Frontier Homestead State Park Museum

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Imagine life as a Utah pioneer. A day might include running the farm, mining for iron, or milling timber. The Frontier Homestead State Park Museum takes a peek into 1850s Cedar City when Brigham Young sent Mormon missionaries to mine and process iron. Visitors to this state park learn about the development of Utah’s Iron County while exploring historic buildings, engaging in hands-on activities or taking part in community education.

Exhibits

Step back in time and discover how Mormon settlers lived and worked. Cedar City’s oldest remaining home, Hunter House, still stands here, as does the state’s fifth oldest structure, The George Wood cabin. This 1851 cabin was built in Parowan but was moved to the Old Cedar Fort by the original owner George Wood. The cabin was moved two more times before finding a permanent home at Frontier Homestead.

Use your smartphone to launch a 60-stop, guided audio tour of the park’s artifacts and exhibits. Learn about the trains, tractors, farm equipment and stagecoaches from the era, as well Cedar City’s history of tourism dating back to the 1900s as the gateway to Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park, “America’s Most Colorful National Parks.”

Using your smartphone, you can launch a 60-stop, guided audio tour of the park’s artifacts and exhibits.

Photo: Matt Morgan

Try out farming just like the Mormon pioneers.

Visit the frontier schoolhouse to try your hand at the Deseret alphabet.

Photo: Utah State Parks

Activities

Give pioneer life a try with hands-on activities. Imagine living or working inside a tiny pioneer cabin where you weave a rug on a 100-year-old loom or print paper on a 19th-century printing press. Kids can farm, pan for gold, make puppets, or even shear sheep. When done, shop for books or unique gifts inside Frontier Homestead’s boutique, a modern-day mercantile.

Special Events

More community center than museum, Frontier Homestead creates a rotating lineup of community events like story time, fruit-tree grafting, water conservancy education and poetry workshops, many of which are offered in partnership with Southern Utah University.

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A Confluence of Pioneer and Native American Heritage in Southwestern Utah

Written By Sarah Braun

5 minute read

Home to the historical Iron Mission, Cedar City’s rich pioneer heritage is encapsulated at the Frontier Homestead State Park Museum.

Hiking, Northern, Mountain Biking, Southeastern, Southwestern, Diversity & Inclusion, She Travels, Climbing and Canyoneering

When You Go

Frontier Homestead State Park Museum is open year-round, except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Operating hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday (September to May) and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Sunday (June to August). The park is located at 635 North Main Street in Cedar City, Utah. Learn more about special programs and events at frontierhomestead.org. For more information, call (435) 586-9290 or email frontierhomestead@utah.gov.