Editing Cedar City, Utah (section)

==History==
{{further|Cedar City Historic District}}
[[File:Cedar City-- 1902 (53198185943).png|thumb|left|View of Cedar City, 1902]]
The presence of prehistoric people in the Cedar City area is revealed by [[rock art]] found in [[Parowan Gap]] to the north and [[Fremont culture|Fremont]] sites dated to A.D. 1000 and 1300. Ancestors of the present-day [[Southern Paiute people]] met the [[Domínguez–Escalante expedition]] in this area in 1776. Fifty years later, in 1826, [[mountain man]] and fur trader [[Jedediah Smith]] traveled through the area, exploring a route from Utah to [[California]].

Cedar City was originally settled in late 1851 by [[Mormon pioneers]] originating from [[Parowan, Utah]], who were sent to build an [[iron works]].<ref>{{Citation | last = Shirts | first = Morris A. | title = Utah History Encyclopedia | publisher = University of Utah Press | year = 1994 | chapter = The Iron Mission | chapter-url = https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/i/IRON_MISSION.shtml | url = https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240321170200/https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/i/IRON_MISSION.shtml | archive-date = March 21, 2024 | isbn =9780874804256 | access-date = May 15, 2024}}</ref> The site, known as "Fort Cedar" or "Cedar City," was equidistant from vast iron deposits {{convert|10|mi|0}} west and coal resources {{convert|10|mi|0}} east up Cedar Canyon, but was named after the abundant local trees (which are not cedars but [[juniper]]s). Two companies of men led by Henry Lunt reached the fort site in a blizzard on November 11, 1851, making that date the official founding. In 1855, a new site, closer to the iron works and out of the flood plain of Coal Creek,<ref>{{Cite gnis|1439835|Coal Creek}}</ref> was established at the suggestion of [[Brigham Young]]. A furnace operated from September 1852 for three years, producing about 25 tons of [[pig iron]], using iron [[ore]] deposits located in the [[Iron Mountain District]].<ref name="Full1968">{{cite book |last1=Mackin |first1=J. |editor1-last=Ridge |editor1-first=John |title=Iron Ore Deposits of the Iron Springs District, Southwestern Utah, in Ore deposits of the United States, 1933-1967 |date=1968 |publisher=The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc. |location=New York |pages=992–1019}}</ref> 
[[File: Cedar City Utah Temple.jpg|thumb|upright|Cedar City Temple]]
Cedar City was incorporated on February 18, 1868.

The ironworks closed in 1858, though mining continued in the area until the 1980s. The completion of a railroad connection to Cedar City in 1923 established the area as a tourism gateway to nearby [[Bryce Canyon National Park]], [[Zion National Park]], [[Grand Canyon National Park]], and [[Cedar Breaks National Monument]]. Cedar City continues to be a center of tourism, commercial development, education, and the arts in southwestern Utah.

The city has shared in the rapid growth of much of southwestern Utah since the late 1980s.

On December 10, 2017, the [[Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] dedicated its [[Cedar City Utah Temple]].