By Stephanie Bunker

Moapa Valley Progress

The 100 Year Celebration of the establishment of the LDS Logandale Stake was held on Saturday at the Logandale Fairgrounds. A relaxing evening was spent by community members.

“There is more here than people can see, and it has exceeded our expectations,” said Logandale Stake President Matt Messer.

All across the fairgrounds were different events, games, and displays. The ethno drama’s, directed by Kenna Dalley, began at 4:00 and continued every half hour throughout the evening. There were 8 dramas performed. All of the actors were volunteers from the Logandale Stake.

“We had some great people pull this together to make it turn out the way it did,” Dalley said.

Ann Hardy was in charge of the costumes, and Bruce and Nancy Perkins found props for the dramas.

Between each ethno drama dances performed by the youth members of each ward in the stake. Each ward was assigned a different decade from 1912 to 2012. Kay Batchelor and Corrine Messer organized the dances.

“I was originally going to do some dancing but when all the wards participated, they didn’t need me,” Batchelor said. “I called the wards and they took care of the rest.”

The youth learned, practiced, and performed the dances. Logandale 1st started it off with the Virginia Reel. After that there were two dances performed every half hour. Many of the dances, especially in the early decades, had couples dancing. As time wore on dances became more independent. such as The Twist in the 60‘s, Thriller in the 80‘s, and Bye Bye Bye from the 90’s were performed. A crowd favorite was Camouflage from the 2000’s by Moapa ward. This was a country swing dance, and included some impressive

partner duets.

Activities and games were held for young children as well. Kids could choose from a variety of games coming from different time periods as well. These included arm wrestling, jacks, bean bag game, hoop rolls, stick pull, spinning tops, hoola hoops, and tug of war.

A potluck dinner was also. Church members from throughout the stake brought salads and desserts. The stake provided barbecue sandwiches.

In the Fine Arts Building was a timeline display. The timeline included 197 Bishops and Stake Presidents from Pre 1912 to 2012 as well as trivia and buildings. There were six wards when the stake was first created including Panaca, Alamo, Bunkerville, Mesquite, St. Thomas, and Overton. Pictures of each leader were posted beneath their years of service. Susan Whipple and Shawna Marshall worked together gathering the pictures for the display. They began two months prior looking through books and calling families to gather them.

“Most of the work was already done by Lynn Bowler,” said Whipple. “When he wrote the book, Zion on the Muddy, he included most of the pictures. We just had to scan and print the pictures.”

A slideshow could also be seen in the Fine Arts Building. The slideshow consisted of all the buildings in the stake. 50% of the old buildings were paid for by the church and the members had to come up with the other 50%. Because the saints didn’t have a lot of money they often paid their share in labor. They hand made the bricks and constructed the buildings.

The Livestock Building at the fairgrounds was also packed with history. Each ward exhibited a display of their own ward history. Extravagant measures were taken by those in charge of their ward history. Items of importance to each ward were on display. There were pictures of memorable activities held by the wards. They also had put together memoirs for the stake time capsule which is to be buried at a later date, and uncovered in another century.

Towards the end of the evening, Messer made some comments to the crowd. He thanked everyone that helped the event go so well.

“A legacy has been left and there is a legacy that everyone leaves in their small way,” Messer said.

After his inspiring comments, the Logandale Stake Choir sang Come, Come Ye Saints. And then the 100 Year

Celebration of the Logandale Stake ended with a benediction given by Stake Patriarch Charlie Pulsipher.