Owyhee Monuments

     Have you ever been travelling through farmland when an odd wooden tower grabs your eye? They're actually quite common. Surprising considering that I don't know of anyone who uses them anymore. It's called a Hay Derrick and, not surprisingly, its use involved hay.
     Back in the days before the baler was invented (and for quite some time thereafter) folks stacked their hay "long." That's the traditional hay stack that you see that looks like a big pile or loaf of grass. It involves more than just piling, though I'm not sure exactly what is done. The method used makes the hay last longer. I only knew of one family in the area that still put their hay up this way, and they've recently quit the farming and ranching business. They also didn't use derricks but instead used loaders. Everyone else I know of uses balers.

     It should be apparent from this picture that a hay derrick is a form of crane. The word derrick actually just means: a framework.
     Back before hydraulics became the way to move things, cables were the way to go. You can see a bunch here, but in operation, a derrick would have even more. The ends of the cables would often be attached to horses who would pull here and there to move the derrick around.
     So here's the picture. After cutting the hay, men would put the hay on a wagon or slip and bring it to the derrick, where they'd pick up the hay with this:

     Just one of many ways to move hay, this fearsome rig is just for picking up hay, so no need to have nightmares. The intricate shape above the hook would have had more cables attached to it. Depending on which one you pull, you could use these cables and the rig to pick up the hay and then turn the derrick and dump the hay, making nice big haystacks. The taller the haystack, the less useful ground it covers.
     Hay derricks were hard work, and as you can guess, dangerous. So it's not surprising that, for the most part, hay growers have moved towards more mechanized methods. But for some reason, they seem to have some sentimentality about the old derricks. I think they leave the up as monuments to those who came before. They're full of memories, of fathers and grandfathers and the sweet smell of newly cut hay.