Cedar City is a city in Iron County, Utah, United States, 250mi south of Salt Lake City, and 180mi north of Las Vegas on Interstate 15. It is the home of Southern Utah University, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the Utah Summer Games, the Neil Simon Theatre Festival, and other events. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 28,857. In 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated Cedar City's population to be 29,213.HistoryThe presence of prehistoric people in the Cedar City area is revealed by rock art found in Parowan Gap to the north and Fremont sites dated to A.D. 1000 and 1300. Ancestors of the present-day southern Paiute Indians met the Dominguez–Escalante Expedition in this area in 1776. Fifty years later, in 1826, mountain man and fur trader Jedediah Smith traveled through the area exploring a route from Utah to California.Cedar City was originally settled in late 1851 by Mormon pioneers originating from Parowan, Utah, who were sent to build an iron works. The site, known as "Fort Cedar" or "Cedar City," was equidistant from vast iron deposits 10mi west and coal resources 10mi up Cedar Canyon, but was named after the abundant local trees (which are actually Junipers instead of Cedar). Two companies of men led by Henry Lunt reached the fort site in a blizzard on November 11, 1851, making that date the official founding. In 1855, a new site, closer to the iron works and out of the flood plain of Coal Creek, was established at the suggestion of Brigham Young; present day Cedar City is located at this site. Cedar City was incorporated on February 18, 1868.
