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Show 11 The Grouse Creek Cultural Survey The idea of a demonstration project to integrate folklife and historic preservation emerged during a meeting of state historic preservation officers in Washington, D.C., in March 1985. Tom Carter, a folklorist working for the Utah State Historic Preservation Office, Ted Pochter of the National Park Service, and Alan Jab-bour and Carl Fleischhauer from the American Folklife Center talked over the shape and direction of such a survey. Since it was unlikely that any state folk arts or preservation agency would undertake such a project single-handedly, cooperation was essential. A long record of good relations between historians and folklorists suggested Utah as a possible site for the project. Upon his return to Salt Lake City, Carter found that Kent Powell, preservation research coordinator at the Utah State Historic Preservation Office, and Hal Cannon, folk arts coordinator at the Utah Arts Council, were interested. The two agencies had planned to conduct field surveys during the upcoming summer months and agreed that their efforts could be coordinated to produce a collective cultural statement. The preservation office would contribute an architectural historian and a historian, and the folk arts program would provide two folklorists. The American Folklife Center agreed to provide a project coordinator and documentation equipment and to bear certain administrative costs. Each agency would pay for their fieldworkers' travel expenses and supplies. In addition, the National Park Service helped pay the production costs of this publication, and the Fife Folklore Archive at Utah State University agreed to house the project archive. As planning continued, Hal Cannon left the Utah Arts Council to form the non-profit Western Folklife Center, and this organization was selected to serve as the administrative home for the field survey. The decision to conduct the survey in Grouse Creek was based upon the work plan already in place at the state historic preservation office. The project would take its place with other surveys of the architecure of the settlement and post-settlement periods; a separate series of archeological surveys examine the state's prehistoric sites. Previous architectural surveys in Utah had concentrated on the Mormon farming communities along the Wasatch Front and the preservation plan called for the office to turn its attention to the outlying ranching areas in the eastern and western parts of the state. Within these larger areas the community of Grouse Creek stood out as a likely project location. It was in a self-contained valley, limiting naturally the extent of the work while containing sufficient resources to warrant a full-scale effort. The community's size and cultural |