The 21st anniversary of the Cedar Livestock and Heritage Festival will take place Oct. 23 through Oct. 25 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, with most events at the Cross Hollows Event Center. Admission is free.
The Sheep Parade, one of the festival’s main attractions, will take place at 10 a.m. Oct. 24 along Cedar City’s Main Street. Other events include antique tractor pulls, horse pulls, cowboy poetry and music, ranch rodeo, quilts, cars, hands-on activities, a Dutch oven contest, vendors, and more.
Iron County’s livestock heritage dates to Cedar City’s settlement in 1851, when dairy farming anchored the local agrarian economy. Each summer, women and children operated mountain dairies while men farmed the valley land. The McConnell family set up one of the area’s first mountain dairies in 1869.
Around 1890, local ranchers brought in sheep from Colorado. Sheep flourished on local mountain ranges, feeding on larkspur, a plant toxic to cattle. Sheep remain the dominant livestock on Cedar Mountain.
In the early 2000s, Iron County was home to roughly 160 cattle-sheep farms. County records from 2002 list 25,683 cattle and calves, 14,467 cattle sold and 34,908 sheep. Seasonal grazing customs have carried on to the fifth and sometimes sixth generation.
Visitors can learn more by purchasing Selected Stories of the Livestock Industry in Iron County for $10 at the USU Extension Office. Additional records are available in Southern Utah University’s special collections archive.
For more detailed information, visit the official website.
Author: Fangqi Zhou
Photo: Courtesy of Cedar Livestock Fest
Editor: Lainey Porter
outdoors@suunews.net
