One of four stone houses called the “Baker house” in Mendon, Utah, which was abandoned when the picture was taken in 1970. It is common for ghost sightings to occur in older houses like this one.

(Utah State University Special Collections & Archives, The Austin and Alta Fife Fieldwork Collection, 1939–1979 (FOLK 4, no. 3, Box 1, Slide 50107) )

Paul Willie talks about rock homes in Mendon, Utah.

Contemporary ghost stories, also known as legends, have connections to the old sites and stone structures throughout Mendon. Historic Mendon stone buildings, built after Brigham Young called the earlier log cabins “deprivation dwellings,” show the workmanship of Mendon pioneers. The early settlers quickly built many sturdy stone houses, including a rock church.

The Bear River Massacre changed the settlement of Mendon and many other communities in the area. A major change was moving out of forts, further abandoning wood cabins, and instead establishing rock homes on a grid community layout. In his diary, Isaac Sorensen noted that settlers were glad to abandon the close quarters living of the fort. Fort living meant that you were very close to your neighbors and “if you wanted to borrow something you could just stick your hand out of the window of your cabin.”