History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

CEDAR CITY. 317
ham urged the people to buy up the Lamanite children
as rapidly as possible, and educate them in the gospel,
for though they would fade away, yet a remnant of
the seed of Joseph would be saved. 30
At Cedar City—or, as it was then called, Cedar
Fort—seventeen miles to the south-west of Parowan,
a furnace was built in 1852, but at the close of the
year stood idle for lack of hands. 37
Here, in May 1851,
coal had been discovered near what was then known
as the Little Muddy, now Coal Creek. In November
of that year the site was occupied 33 by a company
from Parowan. The winter was passed amid some
privation, mainly from lack of warm clothing; but
on the 30th of January a dry-goods pedler making
his appearance— probably the first who had ventured
so far south into the land of the Utahs—the settlers
were soon clad in comfort. 39
In October it was resolved
to move the settlement to a point farther to
the west and south, and before the end of the year a
number of iron-workers and farmers arrived from Salt
Lake City. 40
In 1851 a party under Simeon A. Carter, sent to
explore the country north of Ogden, founded a small
settlement at Box Elder Creek. 41 The soil was of the
36
Hist. B. Young, MS., 1851, 46. On the same page is mentioned the
first use in the country of the stone-coal at Parowan, used in blacksmith
work.
37 George A. Smith, in Frontier Guardian, Aug. 8, 1851, and in Deseret
News, Dec. 11, 1S52.
38 This valley had been explored as early as 1847. In December of that
year, a party of the pioneers passed through it, as already mentioned, on
their way to California to purchase live-stock and provisions.
39 Building progressed rapidly, and during the following summer one Burr
Frost, a blacksmith from Parowan, started the manufacture of iron, making
nails enough to shoe a hovse. Deseret News, Nov. 27, 1852.
40 John Urie, in Utah Sketches, MS., 93-4. See also Deseret News, July
24, 1852. The scarcity of nails hindered building. "Workmen were brough.';
from England to manufacture them from native ore, but the experiment failed;
as the work could not be done on a sufficiently large scale to make it profitable,
and it was abandoned. Years later, when the soldiers were ordered away
from Camp Floyd, the settlers bought old iron cheap, and nails were manufactured
to advantage. The price in market then was 30 or 40 cts a lb.;
afterward the railroad brought them in and they were sold at 3 to 5 cents a
pound.
41 About GO miles north of Salt Lake City. A. Christensen, in Utah Sketchest
MS., 102.