From 1989 to 1991, two co-sponsors, the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies and the Ashley National Forest, worked in conjunction with Eric G. Swedin, a graduate student at Utah State University, to collect historical information on the Swett homestead. The information contained in this collection is a result of Swedin’s undertaking to create biographical information on the Swett family and their experiences on the Swett Ranch.

Those interviewed were eight of the nine living children of Oscar and Emma Swett: Mary Elizabeth Swett Arrowsmith, Irma Eliza Swett Toone, Merne Swett Moore, Wilda Swett Irish, Idabell Swett Robinson, Myrle Augusta Swett Moore, Lewis Lyman Swett, and Verla Swett Bursen.

Collection 283 consists of one box with seventeen folders containing a Catalogue of Artifacts & Photographic Record and the typescripts of eight oral history interviews conducted during 1989 and 1990. The Catalogue of Artifacts & Photographic Record gives basic information on what artifacts and photos are contained on-site at the Swett Living History Museum. For each of the eight oral history interviews, there is an original and edited transcript of each interview. The interviews are organized chronologically.