The Castle Valley Pageant held in early August
It’s hard to believe anymore that anything is free…but the Castle Valley Pageant, held on even years (this year being 2018) is and it is rewarding to attend.
It is a story of endurance, heart and tears, all firmed up by the belief by a people that they were going to succeed in building their community next to the San Rafael Desert.
Held each performance year in Castle Dale, in the heart of Emery County, on August 2-4 and August 7-11,. 2018, this pageant has been going on for forty years, the dream child of a man named Montell Seeley.
It’s about religion and how it held up a communities spirits and the story is told in an authentic rustic setting with tents, tumbleweeds and dugouts carved into the hillside against a spectacular backdrop of natural beauty in an amphitheater.
The story is related to a grandson from his grandfather while they ride horseback after the boy asks about the Mormons who settled the area. It is one story, filled by many tales of faith and courage.
It is a big event for those that come to see it, but it is even bigger for those that participate in putting it on. Much of Castle Dale and the surrounding communities have been working on pageant after pageant for years.
The music is well known to Latter Day Saints and much of the program is recorded as the actors play out their parts. The roles they perform involve playing parents who lost children, those who question whether the move to the bleak landscape was the right move, fights over water and the never ending search for sustenance and developing an economy based on agriculture and eventually coal mining.
It all takes place in a stage that is permanently set against the cliffs and lands of the county at 4785 Desbee Dove Road. Signs on Highway 10, which is the main route through the county, directs those who wish to attend, to the site.
It is performed between 8:30 and 10 p.m. on the performance days.
For those who don’t want to drive out to the venue, a shuttle is available to bring those who park at the Emery County Fairgrounds in Castle Dale to the site and bring them back when the performance is over.
And it is all, absolutely free.