Historical societies are located throughout the state of Utah.  Each county receives funding from the state to help preserve local history and historic sites.  In San Juan County materials are located both at the county courthouse in Monticello, and at the Edge of the Cedars museum in Blanding.  Here are some of the materials you might find at your county historical commission's office.  Check with your county government to see if where these resources are located.

Collections often include historical books, reference materials,  tapes, videos, photos, and manuscripts.  Often Historical Societies maintain a repository where personal collections, and memorabilia have been donated, and are preserved and protected.

Copy stands are used to copy photographs and other materials.  Historical Commissions often have a 35 mm camera, video camera, tape recorders, microphones, a computer and printer to aid in historic preservation.

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Historical Magazines

Many commissions throughout the state publish historical magazines.  For example, issues of Blue Mountain Shadow are housed at the Edge of the Cedars Museum in the office maintained by the San Juan County Historical Commission.  Find out if your county has published history magazines.
File Cabinets contain indexed manuscripts and photographs for easy access.

Historical Societies have large collections of photographs which are labeled and indexed so that they can be easily accessed.  Copies can be made using a copy stand, or the photo collection may be digitally saved and accessed on-line using a data base.  Do you think your county's historical commission might have photographs you could use?

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Oral Interviews

Historical Commissions often are engaged in oral interview projects.  For example,
The San Juan County Historical Commission has over 700 oral histories which have been recorded on cassette tape.  They have been indexed and put onto a searchable data base.  Most of these were conducted by juniors working on history fair projects, 1986-1999.  Recently over 60 reel to reel Navajo oral interviews done in the1970's were also indexed and pressed onto CD's.  Find out where your county houses oral interviews.