Grave Markers and Hay Derricks Brought to the Internet

Old-timers and those with agrarian backgrounds are in the know, but many people today wonder about the identity of the wooden crane-like structures that dot the Intermountain West.

 

"Or, perhaps people are curious about the styles of rock houses in Utah or have noticed the creative mailbox supports and decorations that dot the landscape in their neck of the woods and ponder their meaning," said Randy Williams, Fife Folklore Archives curator at Utah State University. "Well, Utah State University's latest and greatest digital collection has the answers for these questions."

 

The digital collection, the Fife Slide Collection of Western Vernacular , is now online.

 

The collection hosts the work of folklorists Austin and Alta Fife, who spent a lifetime documenting the West with camera and pen. The Fifes' extensive annotated slide collection documents hay derricks (those wooden crane-like structures), gravemarkers, mailbox supports, stone houses, quilts, barns, Basque celebrations, cairns and much more, Williams said.