Fort Cedar

The men who came to make iron had first to survive the winter. Thirty-five of them arrived from Parowan in November 1851 and threw together a shelter of wagon boxes and sagebrush to get through the cold. By 1853 they had walled themselves properly in: a fort a hundred rods on a side, its earthen walls nine feet tall and three feet thick at the base, enclosing sixty-three acres and a platted town of a hundred and twenty lots. Cedar City grew up inside those walls, and this marker stands at the fort's southwest corner.

What the plaque says

Daughters of Utah Pioneers No. 222 Erected 1956 Fort Cedar In November 1851 thirty five men from Parowan settled Cedar City. A unique temporary encampment composed of their wagon boxes and sage brush walls sheltered them through the first winter. In 1853 a fort 100 rods square was built on this site. Its walls were 3 feet wide at the base, 9 feet high and 1 foot wide on top. It covered 63 acres. A city plat of 120 lots was laid out inside the walls. This monument stands on the southwest corner of the fort, beside the John D. Lee gate. Camps, Iron Mission Aunt Margaret Iron County, Utah

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Brian Head — 13 mi
  Utah's highest town — a ski-and-bike base camp at the top of Parowan Canyon
• Parowan Gap Petroglyphs — 13 mi
  An ancient rock art gallery hidden in a desert canyon
• Cedar Breaks National Monument — 13 mi
  A 2,000-foot-deep amphitheater of vivid orange and red rock
• Kolob Canyons — 17 mi
  The quiet, uncrowded back door to Zion National Park

More markers nearby

• The Founders and Old Sorrel Statue — 0.9 mi
• Pioneer Cabin — 0.9 mi
• The Founders’ Rescue Wagon — 1.0 mi
• The Old Iron Foundry — 1.1 mi