Emery County Archives

Check out the Emery County Archives Blog

George Edward Anderson Photography See the official G.E.Anderson website https://lib.byu.edu/collections/george-edward-anderson-collection/

    On our way to Emery 1903--Les Hafen. (Photo by G.E. Anderson)

Preserving the Past and Making it Accessible to the Public for the Present and the Future 

Mission Statement: Emery County Archives is dedicated obtaining and preserving donations of family, organization, and agency documents and artifacts. In this aspect, the Archives will be a major resource for research and documentation of the history, life, and culture of the people of the Castle Valley region.

Emery County Archives is the answer to the question: "What shall we do with this?" When an older parent or grandparent dies, sometimes the children divide up their papers and photos, and other memorabilia, or throw them away. All of these things could provide some valuable information to future grandchildren and even the communities. Usually as the family grows and separates, no one knows who has that "picture Mom used to have."  When a collection or item is donated to the Archives, it is preserved, and it is always available for copies, research, or loans--such as when someone in the family needs to present an item for a school project, etc.

Public Welcome: The Archives is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from Noon until 5:00 p.m.  Phone: 435-381-3563. Suzanne Anderson is the Archives Administrator. If you need research information or would like to make a donation of historic items to the Archives, at any other time, you may contact Connie Jensen in the Recorder's Office.

We assist the public in finding historic information on almost all aspects of this county including personal histories, oral histories, mine disasters, ranching, schools, mills, Manti Forest, outlaws, changes in the landscape, effects of World War II in our area, etc. (See "Collections" and "Research Information.") Copies are 25 cents each.

We use archival procedures and products to preserve every item. Each item is assigned an accession number with a description of the item(s) donated. The donor is given credit on every item donated.    

 Donations to the Archives: Make a donation to the Archives of anything from documents to textiles. We will make copies of historic documents or photos for you to keep a copy in the family, or we will make a copy for the Archives and give you back the original, if you do not want us to preserve it.

The donor signs a deed of gift, noting any stipulations they may choose  It is then available for anyone to look at and examine or use for research (unless otherwise stipulated by the donor--such as "public access not allowed until Aunt. . .dies.") You may download a copy of Deed of Gift and fill it out and bring it with your donation, if you would like, or fill one out here.

We have private collections from individuals that include photos, letters, school books, recipe books, greeting cards, memorabilia of all kinds, and even some vintage clothing. We have storage for photos, magazines, pamphlets, calendars, audio tapes, video tapes, microfilm, personal histories, textiles, and we have a library room to house old books and sets of books.

Two of Utah's great historians have come from Emery County: Edward Geary and Kent Powell. They have each donated a collection of their works to Emery County Archives, which are among our prized possessions and will be extremely helpful to anyone doing research of our area.

Wish List   

Emery County Archives specifically welcomes the following donations.                   

Yearbooks from every school in Emery County

North Emery High School information

Central School information

Personal/family histories

Diaries/journals/scrapbooks

Miss Emery Co. Pageant booklets/programs

Stories or legends in your family of anything related to Castle Valley, including the outlaws. (Folklore is a great part of history.)

Historic magazines, brochures, newspapers, calendars

Historic photos of anything pertaining to Castle Valley area

Photos of people who have any association with this area

IF YOU HAVE ANY OF THESE THINGS OR ANYTHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE, PLEASE CALL

435- 381-3563 AND LEAVE A MESSAGE.  THANK YOU!