This Southern Utah town is the MOTHER CITY OF THE SOUTHWEST!

Hey sightseers, Sightseeing Sally here. Today I'm going to show you around the southwest mother town and yes I mean that type of mother known as Parowan, Utah. Parowan, if you didn't know, is called the mother town in the southwest because many of its early pioneers, early settlers, went on to start other towns and cities throughout the southwest. Hence it got its name as the mother of the southwest. We'll get into more of Parowan's early history or the impact that had on the southwest a little bit later in the video. To start things off though, I thought we would check out the Parowan Visitor Center. Originally built as a bank to serve the residents of Iron County, the bank itself collapsed during the Great Depression. Today, as you can see, it serves as the visitor center but if you look at the building you can still see remnants that it used to be a bank including the word bank on the building, the old alarm system above what appears to be where the electrical once came in, and the day and night deposit alongside the building. There's Marty with the dogs say hi. If we go on inside you can also see the old bank vault that used to serve those who came into the bank. Over here on the back wall we can see where the bank vault is. If we take a little peek inside we can see there is a vault within the vault. Look at that. Talk about keeping your money and gold secure. I'm not in the business of cracking open any safes but this vault looks fairly formidable. You're not getting into this thing unless somebody opens it for you. The other really interesting unique piece of history that's in here is if you look at the desk you'll find this old ledger book showing general funds dating back to January 6th of 1912. Along with that they have this receipt book that goes all the way back to 1887 and another receipt book that goes all the way back to 1881. Look at this. Some of the ink is faded but this one here the second entry was for five dollars and that was January 21st of 1881. You got history right here at your fingertips. There's even an old lease agreement or a copy of a lease agreement dating back to October of 1963. It's pretty amazing. Maybe not so much the records dating back to 1960s because those are fairly commonplace but the older records that are here that they're available that you can actually look at them up close is something else. I could probably spend hours scouring those records but I know we're on a bit of a time schedule here so we're gonna move on because there's a lot more to see here in Parowen. If you follow Main Street out of town on 91 you'll end up at Parowen Heritage Park. This park is a really neat place dedicated to not only Parowen's early history but also Utah's Southern Utah's early history. It is here that the first pioneers to Southern Utah camped. It is on this spot that these pioneers organized Iron County holding elections three days after their arrival. It is also here that one year earlier explorer Parley P. Pratt dedicated this site as the start of colonization for the southern region. As you look around you'll notice the beautiful scenery that surrounds this area and if you use your imagination you can almost get a glimpse of what those early pioneers to this region saw when they arrived. Minus of course the modern additions. I did tell you you had to use your imagination. The other thing that makes this park so unique and worthwhile is that as you walk around you'll come to various statues and plaques posted throughout that give you some of the details of this area's early history. For instance over here we can see a list of names of the very first pioneers to Southern Utah. According to this in 1850 a call went out to have 100 volunteers of faith and good works join George A. Smith to travel to Little Salt Lake Valley to establish the first settlement. As it turned out 120 men, 31 women, and 18 children all went to make that first settlement here in Parowan. Now earlier I had talked a bit about how Parowan was considered or is considered the mother town of all the towns here in Southern Utah along with a number of them in other states. Well over here we can see a map of the towns that were basically born from Parowan. For instance here in Utah you have Buckhorn Springs, Newcastle, Pinto, Cedar City which we just explored, Santa Clara, you've got Beaver which we visited last year, Paragona, of course Parowan which is the mother town along with some cities outside of Utah including San Bernardino, California, and Las Vegas. Now interestingly enough when we were in Las Vegas we happened to visit this park that was one of the oldest ranches or was the location of one of the oldest ranches in Las Vegas Valley. Well coincidentally that same park has ties to here in Parowan because there was a mission that was only a mile or two away from that park and probably most likely a part of that land prior to the ranch being established there. Well that mission was sent there by the people here in Parowan. Can't believe that I'm just like at the connection there just because it was not intentional it was just a place that we went to check out because we thought it would be interesting and then we end up here in Parowan and we find the connections. There's just to me it's just amazing when you start following the threads of history the connections you can find between places that we've been out visiting and filming and those connections were there all along it's just we're discovering them by accident as we go along just kind of really cool and interesting side note. Anyways if we want to speak about another connection to another place that we've been talking about on this trip and past trips well it just so happens that there is a connection to the Old Spanish Trail right here in Parowan. According to the sign on the Old Spanish National Historic Trail Parowan was the between Santa Fe and San Bernardino. Now if you look off to the side of that metal pack mule or outline of a pack mule you'll notice this trail going up alongside the hill. I don't know if this trail here specifically is part of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail but it does lend itself rather nicely to the image of the trail going up along as if it was indeed the very trail that all those early pioneers traveled on. Well let's move on there are a number of other plaques and statues here in this park I'm not going to go over all of them I figure that way if you end up here in Parowan you yourself have something to look forward to checking out. Now another place that is a must-see if you're a history buff is the Old Rock Church Museum built using sandstone quarried from Parowan Canyon. The church was started in 1863 and completed in 1867. Over the years this building has served or functioned as a church, meeting house, social hall, a theater, school