Baby Animal Days lets the young of all different species get together
This weekend, students can rent the recently released “Charlotte’s Web” to see cute and interesting farm animals on screen. Or, they can visit Baby Animal Days at the American West Heritage Center and see the real thing.
Baby Animal Days, which began yesterday and continues today and tomorrow, has become one of the American West Heritage Center’s most popular events, drawing up to 12,000 visitors last year. In addition to baby animals, the event also features crafts demonstrations, animal exhibits, Easter activities and a children’s rodeo.
Despite the myriad of other attractions, the baby animals are still the main draw, said David Sidwell, program director at the American West Heritage Center.
“There will be baby animals everywhere,” he said. Most of the animals can be held or at least petted.
A variety of different animals will be on hand for the event, including standard farm animals such as goats, sheep, pigs, colts, guinea pigs and rabbits. However, more unusual animals such as yaks, camels and possibly even a baby bison will also be at the event (if the American West Heritage Center’s pregnant mother bison cooperates). Staff and animals from the Willow Park Zoo will also be on hand for an exhibition with some of their birds.
Besides the animals, the event celebrates the Easter holiday weekend by having three large Easter egg hunts each day on the festival grounds as well as Easter basket decoration. Other arts and crafts such as cookie decorating and box turtle painting will also be available.
This year, Baby Animal Days will also feature several new attractions such as Turtle Town – which will feature baby turtles and turtle racing – and the children’s rodeo.
The Little Buckaroo Children’s Rodeo is open to any child who wants to participate. It will have goat tying – tying a ribbon around a young goat – and mutton busting, where the child rides a small sheep.
While Baby Animal Days is family-oriented, Sidwell added, “It’s the perfect opportunity for a guy to bring a date because girls love the furry, cuddly animals.”
Additionally, this weekend marks the opening of a new exhibit of Native American rock art photography by Craig Law, a professor of photography at USU. The USU Anthropology Museum will be on hand as well to demonstrate how rock art is done and to help others make their own rock art creations.
Law’s exhibit is one of many connections USU has to this weekend’s event. Students from the parks and recreation department are assisting in the planning and execution of Baby Animal Days. The event planning and management and recreational programming classes in the department are assisting with the event as part of their education. It gives them an opportunity to apply their classroom material, said David Nelson, professor of the recreational programming class.
“There’s a lot of difference between theoretical book learning and actual experience,” said Arthur Jones, professor of the event planning class. Nelson and Jones said students get experience in all areas of planning and carrying out a large event, from parking and concessions to moving chicks and lambs around for the event.
Sidwell said the American West Heritage Center always appreciates the USU students’ support and help. He said the center and the university have similar objectives.
“Our goal is to help people learn about the past, and the university does a lot of the same thing,” Sidwell Said.
The American West Heritage Center is located at 4025 S. on Highway 89/91 in Wellsville.
The event runs each day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and costs $7 for general admission, $6 for students, $5 for children 3 to 11 years old, and is free for children under 3. Food vendors such as La Familia and Culinary Concepts will also be at the event.
-tliljegren@cc.usu.edu