In 1970 former Utah State University president Daryl Chase envisioned a farm that would showcase agriculture "throughout the ages." His idea began to take fruition when former USU agriculture student Ronald V. Jensen purchased the 120 acre Grant Hill farm outside of Wellsville, Utah and donated the farm to be used as a living historical farm. Historical buildings from across Cache Valley were donated and relocated to the new farm and in some cases duplications were built based on local models. A collection of historical farm equipment displayed at the Man and His Bread Museum on campus was also relocated to the new historical farm to aid in educating the public on the progression of agriculture.

Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, the Jensen Farm underwent numerous personnel changes and financial difficulties that threatened to shut it down. In 1985 folklore professor Jay Anderson was hired as the director of the Farm, a position he held from 1985 to 1993. Dr. Anderson oversaw a newly created Master's degree program where he and graduate students collected historical information on such items as dress, foods, crops, livestock, etc. to make the farm more historically accurate. In the late 1990s the Festival of the American West, previously held on the USU campus, was relocated to the museum site. The American West Heritage Center, a non-profit entity, was created and USU stopped administering the program.



Sources: Alm Anderson, Jan. Bounty. Boulder, Colorado: Pruett, 1990. Mohai, Caroline E. The History of the Ronald V. Jensen Living Historical Farm and Man and His Bread Museum. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 1987. The Wm. Bruce Crane Historic Photograph Collection of Cache Valley 1890-1920, 1992. COLL MSS 236, Box 51, Folder 1.