Swallow's Nest

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

From the record

“The Swallow's Nest, also known as the Albert Robison Lyman Study, is a small sandstone building in Blanding, Utah. It was built in 1925 by Albert Robison Lyman as a retreat for writing.”
Wikipedia article Swallow's Nest (Blanding, Utah), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 23 National Register listings published here for San Juan County · listed in 1996 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 2 N. Grayson Pkwy., Blanding, 84511
When was it listed? February 1996
Category. building
Census division. Blanding
National Register reference number. 96000164 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

206 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 206 fires within 5 miles of Swallow's Nest between 1992 and 2020, burning about 251 acres in total. 153 started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Natural	153
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	21
Debris and open burning	16
Recreation and ceremony	7
Misuse of fire by a minor	5
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Arson/incendiarism	1
Fireworks	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 2005	Natural	under an acre	Moab Field Office	MORNING TH
8 September 2000	Natural	under an acre	Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands	LAWS RANCH
8 September 1995	Natural	under an acre	Moab Field Office	BIGCNY2
6 September 2015	Natural	under an acre	Moab Field Office	RECAPTURE CREEK
30 September 2005	Natural	under an acre	Moab Field Office	POWDERHOUS
29 September 2000	Natural	under an acre	Moab Field Office	OVERCAST
26 September 2020	Debris and open burning	1.1 acres	Southeast Area	BLUE MOUNTAIN ROAD
20 September 2009	Natural	under an acre	Moab Field Office	KIRBY

Every fire recorded in San Juan County

Mines and quarries near this property

6 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Swallow's Nest: 4 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Limestone, Sandstone
Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Surface
Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Gravel Pit # 19026	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer	Limestone, Sandstone
Utah Dept of Highways Pit No 19026	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in San Juan County

Storms near this property

17 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Blanding, the town this property stands in, in 17 storm reports between 1998 and 2020: 5 wildfire, 5 hail, 3 flash flood, 2 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
June 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Blanding	$175,000	no account filed
June 2015	Flash Flood	Blanding	$30,000	Heavy rainfall resulted in a flash flood within Arch Canyon with fast moving water at least four feet deep. An SUV that was parked along the Arch Canyon Trail road was carried down the canyon about 2.2 miles. The people who owned the SUV were camped on higher ground and had to hike out of the canyon for assistance after the flood waters subsided.
September 2013	Hail	Blanding	$20,000	Large hail damaged a number of vehicles and broke windows.
June 2020	Hail	Blanding	-	A severe thunderstorm produced large hail estimated to be the size of half dollars west-northwest of Blanding.
June 2020	Hail	Blanding	-	A severe thunderstorm produced large hail measured to be the size of golf balls in Blanding.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Blanding	-	The Blanding Cooperative Observer estimated a peak wind gust of 75 mph.
October 2015	Hail	Blanding	-	Quarter-sized hail pounded an area near Blanding for about five minutes.
September 2013	Hail	Blanding	-	Quarter size hail fell along Highway 191 about seven miles north of Blanding as reported by the sheriff's office.
July 2007	Heavy Rain	Blanding	-	Thunderstorms produced heavy rain in the Cedar Point area in extreme east central San Juan County. 0.57 inches of rain was measured from the event, with most of the rainfall occurring in a 30 minute period.
September 2005	Flash Flood	Blanding	-	no account filed
June 2003	Wildfire	Blanding	-	no account filed
September 2003	Heavy Rain	Blanding	-	no account filed
July 2003	Wildfire	Blanding	-	no account filed
July 2003	Wildfire	Blanding	-	no account filed
July 2002	Wildfire	Blanding	-	no account filed
July 2000	Wildfire	Blanding	-	no account filed
July 1998	Flash Flood	Blanding	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in San Juan County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

1 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	Edge of Cedars Indian Ruin	1.0 miles	1971

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 96000164 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
San Juan County	All 23 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.