Since livestock played a prominent role in the taming of Castle Valley in the late 1870s, it seemed only fitting that livestock play a major role in the Castle Valley Pageant.
"There are so many animals," said Montell Seely, author of the original script in 1978. "There is a whole other drama of animals going on backstage."The settling of Castle Valley in Emery County - like most of Utah - was a frontier life of riding horses, milking cows and shearing sheep. The pageant re-creates history by using an authentic 100-year-old cabin and animals - lots of animals. "Of the 22 scenes in the pageant, 14 have animals," Brother Seely said.
The pageant begins with the reading of a letter from President Brigham Young written only seven days before he died in August 1877 to Canute Peterson, stake president in Sanpete County.
The letter requested that 50 vigorous men, married or single, leave their homes and move over the mountains to settle an area known for its castle-like rock formations.
The taming of the Castle Valley area is told through the lives of four families. Some came because of the excitement of the adventure. Others, like Hannah Seely, came because her husband, Orange, was called by the Quorum of the Twelve to lead the area.
Another woman, Ellen Miller, cried when she first saw the mud hut where she would live with her husband and two children. "Has it now come to this, that I have to live under the ground?" she said in tears.
"These expressions get to the bedrock of human emotion," Brother Seely explained. The pageant details how both women "muster intestinal fortitude and remain devoted to their husbands, family and community, and in the end, learn to love the area," Brother Seely explained.
The Castle Valley Pageant will conclude its 18th year of production with a final performance Aug. 10.