Calling Cache Valley Woodworkers!

Friends and neighbors:

USU's "Team Barn" needs your help! Without giving away too much about the fun we're cooking up now, let us just say that involves hand-crafting lots of mini (some ultra-mini, and some, oh, say, birdhouse-sized) Aggie Barns.

We have the wood, the patterns, and a whole bunch of helpers lined up, but we need 6 or 7 folks with a talent for woodworking and access to woodworking equipment. Oh, and a willingness to participate in a half-day-long project as foremen or forewomen.

If you can help or know someone who fits the bill, or if you just want to know more, please e-mail USU Anthropology staff assistant holly.andrew@usu.edu or call her at 435-797-0219. We promise, this will be a good time!!

Continued Usefulness Throughout the Years

While many people who share their memories of the barn have strong associations with one stage of its existence, others have known the barn through some of its changes over the years. George Morrison is one of those who has memories of the barn as a horse barn and as the Art Barn. Mr. Morrison's parents met while attending Utah State Agricultural College (USU's name prior to 1957), and his father eventually became a faculty member in agricultural economics. Mr. Morrison has many memories of enjoying activities on campus even before he enrolled as a student. He remembers the barn from the days when it still housed horses:

"One neighbor in Hyde Park, Jay Hansen, tended horses in the Horse Barn. One fall evening, Jay brought me and a friend with him on his evening chores. The barn was poorly lit back then and the three of us had to carefully move about trying not to spook the horses and get kicked. I can still smell the grass hay, horse 'biscuits' and sweat."

Later, Mr. Morrison attended USU, where he studied forestry and met his wife Betty. He and Betty both graduated in 1966. Mr. Morrison got to know the barn in its new role as the Art Barn while he was a student on campus. He said:

"I made many trips through the Art (Horse) Barn during my student years as I worked on the custodial staff. I'm delighted to see the old concrete building finding continued usefulness instead of disappearing to make way for more parking slots."

Thanks to the Utah Humanities Council!!

Thanks to the Utah Humanities Council for providing funding to support the historical and oral history research reported in this blog from July 2010 to June 2011. We're very grateful for the chance to learn so much about the Aggie Barn and to share the stories with our blog visitors!!

Delighted That It's Still There

Debora Seiter’s husband John is a speech communications professor whose office was in the Art Barn before the upper floors of the building were condemned. The Art Barn is a special place for her and her family as well as for her husband. Her uncle is a World War II veteran who had attended USU through the GI Bill. She and her husband brought him up to visit the campus again, and “he just really honed in on the barn,” which, along with Old Main, is one of the few landmarks remaining from over 60 years ago. It “thoroughly delighted him that it was still there.”

She also recalls when professors started leaving the Art Barn for offices elsewhere on campus:

“I remember feeling like, well gosh, this isn't going to be the same, and honestly it hasn't. People have kind of branched out and made new connections and networking. . . But as far as recreating as a group and being able to bounce from office to office, still in your chair rolling around, or being able to have a snake, or whatever, those times were over.”

Luckily, memories of the barn will continue to be preserved as it takes on its new role as a museum and welcome center.