Pioneer Day
Pioneer Day is a state holiday in Utah. It commemorates the arrival of the first pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley. We decided to celebrate Pioneer Day this year by remembering and honoring our Pioneer heritage. So we loaded up my van and my mom's van and headed for Tooele (pronounced too will uh). On our way there we stopped at
Saltair and walked out to the Great Salt Lake. In the picture below, if you notice the dark ground close to the water, that darkness isn't actually ground. It is bugs. I don't know what kind of bugs. But there were about ten hundred bajillion of them. They kind of hover over the ground and swarm out of your way when you walk. If you look where Zac and Em are standing you can see they have moved out from where they are and are hovering in a circle around them. As disgusting as it was to watch, it was also highly fascinating and very hard to look away from.
The aroma in the air was just lovely.
Our first stop in Tooele was the park which is the first place that first settlers of Tooele camped. Among those first settlers were my 4th great grandparents
Cyrus and Alice Tolman. We ate lunch at the park and let the kids play for a while.
Then we went to the Tooele library to see a monument to the first settlers
There was also a 1/2 size replica of the mud wall the settlers built for protection
Then we went to the Pioneer Museum
We saw the layout of the town and were able to see where Cyrus and Alice lived.
There was a table by the front door and there were some items that someone had just brought in to donate to the museum. Addy was fascinated by this telephone, although I'm pretty sure she had no idea what it was.
The kids loved seeing the arrowhead collection. All of these arrowheads
in this room are from one persons collection.
The kids got locked up in the first Tooele jail
We saw a log cabin
Hey! It's Cyrus!
The first Tooele Cemetery where we have a distant Aunt buried.
Cyrus Tolman is my 4th Great Grandfather on my mother's father's side of the family. After leaving Tooele we headed for Rush Valley (the next town over) which was settled by my mother's mother's side of the family, the Arthurs. This picture was taken at the cemetery in Rush Valley at the Arthur family plots.
This is the cabin that my great grandfather was born in.
Last time I was here, there was no one here to show us around and we had to view the cabin from the other side of the fence. But this time we got lucky and Lois, the lady who owns the cabin, was there and let us go in and look inside. Lois' father and my great grandfather are brothers. Lois said she lived in this cabin until she was 7 years old. She is working on restoring it and was working on it when we were there.
The inside of the cabin
I am so glad that we were able to take the kids on this little adventure and let them explore their Pioneer Heritage. I am so thankful to my pioneer ancestors who gave so much for what they believe. It is because of them that I am who I am today. It is because of their faithfulness that I have a testimony of my Savior, Jesus Christ and his
restored gospel. I hope that my children and I can carry on their great legacy of faith and make them proud.
"How can we pay our debt of gratitude for the heritage of faith demonstrated by pioneers in many lands across the earth who struggled and sacrificed so that the gospel might take root? How is thankfulness expressed for the intrepid handcart pioneers who, by their own brute strength, pulled their meager belongings in handcarts across the scorching plains and through the snows of the high mountain passes to escape persecution and find peaceful worship in these valleys? How can the debt of gratitude possibly be paid by the descendants of the Martin and the Willie and the other handcart companies for the faith of their forebears? . . The descendants of these pioneers can partially settle the account by being true to the cause for which their ancestors suffered so much to be part of." -James E. Faust
It was a long fun day and we were all worn out when it was over. One the way home Emily took about 50 pictures with the camera. Below is just a sampling of them.
To see the post of my last visit to Tooele,
click here
