The Old Settlers "Swallows Nest"

Tucked near the Blanding Visitor Center is a small sandstone building with an outsized connection to the history of southeastern Utah. Known as “Swallows Nest,” it served as the private writing retreat of Albert R. Lyman. Lyman and his family were among the earliest permanent settlers of the community that eventually became Blanding. In 1905, Albert and his wife, Mary Ellen “Lell” Perkins Lyman, came to White Mesa and began the difficult work of establishing a home and farm. The settlement was first known as Grayson and later became Blanding. Over the following decades, Lyman became much more than a settler. He worked as a rancher, educator, religious leader, historian, and writer. He served as San Juan County Superintendent of Schools and spent years teaching both school and seminary. Lyman was deeply interested in preserving the stories of southeastern Utah. He kept extensive journals and wrote histories, biographies, fiction, and a regular newspaper column under the name “The Old Settler.” Finding quiet time to write while raising a large family was difficult, so Lyman created a small one-room sandstone retreat on his property. He called it “Swallows Nest.” When he went inside to write, he reportedly raised a flag as a signal that he did not want to be disturbed. Within this humble retreat, Lyman recorded memories and stories of the people and events that shaped San Juan County. His writings became an important record of pioneer settlement and life in southeastern Utah. Swallows Nest was preserved rather than disappearing as Blanding developed around it. In 2017, the Daughters of Utah Pioneers dedicated a historical marker at the cabin, recognizing both the building and the legacy of the man who wrote there. Today, the tiny sandstone structure remains a physical connection to Albert R. Lyman and to the early history of Blanding.

The settlement that became Blanding developed on White Mesa in the early 1900s as families sought to establish a permanent agricultural community in southeastern Utah. Albert R. Lyman and his family arrived in 1905 and were among the community’s earliest permanent settlers. The settlement was initially known as Grayson before eventually taking the name Blanding. Lyman witnessed the transformation of the area from a small pioneer settlement into an established community. He participated in that development as a farmer, educator, religious leader, and writer. His interest in local history became especially important because he personally knew many of the settlers whose experiences he documented. Through decades of journals, histories, biographies, newspaper writing, and books, Lyman preserved accounts of life on the San Juan frontier that might otherwise have disappeared. Swallows Nest was the quiet place where much of that work took shape. Its survival provides a tangible connection between modern Blanding and one of the people who helped document its beginnings.