A great day with the St. George Jeepers

 A trip to Lion's Mouth Cave with petroglyphs,

Desert Mounds Mine,

Old Iron Town

Page Ranch House

This brick home was built in 1898 with the bricks that were made 

and fired from clay behind the house.

The house served as an informal hotel for travelers and as a boarding house 

for men working in the nearby mines.

Lion's Mouth Cave

As we approach the rock formation from the road, 

with a little imagination you can see a lion's head and open mouth.

There was a short hike to get to the cave that has the petroglyphs.

 

There are such pretty views from the cave.

Actually, they are pictographs.

The markings of the natural stone are interesting!

I think the kids scrambled up easier than the rest of us!

We always enjoy these excursions.

Desert Mounds Mine

Then a short drive into the mountains west of Cedar City 

with an open pit mine that has some of the richest iron ore deposits 

in the United States.

The deposits were discovered in the 1870's but did not start producing iron 

until 1924 and are now not being mined because of 

lower production costs overseas.

Old Iron Town

Beehive Style Charcoal Kiln 

(these kilns named Utah as 'the beehive state')

This produced charcoal from the local juniper and pinon pine trees.

The charcoal was used to smelt the iron ore into pig iron.

(pig iron??- look it up!😊)

Foundations left over from the Old Iron Town,

now on the Register of Historic Places.

We had a wonderful day with the 

St. George Jeepers!