Mormon hay derrick
Joseph, Utah (1987)
Certain built forms are distinctive keys to culture, and no single key is so certain as the creations of agricultural and traditional economies. This hay derrick outside of Joseph, Utah, is a classic sign of the Mormon culture region that Donald Meinig and others have written about with considerable eloquence. The A-derrick, used to loose-stack hay, is itself an anachronism; hay is more commonly put up in bales, now. But the form lives on, in part because it is hardly worth the effort to remove the derrick when it takes up little room, even if it is no longer so useful.

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