A story in Wallsburg.

Elva Carter grew up in Wallsburg, Utah, in the early 1900's. I went to Wallsburg to document what Elva's life might have been like as a youngster in a small mountain town so long ago. This project was shot on 35 mm film.

The road leading in to Wallsburg from Provo Canyon. Elva said that when she was a child, the road through the canyon was very narrow and dangerous. There were only a few places where wagons could pass each other.

The bell that now stands on the property of the LDS church. Elva remembered this bell ringing whenever there was a funeral or an emergency. When someone had died, the bell would chime once for every year they had lived.

Elva lived on a farm in Wallsburg. Her family owned goats and other livestock. She told of when her grandfather had to build a well on the farm, and he used a forked stick to point the way to where water was underground. They had to build platforms over the wells so the animals wouldn't fall in.

The old school, built in 1904, is supposedly now haunted. Elva attended there, and said that on some occasions the teachers would have to live at the students' homes and rotate through the class members. If the teacher was staying at your home, you would have to go to the school early in the winter and light the fires so the building could warm up.

The general store has been closed for several years. When Elva was a little girl, an outlaw came to Wallsburg frequently because there was no sheriff. He came to the store while she was there and told her mother, "One day I'm going to kidnap your little girl." She also saw her first Negro at the store.

People used to cut trees down from the mountains in order to have heat for their houses and fuel for their stoves. Now, since those needs are obsolete, the trees from the mountains are used in the wood mill to make furniture and other items.

Elva liked to swim in the swimming hole and swing from the trees on her and her neighbors' properties.