Both the middle bedroom and the northeast bedroom on this floor were probably at one time or another the rooms of hired girls. They would come to Pipe Spring to work off their debts to the Church for having paid their passage from Europe to America, or from the east coast to Utah.

The rooms also saw a good many visitors, for the wagon road between St. George, Utah, and Kanab, Utah, ran right between the fort and the present location of the ponds. It was never known in advance how many people might be staying the night at Pipe Spring. And, as you'll learn in the southeast bedroom segment of the tour, these two rooms played an important role as a safe house for protecting polygamists in the late 1880s.

When unexpected guests arrived, the "Mormon couch" might be pressed into service. (An example is shown above in the middle of the photo.)

Winsor Castle has several examples of this precursor of today's "hide-a-bed." During the day, this piece of furniture masqueraded as a couch. But at night, it could be slid apart on a system of slats, and became a large double bed.

In the middle and southeast bedrooms are also fine examples of an art called faux graining the Mormons brought from Europe . Having no access to hard woods, they would mimic the grain of oak, ash, maple, and other woods, even though they were working primarily with pine. The grain on the backboard of the Mormon couch above is all painted on, as is the grain on the bed in the northeast bedroom.