Santaquin City Celebrates Orchard Days
It was a week of old fashioned fun in Santaquin for Orchard Days! The volunteers have worked for months to organize the activities and events. We had an ATV Ride the first Saturday that gave a group of riders the chance to create the best poker hand they could by getting cards at various stations around the foothills of Santaquin.
The Little Buck-a-Roo Rodeo followed with kids from the ages of three and up riding sheep, wrestling calves, and chasing chickens for prizes. They all sought after the grand prize of a new saddle and a shiny belt buckle to show off to the crowd. Monday, we had a fabulous Family Night with free carnival games, a petting zoo, bounce houses and even a nighttime movie for the crowds. Wild Wonders came and taught us about skunks, snakes and other Utah animals. Everybody got to pet the animals afterward. The week after was full of Home Run Derbies, Mountain Bike Races, and Fun Runs to get the community out and enjoying the surrounding area of Santaquin. It all ended with a Grand Parade down Main Street along with our award winning Rodeo in the Santaquin Fairgrounds. For the two nights, it was bull riding, bronco busting and fireworks lighting up our sky!
The winners of the rodeo included Dylan Rydalch in Bareback Bronco Riding, Trampus Quaranberg in Calf Roping and Jacalyn Walker in Break-a-Way . Jaren Evans won the Saddle Bronc event and TJ Atkins bested in Steer Wrestling. Our Barrels winner was Brandi Giles and David Moates with Brock Andrus were the team to beat in Team Roping. The grand winner of the night in Bull Riding was Louis Schardine.
At the rodeo Friday night, we honored Deputy Sherwood who was shot on our Main Street several months ago while protecting our city. We thank him for his sacrifice. We also want to thank all the men and women who helped
make Orchard Days possible this year. It is a lot of work to put on a production like this for our community and some question why we do such a grand event for so many year after year. We know community unity is important for a town to grow and help its citizens feel safe and connected to each other. Events like Orchard Days brings us together and helps make Santaquin a better place and home for us all. We hope to continue to provide events like it for more years to come.