Church cuts Cache pageant to every other year

LOGAN — Not everyone in Cache County likes the LDS Church's decision to

stage Clarkston's Martin Harris Pageant every other year instead of

every year.

The change will reduce the number of tourists and tourist dollars the

pageant lures to the area, said Julie Hollist, director of the Cache

Valley Visitors Bureau.

"We're certainly disappointed to see it cut back to every other year,"

Hollist said. "It draws tour buses full of people from other regions."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been staging the

pageant at Clarkston's amphitheater for more than 20 years. But the LDS

Church decided the annual pageant was too taxing on the volunteers,

church spokesman Rob Howell said.

"This will relieve any burdens of an annual production on the local members who put this on," Howell said.

Instead of dampening enthusiasm for the pageant, Howell said, the new

schedule might increase anticipation. But pageant committee President

Donald Jeppesen said staging the pageant annually keeps volunteers

enthused.

"I think, actually, it will be harder to put it on every other year,"

Jeppesen said. "It's easier on an annual basis to keep motivation up."

Martin Harris was one of three people to witness the existence of

golden plates from which LDS Church founder Joseph Smith translated the

Book of Mormon. The pageant, which musically re-enacts events from the

church's early years, has a cast of more than 120 and enlists the help

of about 300 volunteers.