LOGAN — Many things have made Cache County great in the past 150 years, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said Friday as hundreds gathered for the county's sesquicentennial celebration.

The steps to greatness have included the county's tradition of agriculture, the strength of cities and towns and Utah State University. Cache County has the lowest unemployment rate in the entire United States, at about 2.1 percent, he said.

"Cache County is certainly home to some of the best people in the state, in the country and in the world," Huntsman said.

Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints told the crowd about his great-grandfather Henry Ballard, who came to Cache Valley as one of its first settlers in 1859 and was an LDS bishop there 39 years.

Elder Ballard told audience members to always remember their forebears. "We must always hold in deep admiration our forefathers who came to this valley," Elder Ballard said. "We must never lose sight of the legacy that is ours."

The Rev. Ruth Eller of St. John's Episcopal Church in Logan offered what she called a "non-traditional invocation" to begin the celebration, rather than a prayer specific to a certain faith. The area was first settled by Latter-day Saints, she said, but it is now home to people of many faiths, including Judaism, Islam, Bahai, Buddhism and many Christian denominations. She named several things she said Cache County residents can be grateful for and then told audience members to pray in whatever way they chose during a moment of silence.

Cache County's four oldest residents were honored during the program, including 102-year-old Theon Nelson, the only one who attended the celebration.

The celebration was held outside the 124-year-old Cache County Courthouse, which was restored in 2005. The red-brick building was decked with American flags and red, white and blue banners. County residents provided music for the event, along with the Cache Community Brass Band.

Quilts and other artwork were on display all day in the nearby Cache County Building. People dressed in costumes from different periods of the county's 150-year history mingled with the crowd, including some dressed as mountain men and members of the Mormon Battalion. The Northwestern Shoshone Huvia Performing group performed traditional Native-American dances before the program.

Cache County was settled by Mormon pioneer Peter Maughan. Maughan became the county's first head of government when the county was formed in April 1857.

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