Idaho, Welsh towns team up to save heritage

MALAD, Idaho -- When he was younger, Stan Palmer used to listen to his grandmothers speak Welsh over the telephone to avoid the prying ears of listening operators.

Since then, Palmer has forgotten some of the phrases, although he still knows a few things.

"The only Welsh words I know now are bad ones," he said with a laugh.

Tucked away in a quiet little valley about an hour south of Pocatello, Malad is home to more Welsh descendants per capita than anywhere else outside Wales.

Some of the first settlers to the valley were Welsh pioneers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the late 1850s. Many of their descendants have kept close ties.

Malad resident Helen Price is a descendant of the Daniels family, who helped settle the area.

"We've stayed ever since," she said.

Over the years, however, much of the Welsh heritage has been lost, which saddens Joe Thomas and other locals.

"We really don't have anyone who knows the language," he said. "We're losing our Welshness."

Community leaders didn't want to see that happen. The local Lions Club, of which Thomas is a member, decided to pair up with a city in Wales to exchange ideas and become friends.

Thomas, who travels to Wales often for business, found Carmarthen. In April, he met with members of the Lions Club in Carmarthen and was surprised at what he heard.

"They were very excited about the concept," Thomas said. "They were pretty excited that anyone in the U.S. cared about Wales."

Next year, Thomas plans to host some Welsh Lions Club members for the Malad Welsh Festival, which was revived this year for the first time since World War I.

Mike Williams, president of the Welsh Heritage organization in Malad, helped organize the event. His great-great-great- grandfather, John J. Williams, coordinated the traditional festival in the area.

"It does a lot for community involvement," Williams said.

The festival featured music, dancing, poetry and community-fair type activities. Vendors sold signs with Welsh sayings, dolls dressed in Welsh costume, along with the usual local arts and crafts.

In the future, organizers want to see the festival become a full- fledged Eisteddfodd, a traditional Welsh festival with a singing and poetry contest that has been a part of tradition since the 1100s. Residents of Carmarthen plan on helping.

Williams hopes the event helps rekindle the community's heritage.

"Hopefully, the younger generation will have some respect for it," he said.

It's a history people want to learn. Festival organizer Jean Thomas expected about 25 people for the language and culture workshop kicking off the festival. Instead, 125 people packed into the room.

"It brings out the traditions people have forgotten," she said.

Having traveled to Wales several times, Jean Thomas sees the similarities between Malad and the mother land. The last names in Malad are the same ones seen in the shops in Wales. The nicknames are similar, as well as the sayings. Even the placement of the verb in the sentence is often the same.

"It's not bad grammar. It's the Welsh word order," she said.

LaRae Brown came from Utah to this year's Welsh festival. She was raised in nearby Dayton and spent some time in Wales decades ago. Brown remembered a particular Welsh song her grandmother used to play. She came to the evening concert to hear it one more time.

"I haven't heard it since she died," Brown said.

For one Malad man, Wales felt like home. When Joe Thomas first visited Wales, it didn't take him long to feel at home. Sure, the lush, green rolling hills are a bit different than the Malad valley, but the names he heard reminded him of home. The food, with dishes that reminded him of family recipes, was also familiar.

He loved the friendliness of the neighborhoods. He went to visit his great-great-great-grandfather's home, and, on the way back, his rental car broke down. An elderly woman was eager to help, and soon the whole neighborhood had greeted him.

"Neighbors keep close ties with neighbors," he said. "They all know each other."

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