The Twenty-Fourth of July

This year was the tenth anniversary / eleventh year I have formally observed Pioneer Day, and I really love having an extra holiday in July.

The night before, I made a cherry pie using the cherries my mom bottled from the fruit I picked from my sister's tree. I'm opposed to the idea of Pie and Beer Day, for several reasons. But I have found references to pie for the 24th of July at least as far back as 1857, so it seems like an appropriate time to have it. (And I have found references to beer as far back as 1852, but that doesn't mean we should have it.)

July 24 was not just Pioneer Day, it was also the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum, and they had a special open house for it. I went with my parents and my niece. They had a scavenger hunt where you could take selfies with various items in the museum, and then you'd get a prize at the end. But I had no use for the prizes of kid sunglasses or fidget toys. (The selfies I took with my mom and my niece didn't come out great.)

I matched the old Utah flag!

The infamous two-headed lamb

I think it's amazing they (purportedly) have Brigham Young's 1847 wagon!

There was a guy there wearing a tank top with a rainbow-colored beehive that said "Industry." Though I generally don't compliment strangers, I said, "I like your shirt," and he said, "I like your shirt!" His great shirt offset the guy wearing the MAGA hat.

Then we went to California Burgers so we could have the staple Utah foods of pastrami burgers and fry sauce. I've been eating lots of pastrami burgers for the last three weeks, and now I can revert to veggie burgers. 

In the afternoon/evening, I decided I wanted to watch the 1940 Brigham Young movie, which I have heard about for years and years but never seen. It's on YouTube. Now I know why I had never seen it. They took so many liberties, which might have been forgivable if it had been an interesting movie. But it was very dull and disjointed. It couldn't decide whether it was about Brigham Young or about the love story between some randos. It felt like what you'd get if you asked AI to tell the pioneer story. It's an interesting cultural artifact (Vincent Price playing Joseph Smith!), not a good movie.

Then I went to see the drone show at Liberty Park, the third year for the show. Last year I got a perfect spot, so I sat there. But they moved the location, and this time it was partly covered by trees. And I feel like it would be covered by trees anywhere in the park this time? Anyway, I loved this drone show. But I was disappointed they just played generic pop music. I mean, that is my preferred genre of music, but it has nothing to do with Utah. They could have at least played "Salt Lake City" by the Beach Boys, like they did two years ago. This year's theme was "Uniquely Utah." Here are the images in reverse order, because Blogger makes it far too difficult to put them up in order.

Happy Pioneer Day

This year, Utah passed a law that only allows official government or municipal flags at government-owned buildings. Salt Lake City responded by making official versions of its flag by stamping the sego lily on different flags, thereby making it legal to display them. I love this kind of malicious compliance. This is the Juneteenth flag.

Salt Lake's trans flag

How wonderful to see a Progress Pride flag at a Pioneer Day event!

And Salt Lake's default flag

Utah flag

Beehive and bee

Julia Reagan billboard

I had to look this one up. Apparently there was a mysterious daycare that captivated people's attention because they never saw kids there.

"All Hail the Whale"

The whale was installed years ago, yet I still haven't made my way out to see it

"SLC, Utah" soda cups

Cookies. I assume it's supposed to be lime, chocolate chip, and pink sugar?

Snowboarding

Skiing

2034 Olympics

2002 Olympics

"Tusks Up"—Utah's new hockey team, Utah Mammoth

Jazz Bear. It took me a minute.

I assume this is a Utahraptor?

Seagull

I think this is Indigenous...

..and so is this...

...and so is this.

I don't know what this is.

Delicate Arch

Transcontinental Railroad

I didn't get a picture of the golden spike when it was big

Utah!

Utah!

Covered wagon

Do they still make this license plate? I like that they made it say P10N33R.

Uniquely Utah!

As I walked back to my car while people were lighting fireworks, and as I drove home listening to my Pioneer Day playlist, I couldn't help but think how much I enjoy this uniquely Utah holiday.

As a general rule, I try not to read comments on the internet. They just rile me up. But since I'm deeply interested in Pioneer Day, sometimes I can't help myself. As I read comments on the internet, I sometimes get the impression that anyone who is not LDS or who leans left hates the holiday. But I think that's actually a vocal minority. Most people who fall in those categories are probably indifferent or mildly inconvenienced, and some even like it. 

I actually don't care whether other people celebrate Pioneer Day. But I detest comments that imply "I don't celebrate it and no one else should either" or "I don't celebrate because I have this special knowledge that celebrants don't have." 

One that I frequently see is "Why do we have American flags and other patriotic imagery? The pioneers left the United States for Mexico!" And I used to have that same question, which is part of why I didn't formally observe it for many years. But in my research I have discovered that the very first July 24 celebration was identical to July 4 celebrations. They have always been closely linked.

This week a prominent historian (who I met last month) made a video saying he chuckles when people celebrate it like a second Fourth of July, because the pioneers didn't celebrate America. Um, no, they did think the United States had let them down, but they still venerated the Declaration of Independence and the heroes of 1776. And this kind of celebration—honoring the ideals of America while complaining about some of the specifics—has been a part of Fourth of July celebrations from the country's early days up to the present.

Anyway, I politely pushed back on one of his posts, citing my own scholarship. (I haven't seen any response yet.) I'm certain he knows more history in general than I do. But when it comes to Pioneer Day specifically, I probably know more than anyone else in the world. And I'm not exaggerating.

Twenty-Fourth of July Season

Since this is my blog, I can geek out about whatever I want, and no one can complain, right? It's not like anyone's required to read. And, of course, the topic I'm most likely to geek out about is holidays.

