With real wagons, buggies and livestock lending atmosphere to the drama, 166 cast members presented the Castle Valley Pageant at an outdoor mountain amphitheater near this southeastern Utah city.Now in its 11th season, the Castle Valley Pageant opened Aug. 3 and concludes Aug. 6. It is unique among Church pageants in that its focus is primarily the colonization of the Mountain West by Mormon settlers in response to the call of President Brigham Young.
"The day after Brigham Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, he sent out an exploring party to locate sites for future settlements," noted Montell Seely, the pageant's writer and creator.
"With that beginning and for the next 30 years, Brigham Young called his people to go to several hundred locations and establish communities. Some readily accepted; others dragged their feet. Babies were born, young people fell in love and got married, and loved ones died. They endured the trials of taming a hostile wilderness. With God's help, they won."
He commented that events are similar in each of the settlement stories.
On Aug. 22, 1877, President Young called for settlers to go into Castle Valley. It was the last such call he would make, as he died seven days later. The pageant focuses on this settlement, Seely said, adding that it tells of homesteaders' encounters with Indians and their struggles to tame the frontier.
It recounts how the Indians were given the Book of Mormon, a record of God's dealings with their ancestors. Stories from the book are read and portrayed during the pageant.
"The Indians were taught of Jesus Christ and their special heritage in this land," Seely noted.
Presented by the Castle Dale Utah Region, this year's production resulted from the work of 120 production committee members and an additional 314 people who worked behind the scenes. Julie Johansen directed this year's production.
Many pageant visitors participated in a pre-performance lamb fry, put on each day at the Castle Dale City Pavilion.
Even before the performance began, spectators at the amphitheater watched what appeared to be a pioneer village in action, with settlers cooking stew in a dutch oven, a farmer hitching a team to a covered wagon and a man milking a cow.
Portrayed in the drama are the emotions of a woman who has to leave her brick house and move into a dugout, of a couple whose baby boy dies on the trek to Castle Valley, and a man who greets his infant son and wife in the spirit world.
