LITTLE PINTO / OLD IRON TOWN

DIRECTIONS    To get to Little Pinto / Old Iron Town, take Highway 56 west out of Cedar City.  Go about 20 miles west until you see a sign telling you to turn left and head south.  The town is 3 miles down the road.  Don't be fooled and turn too soon when you see the first sign for Old Iron Town.  It is just telling you to stay on the highway.  Although it looks a little deceiving, like it is telling you to turn right after the sign.  Continue on the highway for about 4 to 6 more miles after the first sign.

During the 1850's Bringham Young sent some of his followers to the Cedar City Area of Utah.  This is where the Iron Mission was.  The goal was to increase the self suffeciency of his people.  Within 10 years, the Iron Works Mission was closed.  Then a man named Peter Shirts discovered iron west of Cedar City, some time in the 1860's.  Ebenezer Hanks organized the Union Iron Company in June of 1868.  Within a short period of time the company was mining in the area.  The town that popped up was called Little Pinto.  By 1870, it had a population of 97.  By then, it already had a foundry, school, blacksmith, machine shop, a moulding house and a charcoal kiln.     The company was unable to overcome difficulties caused by the money panic of 1874 and the lack of good transportation to markets in northern Utah. The Union Iron Company was forced to shut down opertions in 1877, and Little Pinto became a ghost town.  Now, the state of Utah refers to this site as Old Iron Town, not Little Pinto.      Today, there a the remains of a charcoal kiln, foundry or furnace smokestack, parts of a larger foundry, arrastra, couple of walls from buildings and parts of the moulding house.

Beehive Charcoal Kiln at Little Pinto

Blast Furnace

Moulding House

Spanish Arrastra

Close up of the Moulding House

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