Utah Centennial County History Series - Sanpete County 1999

T h e nature of the county's built environment-its buildings, bridges, canals, roads, fences, and other human-built elementsderives from a complex combining of influences and resources.

Although this chapter will emphasize the county's architecture, the character of any built or made object can be understood in terms of its function, materials, cost, design, and craftsmanship, all of which reflect a place's locale, culture, ethnicity and economy. Thus we can read the history of a place not only by studying books, but also by observing and interpreting the built products of its people: the design of its towns and architecture.

A perusal of old photos or a tour of any Sanpete town will reveal volumes of knowledge about that town's past. One will observe in each place generations of community growth, development and change, as one sees a variety of building ages, uses, types, materials, and styles. Any single structure will prove informative, and a collection of buildings in relationship to one another and in the context of an overall town plan will communicate how a people worked, played,