POCATELLO — A curious bull elk watched dozens of young people busily shoveling, raking and digging last week on the other side of a chain link fence. As flying geese honked overhead, some 150 youths and their leaders were creating a water feature on the grounds of the Fort Hall Replica, adjacent to the buffalo and elk enclosure at the Pocatello Zoo.

    The work continued recently as dozens of young people and their leaders swarmed all over the Fort Hall Replica, wielding paintbrushes and rollers, and climbing tall ladders or using extension poles to repaint and re-stain the walls and buildings of the complex.     

    It was all a part of a service project for 12- to 18-year-olds from five Pocatello stakes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In conjunction with the City of Pocatello, Pocatello’s Parks and Recreation Department, and the officials planning the events for the Idaho Territory’s Sesquicentennial celebrations, the young people gathered to work on a three-day project that would be both helpful for the animals and beautify the area.

     The sesquicentennial of the creation of the Idaho Territory also coincides with the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Fort Hall Replica, so this was the perfect time to plan to spruce up the Fort Hall Complex for the upcoming celebrations.

    One of the organizers of the project, Ralph Cottle, said the city of Pocatello and the Sesquicentennial committee came up with the plans for the project, and representatives from the LDS wards and stakes designed the youth service project around those needs. “The city of Pocatello has really helped out with the planning and the project identification,” Cottle explained. “We are providing the labor for the plans of the city and Sesquicentennial committee,” he said.

    “We try to serve the public,” Cottle continued, “and it’s good for each our youth to learn how to serve,” he said. “When they come up here, they can see what it looks like, and then they see what it looks like when they leave,” said Cottle. “It gives them a great sense of satisfaction,” he concluded.

    Along with the sound of shovels, picks, and rakes that rang out on the grounds of the Replica recently, there was also plenty of laughing and shouting, as the young people dug a channel for the new stream and pond. The channel, along with two recycling pumps, will prevent water from gathering in large puddles on the grounds of the zoo, which caused issues for the animals. When the project is complete, the lined, man-made channel will become a trickling stream and a small pond by the cabin on the Replica grounds, lined with rocks that were taken from Red Hill, and supplemented with river rock.      

    13-year-old Lydia Shore was one of the young people breaking up the ground for the new water channel. “It’s fun,” she said. The Hawthorne Middle School student busied herself picking up rocks, and taking dead grass out of the way, and said she would feel happy and excited to see the project completed.  

    Tyhee Stake President Kevin Loveland had two of his own children working on Tuesday night’s project, one a junior high school student, and one a high school student, and was confident that they would gain good things from their work. “They learn to work and they learn to love serving others, and being a part of the community,” Loveland said.  

    Another of the young people busy with a shovel on Tuesday night was Highland High School sophomore River Southwick, from the 37th Ward of Tyhee Stake. “We like helping people,” said Southwick.

    “And when it’s all done you get that sense of satisfaction that you did the job well,” he added.    

    Tuesday night’s work on the waterway project is only one of three projects scheduled for the Fort Hall Complex. Terry Jensen is serving as the project coordinator for a total of three days of work that will continue the efforts to improve the Fort Hall Complex. “The city has been marvelous to work with,” he commented. While the young people and their leaders are providing the labor, the City of Pocatello is providing the plans and materials for all three parts of the project.

    Park Superintendent with the city of Pocatello, Alan Green, said his department was very grateful for the help provided by the LDS stakes in this endeavor, commenting that they wanted to do the waterway project for several years, and the physical help of the young people is what made it happen. “If they didn’t do it, it wouldn’t get done,” he said.

    On Saturday morning, young people from several stakes gathered to paint the outer walls of the Fort, and stain the log buildings. Fueled by boxes of doughnuts, and jokes about being covered in white paint themselves, the young people climbed up tall ladders leaning against the walls, applied a new coat of stain on the inner buildings, and generally spruced up the area.

    On May 18, more young people will come to finish up any work left on the other two projects, to smarten up Pocatello Junction, the mock-up pioneer town adjacent to the Fort, and to clean up winter debris from the grounds, making the Fort Hall Replica Complex as good as new for its 50th birthday.