SAN DIEGO, California — It was a Saturday filled with fun and celebration when the 14 stakes in the San Diego Region presented their fourth annual Mormon Battalion Day on Old Town Square recently.

A bronze statue honors the 500 men of the Mormon Battalion, whose 2,000-mile infantry march was the longest in U.S. history.

The event was held to mark the anniversary of the arrival of the battalion in San Diego on Jan. 29, 1847, following a 2,000-mile march across Kansas, New Mexico and Arizona to the Pacific Ocean. Brigham Young had asked 500 men to enlist in the War with Mexico as a means of raising money for the migration west. The group departed on July 16, 1846 from Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Old-time musicians take the stage as 14 stakes in the San Diego Region celebrate Mormon Battalion Day at Old Town State Park.

The longest infantry march in United States history is commemorated every day at the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center up the Juan Street in Old Town, the first part of San Diego to be built — with the help of members of the Mormon Battalion. Senior missionary couples as well as young sister missionaries are happy to share the march's history with the 5,000-6,000 of visitors who stop by each month.

A cannon blast starts off the celebration and continues each hour throughout the day.

But the celebration on the square of Old Town State Park is a once-a-year event planned by the historians in each stake, from south near the Mexican border to Oceanside on the coast up north. Eva Peterson and her husband, Richard, of the San Diego North Stake, served a mission to Nauvoo, Illinois, and returned with some ideas on how the event could be expanded. They are the historical directors of Mormon Battalion Day.

Historical directors Eva and Ricahrad Peterson of the San Diego North Stake gleaned some additional ideas for the Mormon Battalion event while serving a mission in Nauvoo.

Eva credits Kathy Marler, Public Affairs director over Mormon Battalion Day, with the "great vision to come up with more activities that we could build upon." The result is an event attended by not only members and hosts from the 14 stakes, but also by hundreds of tourists who happen to be in Old Town for the day.

Kids try their luck at panning for gold in one of the canvas-tented booths.

Each stake is responsible for a booth — authentic-looking canvas tents scattered over the grassy square — where people participate in such hands-on activities as making bricks, panning for gold, crafting a pioneer doll, cooking a Dutch oven meal, twining rope, stitching a quilt, washing clothes in a tub, or baking a biscuit on a stick over an open fire.

Crafting a pioneer doll is one of many popular hands-on activites offered at the annual event.

Barefooted girls chasing hoops down the lane add an air of old-time authenticity to the day.

Children get a taste of laundry duties with the Mormon Battalion by washing clothes in a tub.

Alyssa Graff, 8, dressed in costume befitting the occasion, cooks a biscuit on a stick over an open fire.

Hosts are decked out in period clothing resembling that worn by the 350 men of the Mormon Battalion, plus four women and two children when they finished their six-month-long march in San Diego. Many who come to join the fun also dress in costume.

Cap Cresop wears a bearskin coat and carries a rifle in his role as Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, a scout for the Mormon Battalion's route to the Pacific. 

One of the most interesting was the bearskin coat and long-haired wig worn by Cap Cresop. He was posing as Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, son of Sacagawea, who was recruited as a guide in Santa Fe to scout out the trail to California. Cresop points out that his character is the only member of the Mormon Battalion to appear on U.S. coinage — the Sacagawea dollar.

The family of Jesús and Xochitl Rodriguez of the Carlsbad Stake pose for a family portrait in pioneer costume — recorded by digital camera.

The day begins with a cannon blast, followed by 80 uniformed men marching in formation with their rifles and other accouterments. Later on, it's the children's turn to march around the square. The day is punctuated by cannon blasts every hour, even as musicians and dancers take the stage to entertain with pioneer-era songs like "Blue Tail Fly," "Skip to My Lou," and "Polly-Wolly Doodle."

Dancers takes the stage in colorful costumes in a nod to the area's Hispanic heritage.

More than one canvas-roofed booth has a decidedly modern twist. Hosts invite visitors to use a laptop computer, powered by a noisy generator, to look up their own ancestors who may have participated in the Mormon Battalion. Another booth invites families to stand together in front of a "Families are Forever" sign to have their picture snapped with a digital camera.

Tanner and Harper Moulton try on child-sized clothing and accouterments of the Mormon Battalion at the visitors' center up the street from the state park.

Eva Peterson notes that although Mormon Battalion Day is good public relations for the Church, the local missionaries participate in the set-up, take-down, and activities, but do not proselyte.

"We are doing what Brigham Young asked — remembering [the Mormon Battalion's] great sacrifice as we give San Diego a taste of its own history."

The Mormon Battalion Visitors Center at 2510 Juan St. hosts several thousand guests each month, offering displays and movies.