STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

The 23rd Annual Heritage Court Celebration was meant to induct four women into the Blaine County Heritage Court.

And four women—Thelma Cameron, Amy Federko, Vicki Smith and Mary Petersen—did in fact get crowned amidst an event filled with music and dancing provided by a quartet from the Wood River Orchestra, Footlight Dance Company and others.

But Bob MacLeod, president of the Blaine County Historical Museum, couldn’t help but use the event to offer up a humor-filled commercial for the Historical Museum, which serves as the umbrella of the Heritage Court.

Thelma Cameron and other Blaine County Heritage Court members were given red roses.

MacLeod noted that the Heritage Court was celebrating its 23rd anniversary after being created by the late museum director Teddie Daley and Laura Hall to honor women who have contributed so much to the communities and the history and heritage of the Wood River Valley.

But that, he observed, was a far cry from the 250th birthday being held in honor of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

He said that the Blaine County Historical Museum, led by Rebecca Cox, is organizing floats for Hailey’s Fourth of July Parade that will depict the historical timeline of the Wood River Valley from the establishment of the Idaho Territory to the present.

“It will be a showstopper,” he said.

The Junior Trolls from “Hansen & Gretel” included Reilley Bryson, Aalexa Fowler, Aspen Galbraith, Sadie Green, Berkly Peck and Ava Toussaint.

“Another America 250 project is collecting your stories. What brought you or your families here? And, when school starts, we’ll have students create a digital time capsule where they write letters to people 50 years ahead telling them what they like about life now and what they look forward to in the future,” he added.

MacLeod noted that the museum with the help of board member Mary Gervase had just spearheaded a wildly successful Wild West Days in which they taught every fourth-grader in the county about how the Native Americans and pioneers who lived in the valley in the late 19th century lived.

“I asked one youngster if she knew where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and she said, ‘On the bottom.’ “

There will be new exhibits in the museum and speakers later in the year, he added

The new members of the Blaine County Heritage Court are Thelma Cameron, a 4-H leader and Wood River Orchestra member; Amy Federko, who taught horseriding to scads of kids; Gail Peterson, who teaches quilting to 4-H kids, and Vicki Stewart Smith, who remembers Sun Valley’s early days when her father was a hunting and fishing guide for Ernest Hemingway and Gary Cooper and her mother, a secretary to Averell Harriman.

In the meantime, he left the audience with a few tales of America’s past. One concerned Ben Franklin, who spotted “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” author Edward Gibbon at a café while in Paris to negotiate a treaty with France.

Gibbon a member of the British Parliament, declined an invite to join him at his table, saying he could have nothing to do with a man who was a traitor to his king. Franklin replied that he was sorry to hear that because he was eager to give him some background information for a new book called “The History of the Decline and Fall of the British Empire.” In 24 hours, the story was all over Paris and the flabbergasted Gibbons retreated to London.

Another story involved a Brit who placed a portrait of George Washington in the privy, eager to get Revolutionary War Col. Ethan Allen’s goat. When asked what he thought about hanging the lofty George Washington in such a lowly place, Allen replied, it was “most appropriately placed, as it literally scares the cr*p out of most Englishmen.”

The museum on Hailey’s Main Street is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays from Memorial Day to the end of October. Admission is free.

The Woodland Spirits from Footlight Dance Company’s performance of “Hansel & Gretel” included Kaitlyn Cooper, Sadie Green, Josie Neet, Kylee Roloson, Regan Sali and Ava Toussaint.

Meanwhile, you can see the new ladies of the court in summer parades throughout the valley.