Cedar City, with a population of 13,500, is the largest community in Iron County and is located at the mouth of Coal Creek in south-central Utah. Cedar City 's elevation is 5,800 feet above sea level, and it lies in a semi-arid part of the state with 10,000-foot mountains to the east and a vast desert area to the west.

Settlement of the Cedar City are began on 11 November 1851 with the arrival of a group of thirty-five men from Parowan, twenty miles northward, to establish an iron works. They were organized and traveled in two militia companies--a foot company and a cavalry company--under the direction of Major Matthew Carruthers and Captains Henry Lunt and Peter M Fife to Cedar City. Captain Lunt was acting commander as Major Carruthers was temporarily detained in Parowan. The actual settlement site on the north bank of Coal Creek had been selected a week earlier by George A. Smith and a committee consisting of Matthew Carruthers, Henry Lunt, William C. Mitchell, John L. Smith, and Elisha H. Groves.

Beginning with the demise of the iron works in 1858, the Cedar City 's economy became agrarian in nature although iron mining continued strongly through World War II and into the 1980s. The coming of the railroad to Cedar City in 1923 exposed Utah's national parks to the world of tourism, and Cedar City was promoted as the "Gateway to the Parks." The railroad also provided an outlet for the products of Cedar Citiy 's iron mines. Presently Cedar City 's economy is based on tourism, agriculture, some mining activities, some industrial and space-age complexes, and Southern Utah State University with an enrollment of 4,500 students. The college was founded in Cedar City during 1897 as a branch of the State Normal School (University of Utah). In 1913 it became a branch of the Utah State Agricultural College of Logan. In 1968 the state legislature transformed it into a four-year college of liberal arts and sciences with elementary and secondary teacher education programs. On 1 January 1991 it attained university status.

Southern Utah University in Cedar City is the home of the Utah Shakespearean Festival, which provides an important economic and cultural infusion to the area. Cedar City has thus also become known as the "Festival City." The professional quality of the plays produced each summer in Cedar Ctiy, employing talented professionals from all over the United States, is becoming known around the world.