Thursday, November 20, 2014

Frontier Homestead State Park, Cedar City, UT; May 19, 2014

Kanarraville, UT; April 27 – June 9, 2014

We headed out to the Parowan Cemetery, Petroglyphs, and Heritage Park this morning, but stopped at the Frontier Homestead Park for information. We never got to Parowan today. The Frontier Homestead was so interesting and had so many hands-on learning activities for kids (and adults) that it must be a local favorite.

The Frontier Homestead celebrates Cedar City's history, which began when iron was discovered and Brigham Young called on some of the Brothers to mine the iron ore and build a new town, now called Cedar City.

We were told when we arrived that we needed an hour to see everything and it took us two and a half hours, which was no surprise since we like to read the signs, ask questions, and talk about what we remember seeing as kids.

We started out inside the building where an old Ford Model A resided along with various carriages, surreys, a couple of stagecoaches, a dairy delivery truck, and a hearse. There were also milk-cream separators, a couple of platen presses, a big paper cutter, a huge stapler, two weaving looms, and some artwork by local artists. There was also a Graphotype, used from October 1928 to January 1966 to make military dog tags and other metal tags and cards – something I had never seen before.

Outside, there are a number of hands-on areas: gold panning, washing clothes in wash tub with a plunger-like tool for an agitator, roping cattle, and building a cabin. In addition, we saw a couple of original houses, lots of old farm equipment, a sawmill, palisade, an old jail, a very old snowmobile, a sheep shearing shed, and a replica of a blast furnace.


The Frontier Homestead was interesting and chock full of information and activities, and you couldn't ask for more knowledgeable or pleasant staff.

Roping practice

Palisade play area









Blast Furnace

Blast Furnace

Sawmill

Man Cave


Sheep shearing barn

Desert Alphabet

Desert Alphabet

Old jail cell - notice the two fold down "cots" on the sides


Washday

Washday - I could use the wringer when I do hand washing...

Washday - used to agitate clothes


Fancy hearse


Wood burning of John Wayne

Snowmobile

Stagecoach

Mountain Wagon

Graphotype

One big paper cutter

Platen press






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