Weekend of Culture!

Being the side kick to a stake president gets you invited to a variety of things including cultural events! 

 Just this past weekend we were able to participate in these two events:

We enjoyed many performances by the youth in our stake.  I believe each ward was represented and there was a wide variety including a talented harpist and an amazing violinist.  There was also a group of 6 young men playing cellos.  Some of my favorite songs were presented including: Homeward Bound, Come Thou Fount, Savior Redeemer of My Soul and Amazing Grace.

This was the opening reception for a month-long art exhibit at the Folsom History Museum.  It was also a competition sponsored by the California Pioneer Heritage Foundation.

We enjoyed looking at the artwork of which many of the paintings were done by LDS artists.

This one took first place:

I was especially interested in this painting because of my fondness for the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Jean Baptiste Charbounneau was the son of Sacajawea, a Shosone, and Toussaint Charounneau, a French Canadian trapper.  He was born in early 1805 at Fort Mandan in North Dakota during the Lewis and Clark expedition.  He traveled with the group to the Pacific Ocean and back, carried along in the expedition's boats or upon his mother's back.  "His presence is often credited by historians with assuring native tribes of the of the expedition's peaceful intentions, as they believed that no war party would travel with a woman and child."

Then I learned something new!

As an adult, Jean Baptiste was hired as a scout for the Mormon Battalion as they marched 1,100 miles from Santa Fe to San Diego.  He later made his way to northern California during the Gold Rush and was a successful miner in Auburn spending 16 years in our area!