AMERICAN FORK — On a farm in American Fork, surrounded by green fields and the smell of sweet alfalfa, it's easy to forget that less than a mile away, thousands of cars are crowding I-15.
But for Cassie Allred, whose family has farmed 120 acres since 1920, those cars — that sound like a constant hum — are a constant reminder that someday, her family heritage could be replaced by a road.
Until that happens, Allred and her family are ready to try and weather the storm, just like her great-grandmother did when there was the Great Depression, or like her grandfather did when the Mexican beetles came. Each time, Allred's family kept farming, and that's the way she intends to continue.
"My earliest memory is going outside the house and my mom went down to get the eggs," Allred said. "I remember shelling peas and snapping beans when I was tiny, and I loved the fall, when they had the potatoes and onions. I used to sleep on top of the potato bags while everyone worked."
Allred loves to reminisce about the good old days when her Great-grandmother Bessie Hunting bought this farm with her husband, James. Allred's home is filled with family heirlooms, from the old butter-churn that Bessie used to process cream, to the wooden ice-box that kept food cool because the family didn't have electricity.
It's all part of what makes Allred's farm worth being included in a Brigham Young University library historical study, which will subsequently be registered with the Library of Congress.
The study is focusing on agrarian culture, said Kristi Young, curator of the Wilson Folklore Archives at BYU. Young said she'll be interviewing farmers of heritage farms and long-term family farms to help preserve the history of agriculture in Utah County.
"All of the field notes that are done, all of the transcripts of the tapes, all of that will be archived here at BYU," Young said. "This study helps us get a better picture for what was going on in Utah County at certain times for certain subjects. It will be very valuable to families and researchers who are looking into what was happening at this time period; it will be very valuable for the public record."
Most of the family's historical relics are housed in buildings that once stored potatoes during the fall. Allred is quick to uncover aging photographs of her relatives that were taken a century ago. She tells stories of how her great-grandfather followed a hunch and planted sugar beets on all of his land.
As a result, Hunting earned enough money to pay for the farm in one year, during the Great Depression, because the beets were so popular.
Over the years, the farm produced vegetables, eggs, butter and beets, but as time passed, Allred says the cost of farming grew, and now barley and alfalfa are the only products that make a profit.
Someday, if bio-diesel become more popular, Allred said she might grow only corn.
"Farming is not profitable right now," Allred said. "You've got to love farming and love the land. I have everything I want, and I don't need any more."
Allred says she gets letters every week from developers who want to buy her land, which is near Main Street in American Fork. The area is booming, and land is valuable and scarce, but Allred says she won't sell her farm to anyone for any price.
Besides, if Allred stops farming her land before 2014, the federal government would demand a $1 million tax penalty, plus interest, due immediately.
She won't even sell to Utah's Department of Transportation, Allred says. The department is considering building a five-lane road through the land as a connection between American Fork Main Street and Redwood Road. Because of a multitude of traffic problems in the area, UDOT is also considering building an interchange at Main Street that would run through part of the property, but no final decisions have yet been made.
"We'll get pushed out some day," says Neal Allred, Cassie's husband. But they don't intend to leave any time soon.
E-mail: achoate@desnews.com