Iron County is a county in southwestern Utah, United States. As of the

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servin ...

, the population was 46,163. Its county seat is

Parowan Parowan ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Iron County, Utah, United States. The population was 2,790 at the 2010 census, and in 2018 the estimated population was 3,100. Parowan became the first incorporated city in Iron County in 1851. A ...

, and the largest city is Cedar City. The Cedar City, UT Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Iron County.

History

Evidence of

Fremont culture The Fremont culture or Fremont people is a pre-Columbian archaeological culture which received its name from the Fremont River in the U.S. state of Utah, where the culture's sites were discovered by local indigenous peoples like the Navajo and Ute ...

habitation ranging from 750 to 1250 AD exists in present Iron County.

Petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s of differing periods were carved into the walls of

Parowan Gap Parowan Valley, originally known as the Little Salt Lake Valley, is a basin in Iron County, Utah, United States. Description Its lowest point is at in the Little Salt Lake. Fremont Wash, Red Creek, Parowan Creek and other tributaries all dr ...

NW of Parowan. Paiutes roamed the Parowan Valley in the centuries before Euro-American exploration; their descendants are now represented by the Southern Paiute Indian Reservation, which is headquartered in Cedar City. The

Domínguez–Escalante expedition The Domínguez–Escalante Expedition was a Spanish Empire, Spanish journey of Spanish colonization of the Americas, exploration conducted in 1776 by two Franciscan priests, Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, to find an overl ...

traveled through the Iron County area on October 12, 1776. Fur trapper

Jedediah Smith Jedediah Strong Smith (January 6, 1799 – May 27, 1831) was an American clerk, transcontinental pioneer, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartographer, mountain man and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the Western United States, and ...

is the first recorded Anglo-American to pass through the area (1826). Settlement of the area began in 1851, when LDS President Brigham Young directed members from the northern colonies to move into the area. A settlement, Coal Creek, sprang up in 1851; it later became Cedar City.Iron County Profile (accessed 31 March 2019)
/ref> To provide a local government structure, the State of Deseret legislature created the county on January 31, 1850, although it was not organized until January 17, 1851, with description stretching from the future Colorado, across Utah, and into the future Nevada. It was named "Little Salt Lake County" at creation, but on December 3, 1850, a legislative act changed its name to Iron County. Its borders were altered in 1850, 1852, 1854, 1856, and 1861. Also, in 1861, the federal government created the Colorado Territory, which administratively removed Iron County areas east of 109 degrees longitude. The county borders were altered in 1862. Also, in 1862, the federal government created the Nevada Territory, which administratively removed Iron County areas west of 114 degrees longitude. Further boundary adjustments were passed in 1866, 1880, 1882, 1883, and 1884. The final adjustment was made in 1892; the county borders have remained in their current arrangement.

Geography

Iron County lies on the west edge of Utah. Its west border abuts the east border of the state of Nevada. The Iron County terrain is a study in contrast to its arid western reaches of the Escalante Desert and

Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...

ranges to the meadows and forests of the High Plateau on the east. The Markagunt Plateau is creased by the colorful formations of Cedar Breaks National Monument. Brian Head is the county's highest point, at ASL. The county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.1%) is water.

Major highways

* Interstate 15 * Utah State Route 14 * Utah State Route 56 *

Utah State Route 130 State Route 130 (SR-130) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Utah. Spanning , it connects the town of Minersville in Beaver County with the cities of Cedar City, Enoch, and Parowan to the south in Iron County. Route description SR-130 begin ...

* Utah State Route 143 * Utah State Route 148''Iron County UT'' Google Maps (accessed 30 March 2019)
/ref>

Adjacent counties

* Beaver County - north * Garfield County - east * Kane County - southeast * Washington County - south * Lincoln County, Nevada - west

Protected areas

* Cedar Breaks National Monument * Dixie National Forest (part) * Fishlake National Forest (part) * Red Cliffs National Conservation Area (part) * Zion National Park (part)

Lakes

Little Salt Lake Little Salt Lake (also called Parowan Lake), is a dry lake in east‑central Iron County, Utah, United States. Description The lake has an elevation and is located on the southwestern edge of the Parowan Valley at the eastern foot of the Red ...

* Newcastle Reservoir * Quichapal Lake

Demographics

As of the

2000 United States Census The United States census of 2000, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people enumerated during the 1990 ce ...

, there were 33,779 people, 10,627 households, and 8,076 families in the county. The population density was 10.25/sqmi (3.96/km²). There were 13,618 housing units at an average density of 4.13/sqmi (1.59/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 93.00% White, 0.35% Black or African American, 2.18% Native American, 0.74% Asian, 0.27% Pacific Islander, 1.78% from other races, and 1.67% from two or more races. 4.09% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. The top 5 Ethnic groups in Iron County are: * English: 2

* Germans, German: 10% * Irish: 7% *

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

: 5% * Danish: 5% There were 10,627 households, out of which 41.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 64.20% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

living together, 8.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.00% were non-families. 15.90% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.90% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.11 and the average family size was 3.45. The county population contained 31.20% under the age of 18, 20.60% from 18 to 24, 23.60% from 25 to 44, 16.10% from 45 to 64, and 8.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 24 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.60 males. The median income for a household in the county was $33,114, and the median income for a family was $37,171. Males had a median income of $30,800 versus $19,831 for females. The per capita income for the county was $13,568. About 13.10% of families and 19.20% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.40% of those under age 18 and 6.50% of those age 65 or over.

Recreation

* Woods Ranch Recreation Area, a recreation area located in a pine/aspen forest with hiking, fishing, picnic areas, a volleyball court and restroom facilities. * Three Peaks Recreation Area, a recreation area made up of volcanic rock and hills. The area features rock climbing, picnics, fishing, off-road vehicle use and bike riding. * Shooting Range * Brian Head Ski Resort

Politics and Government

Iron County is an overwhelmingly Republican county in presidential elections, having not voted Democratic since 1936. Indeed, in no national election since the 1964 Lyndon B. Johnson landslide has the county given any Democratic presidential candidate 25 percent of its ballots.

Communities

Cities

* Cedar City * Enoch *

(county seat)

Towns

* Brian Head * Kanarraville * Paragonah

Census-designated places

* Beryl Junction * Cedar Highlands *

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

* Newcastle *

Summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used ...

Unincorporated communities

* Beryl * Buckhorn Springs * Hamiltons Fort * Hamlin Valley *

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

* Old Irontown * State Line *

Zane The name Zane may be a given name or a surname. Its western usage derives from the Venetian form of ''Gianni'' or an alternate spelling of the German and Jewish name ''Zahn''. An Arabic name Zain, Zayn, or as it is often anglicized Zane, is an Arab ...

Former communities

* Gold Springs * Iron Springs, named for the Iron Springs * Uvada

References

External links

* {{authority control 1851 establishments in Utah Territory Populated places established in 1851