Weston Pioneer Day Celebration

Weston lies in Franklin County, Idaho, just over the Utah line, on the west bank of the Bear River. The 2020 census counted 511 people there. In July 2026 Rod Boam of Cache Valley Daily wrote that the local store “is about the only gathering place in town.” For one Saturday each summer the Town of Weston puts on its Pioneer Day Celebration. In 2024 the coordinator, Camile Keller, expected it to draw hundreds of visitors, most of them with ties to the town.

The day starts at 7:00 a.m. with a 1-mile and 5K fun run through the streets, sponsored by Blue Cross. From 7:30 to 9:30 the West Side wrestling team serves a fundraising breakfast, with tickets sold by team members or that morning. The flag goes up at 8:00. Parade entries gather near 46 South 2nd East at 9:30 and step off at 10:00. Before the 2026 parade, Van Woodward, owner of Woodward’s Country Store, said anyone could enter, that joining was free, and that entrants should bring plenty of candy. “Can’t have a parade without candy to throw to the kids,” he said.

Rabbits, sawdust, and a greased pole

At 11:00 the animals are let loose: rabbits, chickens, and a greased pig. The town’s page says the chases are tied to its agricultural roots and are “probably as old as the celebration, itself,” and adults may join in. The rabbit and chicken chases are covered by the wristband. Chasing the pig costs $5 more. At the same hour Franklin County Cornhole opens a tournament for all skill levels and craft vendors set up outdoors. From 11:30 the park has carnival games, bounce houses, and inflatables, and food is sold from lunch through dinner.

The sawdust treasure hunt also begins at 11:30. Children are sorted by age and sent into a large pile of sawdust. The youngest dig out novelty toys and small surprises, and the older ones sift for $300 in change donated by Alta Bank. At noon an airplane flies over and drops candy onto the baseball diamond, where children wait to run for it. A Spikeball tournament follows at 12:30.

At 1:00 the foam machine starts and climbers try the greased pole for the money at the top. A smaller pole goes up for younger children when enough of them want one. The pole returned in 2024, when Keller, assigned to the job by the Weston City Council, said, “We are bringing back the greased pole and putting $500 on the top. They have to climb to the top to get the money.” She credited area businesses: “Because of their generosity we are able to keep costs down for families to participate in some of the activities.” The program then breaks for the afternoon.

Gunslingers at Woodward’s

The program resumes at 7:00 p.m. at Woodward’s Country Store. There the Patriot Gunslingers stage what the town calls its “famous annual Old West Shoot Out,” with gunslingers, saloons, and gunfights. Keller in 2024 called it a melodrama that generally draws a crowd. Woodward promised in 2026, “The shoot out will be different than anyone has seen before.”

A benefit dinner is held at the same hour for a family in need. In 2022 the dinner was for Connor and Lisa Waldron and was sponsored by Tad’s Custom Cuts. In 2026 it was for Ken Bingham and his wife April, who has cancer.

At 8:00 the band Rough Stock plays in the park. The town’s page calls the band a staple of the celebration. Fireworks close the day at 10:00. The town bills them as “the best firework show in Cache Valley,” and a 2022 announcement promised “the best dang fireworks show you’ve ever seen from a small town.” Keller explained in 2024: “We’ve always had a pretty big crowd for the fireworks. Tom Green is from Weston, and he works for TNT Fireworks owner Jared Jensen and they usually go all out.” The 2026 announcement named Green and Jensen of ACME Fireworks and said the show would be set to music.

Lincoln’s Bible in the 2022 program

On Saturday, July 23, 2022, the program gained a 6:00 p.m. speech by Glenn Beck, who owns property near Preston with a restored cabin built in the 1880s. Beck and his wife, Tania, allowed the city to show their collection of Americana. The items included Abraham Lincoln’s Bible, the key to Lincoln’s booth at Ford’s Theatre on the night he was shot, and the dress Mary Todd Lincoln wore that night. There were also an original Captain America shield, one of the first Darth Vader costumes, “Christopher Reeves’ actual Superman Costume,” Holocaust items, and Walt Disney’s prospectus for the original Disneyland. City event organizer Taci Watterson-Balls said of the day, “It brings us together as a community and allows us to teach the feeling of small towns to the next generation.”

The Western Settlement on the Bear River

The celebration marks the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, and Boam’s 2024 story called it the 24th of July Celebration. Weston itself was settled by Latter-day Saint pioneers in 1865. The town says that heritage has been commemorated for over a century. Boam wrote in 2024 that it may have been marked since 1865.

A marker erected in 2011 by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Lone Rock Camp, tells the founding. President Brigham Young directed Mariner W. Merrill to explore new town sites. Following Merrill’s survey, several families from Richmond, Utah, crossed the Bear River on April 15, 1865, and dug their first dugouts in the Meadows of Cedarville. The city places that first settlement three miles west of the present town. In 1866 James Mack built a grist mill on Weston Creek, south of the present site, from rock hauled out of Cedar Hills. He fitted it with a James Leffel turbine that had been freighted west in 1859. According to the marker, the mill’s location moved the proposed town. The city dates the relocation to 1867.

It was the only mill on the west side of the Bear River. For many years it ran 24 hours a day to supply Weston, Oxford, Clifton, Dayton, Clarkston, and Cornish. Weston also stood on the “gold road” to the mines of northern Idaho and Montana. Its settlers shipped flour and other food north, and the railroad reached the town in 1890. The city’s page quotes Jay D. Schvaneveldt on the name: “At first it was known as the Western Settlement. Then they called it West Town. And later they named it Weston. Finally they called it home.”