P Richards was murdered in 1888, though a church investigation committee concluded that the motive was likely a robbery rather than persecution. On July 24, 1935, the first "Pioneer Day" celebration in Mississippi honoring the Utah pioneers was held in Columbia. Members of the Columbia and Darbun Branches dressed in pioneer outfits and paraded down Main Street to the City Park for a pioneer picnic and activities. Townsfolk were invited and participated. An impromptu rodeo was held at the end of the day-long celebration when a missionary from Canada, Elder Weldon Bascom, showed his rodeo cowboy skills by riding a wild bucking mule for entertainment. This bucking exhibition sparked such interest in the town that a professional rodeo was organized a month later by Weldon Bascom and his brother Earl Bascom, assisted by other Mormon cowboys including Jake Lybbert, Waldo Ross, Ashel Evans, Horace and Lester Flake, and Don and Ferral Pearce. Some of these cowboys were still serving as missionaries. This historic rodeo in Columbia is now known as the world's first night rodeo held outdoors under electric lights. The first two stakes in Mississippi (Jackson and Hattiesburg) were created in 1965. The Jackson Stake was created on May 2, 1965. It consisted of wards in Jackson, Meridian, Natchez, Columbus, Vicksburg, and Red Star, and a branch in Greenville. The Hattiesburg Stake was created on June 27, 1965 with wards in Biloxi, Columbia, Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Liberty and Pascagoula. The Bayou La Croix, Darburn, Laurel, McNiel, Sand Hill and Seminary branches were also organized into that stake. A monument at Mormon Springs (where many of the early saints were baptized) was dedicated in memory of the early pioneers from Mississippi, known as the Mississippi Saints. Also that year, a program was held commemorating the temporary colony in Pueblo, Colorado established by the Mississippi Saints. On March 1, 2003, President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke to 6,000 members at the DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven, Mississippi. With no assignments for that weekend, President Hinckley said he wished to visit an area where he had never been. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, several thousand Latter-day Saint volunteers, from a seven-state area (including Mississippi), went to the hurricane-devastated areas. Many of them took time out of their jobs or came down on the weekends to help anyone needing assistance (Mormon and non-Mormon). In September 2008, Mississippi Latter-day Saints went to the Baton Rouge area