CEDAR BREAKS was originally called "Circle of Painted Cliffs" by the local Paiute Indians.
However, like Cedar City, Cedar Breaks is technically misnamed. Early pioneers mistook the Utah Juniper trees for Cedar trees. AND, by the time the error was apparent years later, the two names were firmly affixed. It was common in the 19th Century to call badlands "breaks."
The first settlers in the mountainous area around Cedar Breaks arrived in 1868. They mainly stayed in the Brian Head area in the summer, with herds of cattle pasturing there. Since most of the these settlers were from Ireland, the area was for a time called "Little Ireland."
"Building Hotel at 'Breaks'" was an Oct. 12, 1921 headline in the Parowan Times newspaper.
Isaac Lemmon and his son, Thomas, erected a hotel, of sorts, at Cedar Breaks that summer and early fall, with financing from the Adams family. With a rough automobile road accessible as early as 1919, they were hoping for many tourists in the summer of 1922.
This became known as "Minnie's Mansion" and offered accommodations, food and even dancing. It was on the north end of the monument, near what was known as Ollerton Flat.
Still, it was only a seasonal operation, given the heavy winter snows in the area. It closed in less than 5 years, due to a lack of profit. Little trace of the hotel and its few other buildings remain today.
The Utah Parks Company, owned by Union Pacific Railroad, built its own lodge on the south rim of Cedar Breaks in 1924. Small tour buses took passengers to the area. It was marketed as part of a loop with Zion Canyon, Bryce Canyon and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The lodge seated 120 guests and chicken dinners were the house specialty.
It wasn't until 1933 that Cedar Breaks became a national monument. Sitting at an elevation of 10,300 feet, the area has heavy winter snows.
Soon after, in 1937, some 27 men from the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) built a visitor center and ranger cabin at Cedar Breaks. This kept Cedar Breaks going well for about a decade.
However, after World War II, railroad travel diminished with increased automobile usage. The Utah Parks Company in 1970 donated the lodge to the National Park Service. They, with no public input or fanfare, tore the lodge and hotel down in 1972. The neaby cabins were sold and hauled away.
Only the small visitor center remained.
The only bright spot to their demolition was that public awareness was now high in Southern Utah for saving historic structures and so the lodges at Zion Canyon and Bryce Canyon did not suffer the same fate.
-Note that the town of Brian Head, to the north, is at 9,800 feet above sea level, the highest elevation city in Utah -- and second in the nation (behind Leadville, Colorado, at 10,200 feet.) The adjacent Brian Head Ski Resort opened in 1964.
-Brian Head Peak, the highest in Iron County at 11,307 feet, is the landmark for the area. A dirt road, passable in mid to late summer, leads to the peak, actually more of a plateau.
Brian Head was either named for an early government surveyor, Brian; or for William Jennings Bryan, a Secretary of State for the U.S.
According to the Parowan Times newspaper of June 5, 1929, there was originally a flag pole and cairn of rocks atop Brian Head Peak in the early 1900s. However, it was gone by 1929.
There is a sign and small building at the top of Brian Head Peak today. The structure was built by the CCC in 1935.
-The road from the north, U-143, out of Parowan, is the steepest paved state road in Utah. It tops out at 10,567 feet above sea level and has a 13 percent grade.
-A disastrous forest fire in 2017 ravaged the area.
