Father's Day typically involves spending time with one's father or the father figures in one's life. Father's Day is just around the corner is and is an event that holds its own enduring history.

On June 19, 1910, a Father's Day celebration was held at the YMCA in Spokane, Washington by Sonora Smart Dodd. Her father, the civil war veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who raised his six children there. Smart held her father in great esteem. While hearing a church sermon about the newly recognized Mother's Day at Church, Sonora felt strongly that fatherhood needed recognition as well. She approached the Spokane Ministerial Alliance and suggested her own father's birthday, of June 5, as the day of honor for fathers. The Alliance chose the third Sunday in June instead. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson sent a telegraph to Spokane praising Father's Day services.

Although observance of the holiday faded in the 1920s, over time, the idea of Father's Day became popular and embraced across the nation. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June as Father's Day. It has become increasingly popular throughout North America and other parts of the world over the years.

While it is not a national holiday, Father's Day in Canada is celebrated with great enthusiasm and the revelry is usually never short of fun. Father's Day in Canada is dedicated to all the fathers and father figures including stepfathers, fathers-in-law, foster parents and family friends.

On Sunday, June 16 celebrate Father’s Day at Fort Whoop-Up from 1-4:30 pm. Watch Tim Wickstrom demonstrate the skills of Blacksmith, enjoy the trick roping skills of comedy cowboy Bud Edgar from 2-3 pm. Take a park tour with Larry Canfield & his teams for our awesome wagon rides. Admission fees apply.