classrooms, and believe it or not a tourist camp. Today it functions as a museum holding a number an overwhelming number of local artifacts including the very wooden lathe that was used to turn out the pillars used as supports that you see here. When they first built the rock church they didn't have the upstairs part they didn't have this. How about that those pillars by the way were painted using turkey feathers in order to achieve the effects of making it look like stone or marble. Something else I'd like to mention about the church before we move on if you look up you'll notice that the roof is looking a little worse for wear. Plainly put they need a new roof along with that they would also like to install a heating and ventilation system because currently there is no heat there's no AC inside and in order to protect all those artifacts they really ought to have them in a climate controlled environment. As a result they're trying to raise some money for for the museum here. I'm going to pop up on the screen the information in case you would like to help them out. I've personally donated a little bit of money to them I hope some of you will as well. I understand a lot of you may not have any connections to this community however the history contained inside these doors is also a part of our nation's history and as such needs to be preserved. Even if you can't afford much and only just a few dollars every little bit counts. I know that they have one generous donor who's willing to match a considerable amount I don't remember the exact number but I thought they had somebody who was willing to match up to fifty thousand dollars. Regardless it's not too often I come on here and ask you guys to help out it's just this particular little church really just struck a chord with me and well I wanted to help them out in any way I can including spreading the word here on YouTube. Next up the Rusty Bucket where you'll find some people are wise some are otherwise. I don't know about you but I got a good chuckle about that. The Rusty Bucket is probably one of the coolest neatest most eclectic junk slash vintage slash second-hand store there ever was. This side of the mountains look at this you've got a really cool sign that says norms this room here is let's make a deal area where you make a deal make an offer on some of the stuff that you find here and then you've got the wall of surfboards. This wall goes all the way around this section here and you skip here but then it continues on over here and continues around this section here. They also have these boogie or wake boards that you can find here. Each of the individual rooms of this old motel former motel has varying themes varying ways of being able to buy stuff. Some of the rooms are like set up that you fill a bag for five dollars. I mean come on fill in a bag for five dollars all the deals you could find. I'm not going to tell you what I bought. I spent a little bit more than five dollars but I did find something here that I'm purchased or that I purchased that at some point you may even see me wearing farther on down the line. I'll take you inside here in just a moment I just wanted to point out a few of the signs that are here you've got the 7-eleven there a.m. p.m. up there of course the old 76. You can see several of them throughout. You've got a Burger King right there. I think that's a Chevron there. This is a picker's paradise. My oh my there are a ton of treasures within the walls of the rusty bucket including this fabulous room look old phone booth disco ball multi-colored an old tv typewriter keyboard is that I'm not sure what that is I think that's a really super old tv and then who remembers these 110 oh my that's been a long time since I've seen that type of film dark room lamp this one so many cool things there's even the old pay phones themselves a couple of old desk phones hey this looks like the one I used to use at work sightseeing sally speaking how may I help you yeah I didn't answer it quite like that at work maybe I used my real name but I'm not kidding that looks exactly like the phone I had on my desk now look at this guy here doesn't everybody need an old skeleton dressed up with a long blue wig driving in a cart I think the horn even honks nope not anymore the honker is out of the horn well look sightseers there's a marty in his natural environment you can see how stealthily he moves in between the items picking up each one carefully and looking that's what a marty does honestly I could spend hours here there's just so much to see here that's just incredible that would be a cool sign to have huh no what's in here this is a priced as marked area some of the other ones are fill a bag this one happens to be whatever it's marked as that's what it costs so a lot of old relics here vintage antiques newer things I mean really this place has it all whether it be for the nostalgia or just the sheer rush that one gets in trying to find a treasure amongst all the stuff that's here coming to the rusty bucket to peruse its wares needs to be on your list of things to do should you find yourself in parowin we're now over at parowin cemetery as you can see they have this beautiful stone fence and arch that were built in 1938 as part of a wpa project the stones by the way come from parowin gap parowin gap if you recall we visited last year when we were here in utah if you haven't seen that video you'll definitely want to go back after you're done watching this one and check it out you'll notice that inside the cemetery there's also this building here constructed out of very similar stones I don't know if that was made or built at the same time as the archway and the stone fence was constructed one of the things that makes this cemetery so unique besides the beautiful scenery all around is that there's a good number of well-preserved beautifully produced 19th century gravestones that are so ornately done they are considered to be some of the best pieces or examples of local folk art the other reason I brought you out to parowin cemetery is there are several interesting characters who've been laid to rest here for instance over here we have the headstone of the webb family well you wouldn't necessarily know it by looking at it but ryan who is over here on the very far right was definitely one of parowin's most notable characters oni or oni as he was known lost his leg to a black widow spider bite since he didn't have access to modern prosthetics he'd strap on a wooden leg so he could still ride his horse and herd his sheep see the horse that's etched in on the stone above his name well that alone isn't that interesting but what oni liked to do to demonstrate just how tough he was he'd take his pocket knife and stab himself right in the leg scaring anybody who didn't know he was wearing a wooden leg then you have daniel parker born in 1867 and died in 1942 he had the