Pioneerday.info - Special Guests

We have lots of Special Guests to educate and entertain us this year. Here is a little about them.

Musical Groups
This year at Pioneer Day in Smartsville we have a very interesting lineup of musical performances.

Our neighbors from up the hill in Nevada County have dug themselves out of the record snow fall, just in time to bring their Dern Tootin' Brass Band to Smartsville. They created this volunteer group from the members of The Nevada Concert Band and modeled it after the Brass Bands that used to be in each of the gold rush towns and played for so many occasions.

From our neighboring town of Rough and Ready comes the featured entertainment of the day, the Rough & Ready Fruit Jar Pickers. The RRFJP band plays every Sunday in Rough and Ready at the Rouhg and Ready Grange, often to overflow crowds. This group plays familiar old country and traditional songs and the audience loves to sing along. Visitors from all over the world love this unique band. You will too so tune up your singing voice and sing along so they will feel right at home.

Beau Bevitori, a local musician, will play his guitar and sing some folk songs. Beau will also be our “sound engineer” since it is his equipment we will be using.

Ace Flewelling, a local fiddler, will be the featured musician in the next group. He will be backed by the “Square Dancers From Mars”, Beau Bevitori and Mike Harris both on guitar. Ace will play some traditional fiddle tunes.

Our last band is called the Mooney Flat Volunteers and features Beau Bevitori on electric guitar, Beau’s wife Sarah on electric base and Mike Harris on drum. This is a rock-and-roll band that will round out our musical show with lots of energy and rhythm.

Historic Characters
Everyday citizens under the direction of Sue Cjner-Moyers have prepared the characters of folks that used to live in or visited the area back in the old days.

Mike Moyers will portray Charls Bolton, alias Black Bar twhile directing the events on stage and announcing the goings on of the festival.

As an extra treat Sue herself will reprise her character Mary Murphy Covelaud and bring two of her Murphy Sisters to come and tell us about their over land ordeal and their lives after they arrived in California. As you may recall these ladies were survivors of the Donner Party.

Janet Burton will portray Lotta Crabtree in her later life. She will recount tales of her younger days as her career began as a child, dancing on the anvil at the Blacksmith shop in Rough and Ready. Lotta will share memories of the days as a young woman, when she traveled and performed in the mining camps and around the world. We know she performed at least onece in the Timbuctoo Theater. We are not sure Lotta will dance but believe she will play her banjo and sing us a tune.

Father Twomey, the most beloved priest of Smartsville who tragically drowned while traveling to Rackerby to serve Mass, will be protrayed by Leroy Prindle. He will be stationed inside the church, so be sure to take a look inside and hear about how the restoration work has progressed this year.

James O'Brien an immigrant from Ireland who made his fortune by building those notorious ditches and flumes that carried the water necessary for Hydraulic mining will be presented by Brian Bisnett.

Bill Poole the will appear as legendary Yuba County Sheriff Buchannan. Donna Landerman will hold class as Smartsville's premier school teacher Mrs. Berry.

Last year Mark Twain represented by Chris Parrent was visiting on one of his excursions through our lovely state. He got into the festivities and told us a few of his stories. He so enjoyed his audiance he has decided to come back to tell us a little more about his experiances in the era.

Authors

Lane Parker and Kathleen Smith co-authors Smartsville and Timbuctoo will be available at various times throughout the day to sign copies of their book.

Other Guests

Chris Ward has over 14 years of professional experience in California, in both prehistoric and historical archaeology. Mr. Ward specializes in California prehistory, Faunal Analysis, and the California Gold Rush Era. He has participated in numerous archaeological and anthropological studies in California, Nevada, Mexico and Guatemala. Since moving back to Nevada County about 3 years ago, his projects have consisted of and focused upon, undertaking an extensive archaeological survey of the Yuba, Feather and Bear Rivers, including cultural resource recordation, mapping, photography, artifact and faunal analysis of historic and prehistoric deposits in the region. He lends his vast knowledge of the area as a guide for the tours of the BluePoint and Excelsior area.