Memo to visitors and non-Utahns on the Internet

Pardon us if we Utahns are unavailable this weekend while we're out celebrating. It's time for our annual Pioneer Days holiday — aka Days of '47, whatever — the second time in one month we have an excuse to light fireworks.

A pioneer holiday?

Well, 164 years ago, the Mormons were chased out of the Midwest by mobs and turned into pioneers, arriving in Utah on July 24, 1847, after a journey that didn't include TSA pat-downs, long lines at security, middle seats, $4 gas and drivers with cellphones, but was actually a little worse and more inconvenient.

The rest is history. Before there was Temple Square, Lagoon, the Utah Jazz, State Street, Larry Miller, John Stockton, Snowbird, Sundance, the Salt Palace, Utes and Cougars, Brigham Young University and Jimmer — there were pioneers who did the dirty work that enabled all of the above to happen. They came at great sacrifice to pave the way for the rest of us to be here.

We're pretty happy about that.

There are celebrations of various types all over the state this weekend. One of them will consist of a small ceremony Friday evening in American Fork City Park. It will include the unveiling of a statue commemorating the life of a man who left a dream job and a dream house to travel thousands of miles from England to Utah by land and sea to live in crowded one-room shacks in Utah and scratch a living out of the wilderness.

His name was Edward Robinson.

It's not every day someone erects a statue honoring your great-great-great-great grandfather.

For many of us, the Pioneer Days celebration is more personal.

Edwards' story is just one of thousands that paint a picture of hardship, sacrifice, and back-breaking work. Born in 1807 in Chesire, England, he served as footman in his youth, caring for race horses and hounds for the noble class. At 21, he married Mary Smith, who was serving as tutor on the same manor. They would have nine children together, including John, who — to get Biblical on you — begat William Jarvis Robinson, who begat Brigham H. Robinson, who begat Richard Osmond Robinson, who begat me.