Steve Inzalaco has run Shady Grove Farms out of the same corner of downtown Camas for years, and this June he had to solve a problem he had never faced before: where to park his cooler trailer. For nearly two decades, Camas Farmers Market vendors set up on the library lawn and the wide streets around City Hall, close enough that a farmer could keep a refrigerated trailer right next to his booth. This year that entire footprint is gone, and Inzalaco is rethinking how he manages inventory and keeps produce cold through a four-hour Wednesday shift in a much tighter space three blocks away.
That one relocated cooler trailer is a small detail. It is also the clearest sign that downtown Camas rearranged itself in 2026, and if you have not been paying close attention to the reasons, you are about to walk into a fall season that looks different from the one you remember.
The Market's First Move in Nineteen Seasons
The Camas Farmers Market opened its 19th season on June 3 in a new location: Birch Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues, and 4th Avenue between Adams and Birch. That is a shift of three blocks from its longtime spot between the library and City Hall, and it happened because the city broke ground on a new fire station in that exact block. The Downtown Camas Association confirmed the construction as the trigger, and market manager Leah Nichelson told the Post-Record the vendors and their regulars would find the same market, "just in a new spot."
The new spot is smaller. Inzalaco described missing the library lawn and the wider streets of the old location, and the tighter Birch Street layout means no more parking his cooler trailer beside his stand. Vendors adapted quickly, and opening day sales were reportedly up despite the disruption, but the market itself now runs on a different physical logic than the one Camas residents built into a decade of Wednesday routines.
| Old site (through 2025) | New site (2026 season) | |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Library lawn, between library and City Hall | Birch St. between 3rd and 4th Ave |
| Street width | Wide, open block | Narrower, more compact |
| Vehicle access | Cooler trailers parked beside booths | Limited, requires rethinking cold storage |
| Adjacent landmark | Camas Public Library | Downtown core, closer to 4th Ave shops |
The library itself is not sitting still either. The Camas Public Library is getting a renovation for the first time in more than 20 years, according to Post-Record reporting from June 2026. So the same civic block that used to anchor the market every Wednesday is now mid-transition on two fronts at once: a new fire station rising where the booths used to sit, and the library next door getting its first structural refresh in a generation. That is not one disruption. It is two adjacent ones, landing in the same year, which is why the change feels bigger than a simple address update.
The market runs through September 30, when it closes its 19th season with an annual Harvest Festival, live music, and knife sharpening. If you have been meaning to catch it before the season ends, that Wednesday is the last one.
The Car Show That Rain Rescheduled
Downtown Camas has traditionally run its Car Show on the last Saturday of June. Not this year. A rain delay pushed the 2026 event to September 12, which means anyone still expecting classic cars to fill Camas streets in early summer missed it, and anyone who assumed the season for that kind of downtown gathering had closed will want to recheck their calendar.
The rescheduled show runs 2 to 7 p.m. on 5th Avenue, free to spectators with a $20 registration fee for car owners, and C-TRAN is running a free shuttle from Camas High School to the Camas Public Library for anyone who wants to skip searching for parking. It is a small logistical note, but it matters if you are planning to walk downtown that Saturday afternoon: expect 5th Avenue closed to through traffic and expect the sidewalks busier than a typical September weekend.
First Friday Gives Up Its Own Paintbrush
For years, Camas First Fridays included an informal plein air painting competition as part of the monthly downtown event. That changed too. RedDoor Gallery has spun the contest into its own standalone event, the Camas Plein Air Event, held Saturday, September 27, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., with an artist reception and awards ceremony at RedDoor from 4 to 6 p.m. and $2,800 in cash prizes on the line. The tradition goes back to 2013, when a local gallery owner named Marquita first organized it, and giving it a dedicated day instead of folding it into First Friday suggests the event outgrew its original slot. The winning and participating work stays on display and for sale at RedDoor through October 25, so there is a longer window to see what came out of that Saturday even if you miss the painting itself.
First Friday itself is not disappearing. September's theme was "Celebrate Art," and the self-guided mural tour downtown now includes a new addition: a mural by Molly Keen on the back of the Livingston Apartments, visible from 5th Avenue. If you have walked that block recently without looking up, it is worth a second pass.
What Is Still Left This Fall
Between now and Halloween, downtown Camas has a run of dated, specific events worth marking down rather than assuming you already know:
- September 12: Camas Car Show, 2 to 7 p.m., rescheduled from its usual late-June date
- September 18: Cookie Decorating at Lacamas Lodge, 6 p.m.
- September 27: Camas Plein Air Event, painting 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., reception and awards 4 to 6 p.m. at RedDoor Gallery
- September 30: Camas Farmers Market's final Wednesday and Harvest Festival, closing its 19th season
- October 3: First Friday at RedDoor Gallery, including a pumpkin carving and decorating contest judged in part by Downtown Camas Association executive director Carrie Schulstad
- October 17: Zombie Dash
- October 28: Boo Bash Trick-or-Treating downtown, 3 to 5 p.m.
None of these dates are new inventions. What is new is how many of them shifted, split, or moved this year, and how easy it would be to show up on the wrong Saturday if you are running on last year's mental calendar.
If You Are Walking It Off at Lacamas
If your plan after the market or the car show is a walk around Lacamas Regional Park, one more thing has not gone back to normal. A partial closure at the upper dam near Round Lake, in place since March 2026, is still affecting the Lake to Lake Trail loop and the Camas Potholes and Waterfall Loop. Both routes are still walkable as out-and-back trips, just not as a complete loop. Clark County's public works page has the current status if you want to check before you go, especially after any heavy fall rain when the creek crossings can run high regardless of the dam closure.
The Thread Underneath All of It
None of these four changes caused each other. The fire station construction did not cause the rain delay that pushed the car show. The car show reschedule had nothing to do with RedDoor Gallery deciding its painting contest deserved its own day. But all four landed in the same six-month stretch of the same small downtown, which is why 2026 feels less like a normal Camas year and more like the year several long-running routines got renegotiated at once. The market found a smaller footprint it will likely keep until the fire station is finished. The car show found a September date that may or may not become permanent. The gallery found that its contest had outgrown a shared evening. If you live here, the practical move is simple: check the date before you go, because the ones you remember from last year are not all still true.
Downtown Camas rearranging itself is the kind of texture that only shows up if you are paying attention to the place day to day, which is exactly the kind of local read that matters when it eventually comes time to buy or sell a home here. If you are weighing a move in Camas, Ridgefield, or anywhere else in Southwest Washington and want an agent who tracks these details as closely as the comps, Oxford Street Partners is glad to talk it through. Book a consultation whenever you are ready.
