Old Iron Town

Posted in Free Activities / Museums
Updated October 14, 2018

Old Iron Town is located twenty miles west of Cedar City. It features a short hike past the ruins of a retired iron factory. There are a lot of interpretive signs along the way, which helped us learn about the history of the operation. Historic Old Iron Town is a part of Iron Mission State Park in Cedar City (now known as Frontier Homestead State Park).

To access Old Iron Town, drive west on Highway 56. This road takes you to a signed road leading to Iron Town, which has a few new, occupied homes. There is a small parking area with a donation box at the site.

The old beehive shaped oven is the first thing you see as you enter the ruins. You can actually walk right in the oven and look around. Make sure to read each sign to get the history of the oven and the reason for the hole in the back. There used to be two ovens, but one fell down because of age a few years ago.

The Beehive Oven is so neat to see, especially because you can walk inside.

This is the window cut into the top of the oven.

There is a small loop trail that begins next to the beehive oven. The trail is about three-quarters of a mile and winds around the back of the oven. It is fairly flat and passes ruins of an old house. We saw cottontails and jackrabbits along the way, so keep your eyes peeled. Honestly, other than the old house, there aren’t a lot of ruins to see on the full loop, so you could skip it, but the hike is short and nice. There are a few rocky sections, so it’s not flat or wheel friendly.

You can head either direction on the loop trail. We walked behind the oven to start.

Soon you’ll come to this old ruined house.

There are some rocky parts, so no wheels. But the trail is easy.

Eventually, you end up back over toward the ovens. There is another small loop that takes you to some other ruins. It is much smaller so definitely take time for it. There are some artifacts including a chimney, an old forge hood, and a grinding machine for breaking up rocks. The signs were a great help as we learned about this area of Old Iron Town.

We enjoyed all the different types of ruins to see at Old Iron Town.

This is an old iron hood still laying on the site.

The chimney is still standing and looks great.

This is a piece of iron that was never processed at the mine.

Old Iron Town is worth the trip from Cedar City, especially if you have visited Frontier Homestead State Park. It is easy to find, and the ruins are interesting to see.

We visited the ruins in the evening and caught this beautiful sunset as we left Old Iron Town.

Directions

From Cedar City, head west on UT-56 for approximately 20 miles. Turn south onto Old Iron Town Rd. Travel the gravel road for approximately five miles to the Old Iron Town ruins located on the left hand side. There are plenty of signs along the way, so it would be difficult to get lost.