Help Restore the Mount Sterling Granary!

The granary, located in the southern part of Cache Valley in Mt. Sterling, features a cut-stone foundation, is 22 feet tall, and has inscriptions on the inside walls describing items stored and calculations of amounts of grain sold, along with some buyers’ names. It is rare to be able to identify the exact date a historic barn or granary was built, but inside this granary, there is also the note “Granary built in 1896.”

At one time, granaries such as this were used by the Women’s Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Beginning in 1876, the organization collected grain from its members and stored it for use in alleviating hunger. The storage program lasted until 1918, when the Relief Society sold 205,518 bushels of their wheat to the U.S.

Friends and neighbors near the Mt. Sterling granary recall using the granary, but more research is underway to determine if the Relief Society used this particular one.

The McBride family used this granary for the storage of wheat, oats, and barley until the 1960s. In the 1930s and ‘40s, the barley was sent to a mill at Hyrum to be rolled for livestock feed. The oats were fed to horses. Over the years the granary has suffered from weather extremes, and some structural damage has occurred.

A work plan has been created by Utah Division of State History, and will be overseen by Steven Cornell, historical architect. Volunteers with some carpentry experience are sought to learn how to do the preservation work, as well as volunteers to prepare the site by removing vegetation and old lumber from around the building.

The work day will be held on Saturday, Nov. 2, beginning at 9:00 a.m. Volunteers must be willing to release liability to the Bear River Heritage Area or the State Division of History.

For more information, please contact Lisa Duskin Goede, heritage specialist and coordinator of the Bear River Heritage Area. 435-713-1426 or lisad@brag.utah.gov