This year marks the ten-year anniversary of when I added Pioneer Day to my canon of formally celebrated holidays. Ten years later, I have become the leading expert on the holiday, though I'm still trying to get the word out. Even without my research on the holiday specifically, it's still very much part of my career. This week my supervisor told our assistant director that I know more nineteenth-century LDS history than anyone else in our division, which was surprising but probably accurate.

I observe the Pioneer Day season July 5–July 24, but sometimes I wonder if I should? It's not celebrated outside Utah, and even many in Utah do not observe it. The displacement of Indigenous peoples is a real concern, and I get uncomfortable when people use the holiday to bring purely religious themes (such as temples) into a civic setting.

But if I stopped observing Pioneer Day, I would be left with nothing at this time of year. And July isn't the greatest time of year.

Non-Holiday July

July is the hottest month of the year, which often makes it too hot to trail run. I swam with the recreational swim team again this week, which I usually reserve for the winter. And even when I do get to go trail running, it doesn't have as many wildflowers as May and June or the beautiful leaves of September and October. 

Yes, it's pretty, but so much is dried out

I like fireweed (purplish flowers), but it's not as cool as May's flowers.

July used to be when I would pick apricots, but our apricot tree died four years ago. However, this year I discovered that we have a fruit-bearing currant bush in our yard, so I picked currants and made currant bread. That was fun, but currants don't yield a lot for the work that goes into picking them. 

Summerween

Without Pioneer Day, there's not a fun holiday clear until Halloween. (Labor Day is in early September, but it's not exactly a "fun" holiday.) And that makes people anxious for a holiday that is more than three months away. When I was ten years old, I put up Halloween decorations in my bedroom on July 5. I wait now until mid-September, though I still like to review new Halloween candy for The Impulsive Buy.

Last year, there was news coverage about Summerween. Christmas in July has been a thing for decades and decades, but Summerween has become a new rival. This might have been inspired partly by the Disney series Gravity Falls. Since Gravity Falls takes place in the summer, the series' Halloween episode had to change the setting: The town of Gravity Falls loves Halloween so much they celebrate twice, and Summerween is just like Halloween except they carve watermelons instead of pumpkins. (I did that in 2013.)

I was surprised to go to Walmart and see them fully embracing Summerween, which they call "Summer Frights." Since fireworks are legal for Pioneer Day, it was weird to see fireworks next to skulls. Some of the items were just spooky, while some explicitly combined summer and spooky, such as sunbathing ghosts and jack-o'-lanterns made of watermelons and pineapples.

I'm not sure how I feel about it, because we can't even pretend it's fall when it's nearly 100 degrees. I suppose that's why they lean into the summer aspect.

Since 2022, Lee Mendelson Film Productions has been releasing the long-lost soundtracks for Charlie Brown specials, and I have been collecting all of them on CD. Last week I got my copy of You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown. (It's probably Vince Guaraldi's weakest soundtrack, thanks to heavy use of a 1970s synthesizer.) I'm surprised they released it at this time of year, because it very clearly takes place in the fall. There's a scene where Linus and Sally are in a pumpkin patch to find a pumpkin to replace Charlie Brown's broken helmet, and the music plays "The Great Pumpkin Waltz"—another version to put in my Halloween playlist.

It's good we have the Twenty-Fourth to keep Halloween at bay a little longer.

Pioneer Day Season

As I reviewed my research notes and read a listing of 2025 Pioneer Day activities, it is undeniable that it is an established Utah tradition, and it remains so. Just this afternoon I heard a Spotify advertisement for Larkin Mortuary about Pioneer Day. When I was a kid, I remember a car wash that put "Pioneer children sang as they washed and washed and washed" on their marquee.😆 

So what does the Pioneer Day season look like for me?

Well, of course I'm all about the food. 

Last week I went to Other Side Donuts, which donates its proceeds towards helping the homeless population. I had a beehive donut. Though it's a work of art, I actually didn't think it tasted great, especially with the hot honey topping. But I did love the pink lemonade donut. (Lemonade and ice cream have been traditional Fourth and Twenty-Fourth of July treats since at least the late nineteenth century.)

Saltwater taffy is always thrown out at Pioneer Day parades, and we have at least two major taffy companies based in SLC. (I always think it's funny when I go to tourist spots in other parts of the country, and they sell souvenir taffy with Taffy Town wrappers, which is made in Utah.) Last week I made these sugar cookies with taffy filling. They were OK.

The Twenty-Fourth has been celebrated identically to the Fourth since its beginnings in 1849, so if I miss out on red, white, and blue before the Fourth, I get twenty extra days.

I eat ice cream made in Utah during this season, and I went to three different ice cream shops this week. When I went to Rockwell Ice Cream, I also bought some candies made by Startup Candy Company. "Startup" is the surname of the founder. It's based in American Fork, but it began in England in the 1820s, and the son was an 1868 pioneer and brought it to Utah. So it's totally appropriate for Pioneer Day. Hard candy isn't an exciting thing, but I do think it's exciting to have a Utah company that's more than two hundred years old!

Speaking of Summerween, here's Startup pumpkin spice drops. 7/10.

I have various albums about pioneers and Utah history, which I put in my Pioneer Day playlist. In 1997, there were lots of pioneer commemorations for the sesquicentennial. Over the last three years, I have found three separate CDs from 1997 at DI. (They're not great.) When I worked at This Is the Place, the park's playlist (which they broadcast throughout the village) had a song about "The Boys of Sanpete County." I looked for it online, and it turned out to be on another 1997 CD. It's not available for streaming, but I bought it on eBay, and there are several tracks used at This Is the Place. That's been fun nostalgia, even though I'm glad I don't work there anymore.

And I am happy we have the Twenty-Fourth of July! I just think it's wonderful that we get twenty extra days of festivities after the Fourth. The holiday has problems, to be sure, but so does every holiday. If there are problems, we should look to address or fix them, not throw the holiday out completely.