North European Horizontal Log Construction in the Sanpete-Sevier Valleys BY T H O M A S C A R T E R
Niels Peter Ostensen house, Fairview, ca. 1870, from a county tax card photograph taken ca. 1920. Home was demolished in 1979. See figs. 2 and 3 on p. 59 for a later view of the home and afloor plan. A It numbered figures accompanying article were furnished by author.
the nineteenth-century folk architecture of Mormon Utah has attracted considerable scholarly attention. One aspect of this architecture, however, horizontal log construction, has been consistently overlooked. This oversight is curious, because in other areas of the United States, particularly those like Utah with a strong frontier identity, studies of log buildD U R I N G THE PAST SEVERAL DECADES
Mr. Carter is an architectural historian with the Utah Division of State History. T h e author wishes to thank Warren Roberts and Gary Stanton for kindling a learned appreciation for old log buildings, Kent Powell for his interest and support of this project, Richard Jensen for his Fine, inspirational work with Scandinavian immigrants in Utah, Bruce Hawkins and Craig Paulsen for their help in the fieldwork, and, finally, Meg Brady for providing the suggestions that put it all into readable form. Earlier versions of this paper were read at the annual meetings of the Utah State Historical Society and the Vernacular Architecture Forum.
