This past weekend I enjoyed the rare treat of escaping the heat of my desert abode, if only for a few days, and trekking up into the wild North. No, not Alaska or anything epic like that, just a little jaunt up to the Silver Creek valley and the towns of my youth, Snowflake and Taylor. Yes, that’s right. Towns. Plural. I don’t know why, but for some reason there are two separate, distinct, and highly individual towns that for all intents and purposes are essentially the same little town. Oh well, like I said, I don’t understand it but I will continue to differentiate the two hamlets because to do otherwise would surely invite the wrath, of at least part, of the indigenous population.
Anyway, to get to the point, this past weekend was the 24th of July. That doesn’t mean anything to most people, but the 24th of July is actually a state holiday. Now before you go all Wikipedia on me, I didn’t say it was an Arizona state holiday; it is a Utah state holiday. (see that? I just used a semicolon…correctly even…I think) Pioneer Day is a celebration of the Pioneers who came into the Salt Lake Valley back in the day. It is a pretty cool event, you should check it out sometime if you don’t already know. Why, since Snowflake and Taylor are both quite obviously in Arizona, do they have a Pioneer Day celebration? Well, basically those towns were settled by pioneers too; many of them the very same families that came across the plains to Utah originally. (Pretty sure a semicolon doesn’t belong in that last sentence)
To make a long story short, pioneers came, they settled, they ranched, they farmed and they had big families. Now in commemeration of all that (and because the chambers of commerces are keenly aware that the population of the town roughly triples) they tend to have an all out 4th-of-july-style shindig complete with a parade, a rodeo, a massive bbq, multiple high school class reunions, and activites for young and old.
Without further ado, I present the pinnacle of the celebration, the fireworks…
Funky Fireworks
This past weekend I enjoyed the rare treat of escaping the heat of my desert abode, if only for a few days, and trekking up into the wild North. No, not Alaska or anything epic like that, just a little jaunt up to the Silver Creek valley and the towns of my youth, Snowflake and Taylor. Yes, that’s right. Towns. Plural. I don’t know why, but for some reason there are two separate, distinct, and highly individual towns that for all intents and purposes are essentially the same little town. Oh well, like I said, I don’t understand it but I will continue to differentiate the two hamlets because to do otherwise would surely invite the wrath, of at least part, of the indigenous population.
Anyway, to get to the point, this past weekend was the 24th of July. That doesn’t mean anything to most people, but the 24th of July is actually a state holiday. Now before you go all Wikipedia on me, I didn’t say it was an Arizona state holiday; it is a Utah state holiday. (see that? I just used a semicolon…correctly even…I think) Pioneer Day is a celebration of the Pioneers who came into the Salt Lake Valley back in the day. It is a pretty cool event, you should check it out sometime if you don’t already know. Why, since Snowflake and Taylor are both quite obviously in Arizona, do they have a Pioneer Day celebration? Well, basically those towns were settled by pioneers too; many of them the very same families that came across the plains to Utah originally. (Pretty sure a semicolon doesn’t belong in that last sentence)
To make a long story short, pioneers came, they settled, they ranched, they farmed and they had big families. Now in commemeration of all that (and because the chambers of commerces are keenly aware that the population of the town roughly triples) they tend to have an all out 4th-of-july-style shindig complete with a parade, a rodeo, a massive bbq, multiple high school class reunions, and activites for young and old.
Without further ado, I present the pinnacle of the celebration, the fireworks…
