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History and
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HISTORY
Iron County is a study in contrast
from its arid western reaches of Escalante Desert and Great Basin
ranges to the meadows and forests of the High Plateau on the east. The
Markagunt Plateau is creased by the colorful formations of Cedar Breaks
National Monument, a kind of miniature Bryce Canyon. Brian Head (11,307
feet), named for a profile resembling William Jennings Bryan, rises
abruptly behind Iron County's major string of settlements and extracts
a toll of precipitation from passing westerlies to feed the headwaters
of the Sevier River.
Parowan Valley was home to the Fremont people who constructed granaries
and pit houses dating from about A.D. 750 to 1250. An unusual variety
of petroglyphs of different periods were pecked into the stone of
Parowan Gap about 12 miles northwest of Parowan. Cedar City is the
tribal headquarters of the modern Southern Paiute Indian Reservation.
Their ancestors used the plants and animals of the basin/plateau
environment in a complex seasonal pattern. The Dominguez-Escalante
expedition traveled through the area on October 12, 1776, on its
unsuccessful search for a route to central California. Fur trapper
Jedediah S. Smith was the first Anglo-American to visit present Iron
County during his amazing journey of 1826. Mormon settlers dispatched
by Brigham Young established Parowan in January 1851 as the mother
colony of the southern frontier. Cedar City (originally Coal Creek) was
founded the same year. Several pioneer log homes remain in the county
as well as some English two-bay log barns now very rare in the state.
Coal in the canyons east of Cedar City and
iron ore in the mountains west inspired the early Iron Mission that
proved marginally successful as a pioneer attempt at self-sufficiency.
Modern mining and transportation turned Iron toward a new era befitting
the county name. Old Iron Town still has a fine beehive cooking oven
among its ruins. The west end of the county also has some historic and
current precious metal mining. The Escalante Desert has changed its
name to Escalante Valley, reflecting the rich irrigation agriculture of
hay, small grains, and potatoes.
Iron County has a more balanced and broadly based economy than most of rural Utah. Located on Interstate 15, Cedar City is 500 miles from Los Angeles, 180 miles from Las Vegas, and 260 miles from Salt lake, and about midway between L.A. and Denver via I-70. Its location and size have made it a regional trade center and supplier of services. The concessionaire for nearby national parks (an edge of Zion is in the county) has offices here, as do regional offices of the Bureau of Land Management, Dixie National Forest, and Utah Wildlife Resources. A railroad spur and regional airline still serve the city. A rocket motor fuel plant is under construction. A very good four-year liberal arts college, Southern Utah State, combined with a peerless Shakespearean Festival in the summer make Cedar City an attractive stop for some of the more than one million people who annually pass through.
Source: Utah Counties, 1988, Utah State Historical Society
Contributed by Sandy Denney
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