Annual Pioneer Day celebration returns to St. Anthony for the first time in 2 years
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ST. ANTHONY – The annual Pioneer Day Celebration in St. Anthony kicked off with a bang Saturday morning.
Last year’s event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Danny Elliott, Chairman of the Fremont County Pioneer Days Board, tells EastIdahoNews.com people are excited to gather for this event and he anticipates anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 people to attend.
“This will be bigger and better than ever and from the looks of our floats and the amount of people we have here along the streets, I think we hit the nail on the head with that,” Elliott says.
People from all over the country typically attend and many make this celebration part of their family reunion or class reunion.
Elliott says people can expect the same activities this year that they’ve come to enjoy in year’s past. The theme for this year’s celebration is “Wonderful World of Adventure.”
The weeklong celebration got underway on Monday with “Beauty and the Beast,” a community play with nightly performances at South Fremont High School. There is a matinee performance at 2 p.m. Saturday.
The rodeo is a two-day event that started Friday night. Day two begins at 7 p.m.
A 5K Fun Run kicked off Saturday’s festivities at 7 a.m., which Elliott says was well-attended. A parade got underway at 10 a.m.
Elliott says there was such a feeling of patriotism as young ladies on horseback carried an American flag to kick off the rodeo Friday night.
“They were playing patriotic music and it sent chills up my spine for the 20 seconds I got to watch it,” says Elliott. “It made me stop and think, Democrat, Republican, black, white, purple, pink, yellow — it doesn’t matter. We are all Americans and we live in the greatest country in the world.”
A classic car show is happening at Clyde Keefer Memorial Park until 2:30 p.m. People can vote for their favorites. The winner will be announced at the end.
The softball tournament is not happening this year.
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The Pioneer Day celebration is an annual event that commemorates the sacrifice of the early pioneers who settled the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. Groups of Latter-day Saints later established settlements throughout the Snake River Plain, including St. Anthony. The city has celebrated the accomplishments of their pioneer forbearers since 1929.
“In 1929, leaders from St. Anthony and Rexburg met to discuss whether the two cities would continue to organize both July 4th and July 24th celebrations. At that time, it was decided that Rexburg would host the Fourth of July celebration and St. Anthony would celebrate and host the Pioneer Day celebration on July 24th. The two communities have traditionally supported each other in these events,” a website for the event says.
Most of the activities are free but tickets are required for the rodeo and the play. The purchase of a $10 ticket at the gate gets you into both events and all the proceeds go towards next year’s celebration.
“We’re not out to make any money. We just want to put it on next year,” says Elliott.
Elliott is grateful to all the board members and volunteers who have come together to make this possible and he hopes there will be a sense of unity and love as people gather to celebrate this occassion.
“I hope for one day, we can just all be friends,” he says. “If everybody would be kind to each other for a brief moment, the world will be a better place.”