USU Student Folklore Project Dedicates Historical Marker in Mendon

LOGAN — The 2026 Mendon May Day Celebration was the town’s 163rd maypole event — or was it? Folklorists at Utah State University have recently helped bring awareness not only to the event itself, but also to the question of when and how the Mendon tradition started and just exactly how long it’s been going on.

“We had to reach out to a lot of different people in a lot of different places and ask some questions about this,” said Emily Kovacic, a Master of Folklore student who had graduated a day ahead of the celebration. “That is a very contested date, it turns out.”

Every May, typically on the first Saturday, residents of Mendon, Utah gather in the town’s park to watch this annual tradition unfold. Accompanied by a local pianist, the maypole dancers — young girls in the community who rehearse for several weeks — braid colorful ribbon around wooden poles through a series of coordinated steps and arm movements. It is said that this traditional celebration likely arrived with some of Mendon’s earliest European settlers.

The event on May 2 celebrated ribbons in two forms: the familiar but intricate ribbon dances and, afterward, a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The eastern edge of the park is now home to a historic marker installed to commemorate a tradition that has been taking place in the small Cache Valley town for more than 150 years. The marker, which reads, “To celebrate spring and the May Queen, young girls have woven bright ribbons around maypoles in the park as early as 1863,” was made possible by the research and work of USU folklore students.

Kovacic was one of several students who worked with the William G. Pomeroy Foundation and Mendon city officials to secure a “Legends & Lore” roadside marker.

“At first it was very research-heavy, because we were putting together the grant, and then after that, for a year now, it's been sort of on-and-off communicating with people to get this to in the ground,” Kovacic said.

Mendon Mayor Ed Buist called the marker “a great way to look back, to honor, to understand, to continue where we're at now in the tradition and to share it with our future generations.”

He said working with Utah State not only made sense for the many residents with connections to the university — Buist formerly worked at USU — but also strengthened a sense of community and connection around an event so ingrained in local history that it even continued, albeit in a modified way, during the COVID pandemic.

And it seems Mendon residents, known as “Mendonians” or “Mendonites” by some who call it home, are not the only ones benefiting from this new addition.

“It's easy to separate pieces of folklore from their community contexts and look at them as interesting artifacts, but this is the reality of what folklore does in people's lives,” said Lynne McNeill, associate professor of folklore at USU. “And for our students to be able to commemorate it and document it and recognize it … is a better lesson than we could ever offer if we stayed in the classroom.”

McNeill and colleague Afsane Rezaei described the Mendon marker project as giving students opportunities to develop skills in grant writing, archival research, government relations and project coordination.

“We kind of just see a sign, but we don't see all the work that has been behind it,” McNeill said.

Ian Nemelka is a Mendon resident who wears many hats. A College of Arts & Sciences alum who now works for USU Student Involvement & Leadership, Nemelka became aware of the folkloric interest in Mendon as the advisor for student clubs.

“When you come here on May Day, it's very obvious to see … this is what we do. But if you come to Mendon on the other 364 days of the year, you would never really know that we have a May Day, and now hopefully everyone will get to know,” said Nemelka, who served as a Mendon city councilman until last year and worked directly with Kovacic and two other students — Seth Callor and Drake Hansen — on their successful grant application.

Working with the students, Nemelka said, both in his capacity as a club advisor and as a local official, exemplified USU’s land-grant mission.

“We've got the things that we learned in the classroom, which are absolutely necessary, but to put it into practice into something like this, something real, something tangible, not only helps them learn on the job … but it also enhances the community, beautifies it [and] increases the relationship and connection,” he said.

It was the perfect opportunity, he said, to see the students take initiative on behalf of a nearby community and practice real-world skills along the way.

The Mendon May Day marker is the second “Legends & Lore” marker to be successfully funded and erected through the work of students at Utah State. In April 2025, a Bear Lake Monster marker was added in Garden City.

“Everyone in Mendon knows about this,” McNeill said. “They don't need a sign to commemorate it. Those of us who aren't from Mendon get to come here and learn about this and ask questions and connect with people. And so, it's a real effort at connection.”

Assistant Professor Rezaei agreed.

“We have a lot of legends around here. We have a lot more to do, and we hope to be able to add more signs in the future,” she said.

Have a local legend or folklore to share? Professor Jeannie Thomas oversees USU’s Pomeroy Foundation partnership: jeannie.thomas@usu.edu.