St. George's Historic Sites: The Temple, Pioneer Homes, and Downtown

St. George has more genuine history within a short drive than almost any town of its size in the West, and it comes in three distinct layers.

Layer one: the people who were here first

Long before any of the pioneer story, this was Southern Paiute country, and the rock art is the evidence.

Anasazi Valley Petroglyphs is the standout — a short hike to a remarkable panel, and one of the most rewarding outings in the region at any price.

Bloomington Petroglyph Park has panels you can reach without committing to a hike at all.

These panels are fragile and protected. Look and photograph; never touch or chalk them. Skin oils cause permanent damage.

Layer two: the Cotton Mission

St. George exists because settlers were sent here in the 1860s to grow cotton the rest of the territory could not.

The Brigham Young Winter Home is where the church president wintered for health reasons, and it explains the town's early importance directly.

The St. George Tabernacle is the finest pioneer building in the region, and free to enter.

The St. George Utah Temple is the oldest of its kind in Utah and the landmark the city is built around.

The Washington Cotton Mill is the surviving industrial evidence of why anyone came.

The Jacob Hamblin Home in Santa Clara belonged to the missionary who planted cottonseed in the river bottoms in 1855 — and Santa Clara itself was founded by Swiss pioneers in the 1860s, the same wave that supplied the region's winemakers.

The Pine Valley Chapel, up in the mountains, is a remarkable building reputedly designed by a shipbuilder.

Layer three: silver, and what it did

Silver Reef is the ghost town of a genuine boom — silver in sandstone, which geologists had said was impossible. It brought money, miners and drinking to a region built on very different principles, and its closure late in the century helped end the local wine industry that had supplied them.

Grafton, near Zion, is one of the most photographed ghost towns in the West.

Fort Pearce and the Rockville Bridge fill in the rest.

The site that deserves a different tone

The Mountain Meadows Massacre Site memorializes the 1857 killing of an emigrant wagon train by local militia. It is a solemn place rather than a sightseeing stop, and it is treated as such by those who maintain it.

Practical notes

• Check opening arrangements before traveling. Several sites are seasonal, volunteer-staffed or have limited hours, and many are closed on Sundays.
• Several are outdoors and unshaded. Go early in summer, and treat a hat and sunscreen as part of what you bring rather than an afterthought — the sun here is a hazard, not a discomfort.
• The ghost towns and petroglyph sites involve dirt roads — check conditions, particularly after rain.