Grant provides half off Frontier Homestead admission for residents

Frontier Homestead State Park | File photo, St. George News

CEDAR CITY — Thanks to the help of an Iron County Tourism Marketing Fund grant from the Cedar City-Brian Head Tourism Bureau, Iron County residents will receive a 50 percent discount to Frontier Homestead State Park Museum throughout 2016.

A living history demonstration of spinning, Frontier Homestead State Park Museum, Cedar City, Utah, Date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Frontier Homestead State Park Museum, St. George News
A living history demonstration of spinning, Frontier Homestead State Park Museum, Cedar City, Utah, Date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Frontier Homestead State Park Museum, St. George News

The grant will additionally be used for marketing to entice visitors from outside of Utah to visit the museum, said Todd Prince, Frontier Homestead State Park manager, adding that a portion of the funds will also help provide interpretive programming for those visitors.

While considering out-of-state visitors was important, Prince said the nature of the funding allowed them to allocate enough money to help support programs that would benefit local residents.

In addition to the resident discount, Prince said, the grant was able to fund part of the weekly children’s storytime program held at the museum from 10 to 10:30 a.m. every Tuesday.

The Iron County Tourism Marketing Fund grant was a competitive grant open to all nonprofits that are geared toward recreation in Iron County, and Prince said the museum was lucky to have received it.

A press release issued by the museum said the The Utah Division of Parks and Recreation was grateful to the tourism bureau for the opportunities to create an affordable, educational and entertaining experience for the public.

“This is a great opportunity for individuals and families to take advantage of this offer and enjoy the rich history of Iron County,” the release stated.

Sheering the sheep at a previous Sheep to Shawl event, Frontier Homestead State Park Museum, Cedar City, Utah, Date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Frontier Homestead State Park Museum, St. George News
Sheering the sheep at a previous “Sheep to Shawl” event, Frontier Homestead State Park Museum, Cedar City, Utah, Date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Frontier Homestead State Park Museum, St. George News

Frontier Homestead State Park Museum falls under the Utah Division of Natural Resources Parks and Recreation Department, Prince said, adding that Frontier Homestead was one of only a handful of the 43 parks in the Utah Parks System with a historic museum.

“When people think of state parks, they think mostly of like, Sand Hollow, recreation, Snow Canyon,” Prince said, “but there are a number of historic museums within the state park system and we are one of them.”

Over 60 percent of visitors to the state park come from outside of Utah, Prince said, which was why so much of the grant funding will be used to develop “historic recreational activities.”

“You know how people go out hiking and boating and all of that stuff,” he asked. “We’re providing that same kind of experience, but it’s history related.”

Though there isn’t a large enough volunteer corps to offer a “living history” experience every day, Prince said, there are hands-on activity stations throughout the museum grounds which are open spring through fall. Each of them are self-guided through interpretive signs that give instructions.

“You can do laundry the old fashioned way with a washboard,” Prince said.

Prince said other living history experiences include a woman who comes once a week and sits in the Hunter House located on the park grounds. She knits or crochets and then gives tours of the home to visitors. Additionally, the Sagebrush Fiber Artisans give living history demonstrations a couple of days a week depicting the art of spinning and other related activities. Other hands-on activity stations include lassoing, knot tying, panning for gold, learning the desert alphabet and more.

Frontier Homestead State Park Museum is located at 635 N. Main St. in Cedar City. The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from September to May. The museum is open until 6 p.m. from June through August. Resident discounts do not apply to special events. For more information, call 435-586-9290.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.

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