the children and the crowd to be contagious and said the community support for the Auction is overwhelming. Her most recent favorite memory of the Fair was putting on the first Parent Showmanship event under the Livestock tent. This is where the parents, rather than the 4-H youth, get to showcase their abilities by working with large animal species (steer, lamb, pig, goat, and turkey) in the arena. The arena is filled with laughter from all ages of the spectators; it is a light-hearted time and was determined to be a much-needed activity.

Misti feels that after a long year of planning and hard work, she is motivated to volunteer by seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces, by feeling the passion and the sense of family/community, and because of the members of the committees she works with. The Fair is so appreciative of every volunteer and being able to recognize Misti Smyth as our Super Volunteer for 2019 is a joy.

Dr. Tim Haarmann

Super Superintendent

The Fair Board is pleased to announce that Dr. Tim Haarmann has been selected as our 2019 Super Superintendent based on his work as our Swine Superintendent and Livestock Committee member for the last several years. This award recognizes and honors him as a volunteer who has taken charge of, and successfully manages, a particular area within the Fair. As the Swine Superintendent, Tim helps ensure that the 4-H members, their families, and their animals have a successful fair experience. His duties keep him busy from start to finish of the fair: ensuring pens are set up to house the animals day and night before the fair, checking-in animals at the start of the fair, and making sure conditions are healthy for hogs during the fair. The Livestock Committee is tasked with setting the rules, scheduling animal events and exhibits, ensuring all animals are weighed and tagged, and working with our Fair veterinarian to ensure all animals entered into the Fair are healthy.

Dr. Haarmann came to Archuleta County from the Jemez Mountains in New Mexico to serve as Ranch Manager for the Banded Peak Ranch and immediately became involved with our County Fair. He has a PhD from the University of New Mexico in Biology with an emphasis in Ecosystem Ecology. He has an extensive background in natural resources management and has a special interest in forest management and wildlife habitat improvement including elk and cutthroat trout. Tim serves on numerous boards and working groups including the Mountain Studies Institute, Chama Peak Land Alliance, San Juan Headwaters Forest Health Partnership, Upper San Juan Watershed Management Project, and San Juan Cutthroat Trout Working Group.

His wife, Laura Mijares, is the Assistant Superintendent of the Archuleta County School District. His three young adult children have attended Pagosa Springs High School and participated in 4-H activities by raising and showing animals. Between New Mexico and Colorado, his involvement with county fairs spans fifteen years; his work with 4-H activities covers twenty years.

Tim feels that Archuleta County has an amazing fair and that it is an important venue to showcase the rural heritage of the area and to demonstrate the rural way of life. He said the 4-H program is an invaluable tool and helps promote a strong community.