Pioneer Days: Panaca celebrates heritage

?Windows of the Past? was the theme for the Panaca Pioneer Day celebration this year, July 20. Grand Marshal was John Wadsworth.

Parade chair Angie Walker said there was ?a good turnout with a lot of participants.?

She said 28 entrants were in the parade with the top prize going to the Dylan Frehner family, and they received a gift card to the Y Shell gas station.

The day started with a cannon boom at 6 a.m., followed by a pancake breakfast by the Boy Scouts of America at the LDS Church in Panaca. Kids games and races were held on the lawn at the Elementary School, including a tug-of-war between two families observing family reunions that weekend.

A barbeque dinner of smoked brisket, barbecued chicken, corn on the cob, salad and dessert was held in the cultural hall of the LDS church with seating out on the church lawn.

In 2014, Pioneer Day will be in connection with the 150th birthday of the town of Panaca, and the state of Nevada, and special plans are being made for that observance. The sesquicentennial committee had a booth in Panaca for a fundraising project selling t-shirts and pins. An auction was held at the high school auditorium later in the evening with a number of donated items, raising a total of $2,500.

The featured piece was an original oil painting by Lester B. Lee, of Clarkston, Utah. Lee is a direct descendant of one of the first families to settle in the Meadow Valley in 1864.

Entitled the ?Oldest Building in Meadow Valley,? the painting depicts an old church building in Panaca in the 1930s, with Court Rock in the background, before the school buildings were erected. Dean Lee of Salem, Utah bought the painting for $1,050.

Prints of the painting were also sold at the committee?s booth.