Heritage Court 2012
Mary Ann Knight
Mary Ann Knight has driven the Blaine County Heritage Court carriage in valley parades since the court made its debut in 2008.
This year she’ll get a reprieve from the reins—this longtime dental assistant who likes to say she “retired three dentists” has been named to the Heritage Court herself.
Knight was nominated for this year’s court by the Papoose Club for her work with 4-H and the Sawtooth Rangers where she organized the tea for rodeo royalty each summer. The court was established to pay homage to women who have made the valley what it is today, said Mike Healy, one of the organizers.
Knight was born in Buhl but her parents brought a farm on 318 acres at the southern end of what is now….
Ann Christensen
Ann Christensen leaps onto a log straddling Eagle Creek as she spots a snake wiggling on it. Dropping to her stomach, she reaches down and pulls the 2-foot-long snake off the log to the delight of the youngsters watching her.
“It pooped on me,” she exclaims, as the kids gather around her. “Wasn’t that a mean thing to do to a snake?—to scare it like that? There’s no way these guys can hurt us at all.”
“How do you know so much?” a dark-eyed girl asks her.
“Well, honey, I’m old and I’ve been studying a long time,” Ann tells her.
Indeed, Ann Christensen is now in her 70s. But she approaches the world around her with the wide-eyed reverence and curiosity of the very kids she leads on walks to…
Marsha Riemann
There was a time when nothing happened in Blaine County that Marsha Riemann didn’t know about.
As Blaine County clerk, she was often the first to know which Hollywood star was buying a mansion near Sun Valley and who was updating their passport to travel around the world.
“I recorded deeds and mortgages so I always knew who was buying or selling a home. I knew who was getting married. And I even learned about the property people owned in the 1880s, thanks to the people researching their genealogies,” she said.
Riemann will be honored for her contributions to the valley by being inducted into the Blaine County Historical Museum’s 2012 Heritage Court on June 24…
Mary Peterson
The Blaine County Historical Museum will welcome Carey native Mary Peterson to the Heritage Court this summer, celebrating her many years of public service and participation in the agricultural heritage of Blaine County.
“I was flabbergasted and surprised by the honor,” said Peterson, whose family cleared land, farmed and ranched in Muldoon Canyon near Carey before the era of mechanized agriculture.
“She is known worldwide for her rolls and sweet rolls—everyone wants her to bring them for picnics,” said her daughter-in-law Deb Peterson.
Mary was born Jan. 7, 1931, in Carey to Myrl Patterson Carlson and Leonard Carlson. She is one of six children. She learned to drive when she was 14 in a Model A Ford, and…