Church History Museum’s Pioneer Fair Helps Children Appreciate Early Saints’ Faith, History

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By Trent Toone, Church News

Matt and Ethel Christensen, of North Salt Lake, watched with big smiles as their daughter, 6-year-old Serafina, and son, 3-year-old Austin, played pioneer games.

The children were especially fascinated as they took turns holding a stick attached to a wooden doll while Church service missionary Elder Robert Dangerfield tapped a board, which made the doll’s feet bounce and appear to dance.

The parents were pleased to see their children learn that Pioneer Day means more than just fireworks.

“The pioneers are the reason we live in this beautiful place,” Ethel Christensen said. “It’s important to remember where those roots are and keep their memory alive as we celebrate.”

The game was just one of many activities at the Pioneer Fair, hosted by the Church History Museum of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on July 20. The fair celebrated the July 24, 1847, arrival of the early Saints in the Salt Lake Valley.

‘Our Biggest One Yet’

Minus 2020 and 2021 for the pandemic, the Church History Museum has held the Pioneer Fair each summer for the last several years, said Tiffany Bowles, an educator at the museum. Despite the heat, a large crowd arrived early, and participation continued throughout the afternoon.

“This is our biggest one yet. We’re getting bigger every year,” Bowles said. “I love seeing families enjoy the activities and have fun learning about the pioneers and how industrious and hardworking they were.”

Natalie Bodine, an assistant curator and events coordinator at the museum, helped plan the event. This year’s event featured the following pioneer activities:

• A scavenger hunt that took people around to the various activities and inside the museum to a classroom to learn about the Deseret alphabet and to a new trading post where children could receive a treat.
• Cyanotypes and collodion photography, both historic photo processes.
• How to make dolls out of hollyhock flowers.
• Pottery.
• Wood graining.
• Watercoloring.
• How the pioneers washed clothes.
• Quilting and lace tattering.
• Blacksmithing.
• Tin smithing.
• A mountain man.
• Handcarts.
• Pioneer food.
• The Mormon Battalion.
• Music by “Blue Mountain,” a string band performing pioneer-era folk music.
• Pioneer children toys and games.
• See an authentic covered wagon — “A welcome wagon, if you will,” Bodine said.

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While there were no pioneer water slides or splash pads, the museum did provide a couple of water-mist tents and bottles of water for people to cool off and stay hydrated.

“The Pioneer Fair gives you a certain kind of appreciation,” Bodine said.

“I love to see the impact on kids when they hear these stories and see the skills, that this was the way that they lived. It makes it real for them.”

‘They Had to Make Everything’

Under the welcome shade of a small canopy on a 95-degree Saturday afternoon, 7-year-old twins Ollie and Jane Bendall watched Mark Ware use a potter’s wheel to spin clay from a ball into a small water jug in a matter of minutes.

“It’s so fun to watch,” Ollie said afterward.

Watching nearby, their grandmother, Karen Johnsen, saw an opportunity to teach her grandchildren about pioneer life.

“You can go buy things in a store. They couldn’t,” she said. “They had to make everything.”

Johnsen was grateful her grandchildren could participate and learn about life for the early Latter-day Saints following their 1847 arrival in the Salt Lake Valley.

“It’s wonderful,” she said of the opportunity to step back in time to the pioneer era. “I think it’s something that is missing for a lot of them. They take so for granted every little convenience we have in our day and age. ... It’s just remarkable learning for them to appreciate what we have today that certainly these people had to come up with on their own.”

Joshua and Kayla Young, of Lehi, Utah, shared similar thoughts as they came with four young children.

“I hope that they can see what the pioneers were willing to sacrifice because of their faith,” Joshua Young said.

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Music After Marching

After participating last year, Mark Asay, of Orem, Utah, was thrilled to be invited back with his Mormon Battalion uniform, tent and other historic items.

This year Asay added something new — music. In reading historic accounts, he learned that soldiers often sat around the campfire at night and took turns playing a fiddle.

To demonstrate, he put his violin to his chin and played Jay Ungar’s American folk song, “Ashokan Farewell,” and other musical numbers for individuals and families passing by.

“Enough of them played that each fiddler had his own style,” he said, adding that other instruments, such as a harmonica, were played. “There is a whole element there that I never really paid a lot of attention to because from my view, after marching 15-25 miles in the heat and making camp, I wouldn’t have a lot of energy to do that. But apparently the men thought it bolstered their spirits.”

Asay hopes those visiting his booth will appreciate the work and sacrifice of the Mormon Battalion soldiers.

“A lot of them didn’t want to enlist, but they did what they were asked, and they did it faithfully,” he said. “They were people that had challenges. They overcame things that I don’t know if I could have done. They also had fun — it wasn’t all drudgery.”