Iron County is located in southwestern Utah. The county seat is Parowan. The 2010 census counted 46,163 residents.
Important Fremont Culture sites dating from the period between 750 and 1250 A.D. are found in the vicinity of Parowan. The Southern Paiute tribal headquarters is located in Cedar City. Early Anglo-European visitors to Iron County include the usual cast of characters that are found wandering around in Utah in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Franciscan fathers Escalante and Dominguiz in 1776, Jedediah Smith in 1826 and 1827, and John C. Fremont in 1844 and 1854. Fremont's second visit is worth mention because he would have died from exposure had it not been for the hospitality of some of the early settlers in Parowan.
Early Mormon interest in Iron County was focused on the iron deposits that were discovered there. A considerable effort was made to establish a viable source of iron for the new Mormon State of Deseret. The ore was mined, a crude smelter established, and some iron products were successfully produced, but the effort quickly proved to be a failure. Today, Old Iron Town is an interesting tourist attraction. Militiamen from Iron County perpetrated the massacre at Mountain Meadows in nearby Washington County, in 1852. Cedar Breaks National Monument was established in 1933. A rustic lodge was built in the park in 1924. In 1972, the lodge was determined to be uneconomical to operate and it was torn down. The public uproar was loud enough that it was decided that all of the other lodges in the park system would be kept regardless of their profitability or lack thereof.
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