The family themselves—all hundred plus—wanted the event to remain private and without the distraction of even the most well-intentioned outside visitors, and it more or less played out that way.  While it’s impossible to keep that many people congregating in place an absolute secret when it nearly doubles the size of the town, many people were unaware that the Osmond extended family spent a weekend in Samaria in August.

The clan’s matriarch, Olive, was born in a small, two-room cabin in Samaria in 1925, making this a celebration of the hundredth year since her birth.  Olive passed away in 2001 in Provo, at the age of 79, but her family chose her birthplace as the place to mark that milestone.

Members of large family, including Olive’s children and their descendants, were organized into smaller groups to participate in a variety of projects throughout the Heritage Square area, including painting, restoration, and especially chinking.

In fact, Donny Osmond jokingly remarked that he had found a new calling in life.  “I used to be a singer-dancer, now I’m a chinker-dancer!”  he laughed.  The fact was attested to by his gloves, covered with chinking mortar.

“This is his new calling!”  Luke Waldron smiled. 

“When we first came here in 2010,” Donny said, “I didn’t think it would turn out to be like this—what an amazing place!”  He noted that the site itself was a wonderful location, but also that it was personally impactful.  “I really feel the presence of my mom.  This is where she grew up.  There is something about this valley that is just special.  I don’t know if it’s my kinship to it, or what, but it’s a pretty special place.  Hallowed ground.”   

Heritage Square, as its name indicates, is dedicated to preserving the history of the families who made their way north from Utah in the middle of the nineteenth century and settled what is claimed by many to be the first major settlement in what is now Idaho.  Just southwest of Malad, Samaria is a place steeped in history and tradition, nestled at the base of the mountains which also bear its name.

Heritage Square is the site of the Samaria Days festival every year, as well as a Harvest and Spring festival.  It is also a location which can be reserved and rented out, for events both big and small.  No one had really anticipated an event on the scale of the Osmond family reunion, however.

Aaron Osmond, George Osmond’s oldest son and the oldest grandchild of the Olive Osmond family, explained that the family decided to hold the reunion in Samaria on Olive’s 100th.  The faily is extensive, with 55 grandchildren and 175 great-grandchildren in the family, about 100 of whom were at the reunion.

“The real draw here,” Aaron said, “is that we have this cabin here, which has been restored by the Heritage Foundation.  That just made it a very appropriate place to come and remember our parents and grandparents.”  

On behalf of the Osmonds, Aaron thanked those in Samaria for maintaining this part of the family’s history.  “Olive was born in May of 1925 at this little cabin that they have relocated and put here on the grounds.  We would not have had this cabin if it were not for this foundation.  It would not have been preserved.”

 In 2010, the Osmonds visited Samaria for the dedication of the cabin.  

Samaria is a wonderful ecapsulation of the Osmond ethos.  “The thing that we wanted to share is that we want to be a part of this kind of healthy, family recreational activity,” Aaron said.  “We’re a very family oriented group that has for generations looked for ways to find activities that can bring us together as a family.  Even with these busy lives that some of my uncles and aunts have, they are dedicating time to come to this location to be together.  It’s such a unique draw.  It’s so relaxing and peaceful.  They have created this amazing environment with the cabins and animals, and lazer tag.  It’s just such a wonderful place to have a reunion, or a wedding, or whatever and we want to be a part of promoting it.

According to Aaron, Olive talked about growing up in Samaria often when he was a kid.  “The value of hard work, or dealing with difficulty and managing through want.  They went through a lot, and often she would talk about memories of her growing up here as an important thing that shaped her.”

“She was so multifaceted,” Aaron said, of his grandmother.  “Very musically inclined.  She was raising nine children in a very complex entertainment world—teaching them values and how to maintain them in an environment most people wouldn’t even imagine.  Family values isn’t just a tagline, it’s a reality.  We are dedicated to family, faith, and service and Olive is the one who instilled that in all of us.  It was really her.  Grandpa was a big influence, but Olive was the influence around the morality and the way we live our lives.”

Fellow Samaria resident EmoLou Parry visited during the reunion to share some of her memories of growing up with Olive.  EmoLou just celebrated her own 100th birthday.

The family was given a tour of Samaria and the surrounding country on side by sides, and treated to history and personal stories from members of the Heritage Foundation.  Luke Waldron shared some Welsh with them, and Donny remarked that the whole experience had been very spiritual.

Aaron echoed that, and said, “The church really is at the heart of the whole thing.  Olive was very open about her faith, and very vocal about sharing the gospel.  It was the centerpiece of everything we’ve done as a family.”