SANPETE BARNS ~ Daughters of Utah Pioneers ~ Pioneers of Sanpete County

Perhaps no other structure has played such an important role in the lifestyle of Sanpete County folks as barns.....The generation that built the first barns here is gone and the generations that used them are fading, but life in the days when barns were used is not entirely forgotten.

Barns used to be the central place of farming where old dobbin was cared to, prize heifers and rams were kept.  Where boys learned to harness teams, fork manure, and discovered that Sunday's chicken could do without its head.

Barns were the domain of men and boys, where moments of pleasure were secretly drunk or smoked out among the smell of hay and livestock; where men gathered to talk of potatoes and presidents and sometimes non essential things.  The barn, before the automobile, was the parking place for the family surrey and for milking old Bossie; where boys gathered to fight dragons and formed bonds with blood from a finger. 

During the heyday of barns, a family's standing in the community was sometimes measured in relation to the quality and size of their barns.  A large one easily could make up for those with a questionable or shady background and likewise a small barn could mean a family lacked  discipline, was inclined to laziness, and perhaps even slept too much.  In short, barns wre a status symbol much as the automobile and the house later became. 

Girls and women were allowed to come into barns occasionally, and mostly to gather eggs, carry milk to the house, or see a new calf or lamb.  It was understood, however, the barn was the domain of men and boys.

Barns in Sanpete County were yesterday's status symboland would sometimes depict the nationality of the owner.  Early non-Scandinavian builders built by nailing planks horizontally while settlers with a Scandinavian background attached planks vertically.

The day of the noble barn has given way to progress, efficiency with food outlets, packaged meats, and gallon plastic containers.