dream of becoming one of the most notorious outlaws ever been you see daniel parker if you didn't know was the youngest brother of outlaw robert parker aka butch cassidy but apparently butch didn't want his younger brother daniel getting caught up in his gang's criminal activities thus he discouraged daniel from participating however on one such unfortunate occasion daniel pegged along and got pegged in a robbery he got arrested put in prison but then daniel received an early pardon as a christmas present all because the governor drew his name out of a hat daniel never did go on to become a famous outlaw instead he raised a large family here in peru and although there is plenty more history and stories that could be found perusing or strolling among the headstones here in this cemetery we're gonna move on for all you sightseers who enjoy hiking i wanted to point out the hike that you can take up to valentine peak here in peru the trailhead is located on the back side of peru's historic cemetery the hike itself is seven miles total out and back and i hear the views from the top of the peak are just simply amazing unfortunately today i won't be doing the hike seven miles is quite a long trip and i need to get back to filming the rest of peru but it is here waiting for those of you willing to take on the challenge the next time you're in peru now here's a building with some interesting history associated with it did you know that at one time a dead man got sentenced to three days in jail here that's right believe it or not before this building was a mortuary it was the iron county courthouse and in one of the strangest cases to ever hit the courts a dead man received a three-day sentence to jail according to the story the dead man who was actually the victim in this case the victim being by the person who really should have been put in jail by the way i don't dare say the word because you know how youtube is about certain words warning getting back to the story the victim though was one of those types of people who was really rather sort of ornery and terrorized everyone he didn't like thus the day he lost his life i don't think people were too saddened by that and in fact the judge in this case ended up letting off the perpetrator of the crime and instead sentenced three days to jail the victim who was now very much unalive how's that for a western town's type of justice some fun facts about this building here is that at one time it held southern utah's first dodge dealership the second floor was used as the office or the offices for the perwin times now it houses a few small businesses including one that notably sells beef one thing we haven't talked about yet is the number of historic homes here some are notable for their architectural details and style whereas others like this one here is known for having been the family home of utah's first olympic gold medalist alma richards alma by the way is buried in perwin cemetery then there's the dame dalton home built for perwin's first mayor william h dame it was later sold to edward meeks dalton the only man to ever lose his life in the struggles over polygamy the home today is still owned by descendants of edward's two wives having been divided down the middle with one family owning the front and the other owning the back according to the story when edward meeks dalton lost his life it was at a point when lds the lds church had basically denounced the practice of polygamy apparently there were some men who refused to give it up edward meeks dalton being one of them because of edward's refusal to give up polygamy he became a target of a u.s marshal who lived in beaver which is just up i-15 from here while i don't have all the details of what happened on that day i do know that edward meeks dalton had been indicted for a misdemeanor that misdemeanor being of course under the anti-polygamy law the edmund's law according to what i know on that fateful day when edward meeks dalton lost his life he had been shot in the back by that u.s marshal tragically edward lost his life it was a big deal for this community and if you head over to the cemetery you'll see that in his memory they've erected this huge gravestone with inscribed on it the story of what happened forever then remembering the unwilling martyr the man who lost his life in the fight over polygamy one thing that i want to mention about parowyn is that you really need to come down here and experience it yourself and if you can't i totally get it that's why i made this video for you but there is a lot to see here and do besides what i've shown you there is a plethora of other historic buildings things to do see and then plus you got all the outdoor activities as well in a way i feel like i'm short changing the town but yeah there's only so much time that you sightseers will invest in watching a video not to mention in all reality my job or my goal is to just give you ideas of things to see and do it really isn't to encompass everything that's here with that said i'd like to point out a few more sights before we hit the road in front of me you can see this mural that's been painted on the side of the building it says roof garden chocolates mcdonald's i'm assuming that isn't the same mcdonald's where everybody goes these days to get their cheeseburger by the way the building where you see this mural also houses jersey's corner a family restaurant where you can either dine in or take out speaking of restaurants and things i'd be totally remiss if i failed to mention the fact that parowyn's noted or known for its sweet rolls specifically its cinnamon rolls and i guess they are totally amazing and you can get them here in town at the local gas station we're coming up on our final stop but i had spied this earlier and seeing as it's still here this is one of them take it and leave it somewhere else rocks i'm gonna take it with me and leave it somewhere else who knows where it might end up for a final stop i thought i'd show you the old log cabin of parowyn's first doctor dr pretty meeks pretty being spelled p-r-i-d-d-y if i'm pronouncing it incorrectly i apologize i just didn't have anybody handy to ask dr meeks arrived in 1851 he came with brigham young and he stayed for about 10 years practicing herbal medicine and teaching i think over 100 people midwifery skills originally when dr meeks built it it was just a one room you can see that it has a fireplace it was built out of adobe construction and then later as his family grew they added on this lean-to these other buildings here were added later by other owners of the property on the national register of historic places the property is now used as a working pioneer farm and outdoor learning center the house next door by the way is amazing from what i can see they've got their own basketball court and it's just this huge mansion and that's parowyn in a nutshell until next time