By WESLIE STRATTON
Moapa Valley Progress
Pioneer Day was on Friday, July 24. The date, which is a state holiday in Utah, commemorates the arrival of the Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847.
While many Moapa Valley residents traveled north into Utah to celebrate the holiday, many enjoyed celebrating the bravery and accomplishments of pioneers who settled the local valley. This year marks the 150th anniversary of pioneer settlement of the Muddy River area including St. Thomas, St. Joseph (modern day Logandale), and West Point (near modern Moapa).
The LDS Logandale Fifth Ward celebrated the holiday with an ice cream social and pioneer games.
To begin the occasion, ward member Stan Hardy spoke about the pioneer history of the Moapa Valley and those who settled it.
“Why do we care so much about pioneers?” he asked, answering that people wish to instill in themselves the same faith that the pioneers had.
Hardy asked what drove the pioneers to be so faithful and to do what was asked of them.
“And how can we get to that point?” he asked.
He said that their faith in God is what made the pioneers the way they were.
He said that his mother’s parents helped to settle the local area and that they moved down separately from Pine Valley, Utah and met here in the Moapa Valley. After they married they bought a ranch that
Hardy and his brother still farm to this day because it’s something that their grandparents did.
He said that his grandparents had a routine of milking their cows, putting the milk in a bucket and taking it to the local railroad depot. The train would take the milk to Salt Lake City where the cream was taken. When the bucket was returned, a check was there in place of the milk inside.
Hardy said that on one occasion the check his grandmother received in the bucket as payment for the cream was half of the usual price. She wrote a letter with the next bucket of milk that was sent asking for a reason for the price cut. The explanation given in a return letter was that there was a depression and the economy was down and hadn’t she noticed? She hadn’t noticed because, cut off from the rest of the country, she and her family were thriving in the prosperous valley where they had settled.
“The big thing about pioneers is…no matter the challenge or trail, we’re so intrigued with the fact they were willing to do whatever was asked; no matter how insurmountable it seemed,” Hardy said.
Hardy asked if people today are going to leave that same legacy for their grandkids to say, “If he can do it, we can do it.”
It has to do with everything we do in life, he said. He said that the pioneers had bad leaders who forced them out of their settlements and that they were also faced with a terrible economy, yet they were able maintain their faith and their courage.
“We need to look back at pioneers but live so our posterity looks back at us with the same admiration,” he said.
Following Hardy’s address ice cream was enjoyed and the youth played games that were traditionally played by pioneer children including gunnysack races, tug of war, stick pull and more.
When asked what he knew about pioneers, nine-year-old Shandon Matheson said he knew that they experienced many trials.
“Working hard, dying, sick,” he said. “Having to push onward even when they were sick,”
Ten-year-old Grant Henrie said that he knows that the pioneers walked “a long ways.”
