KSL’s Mini 5: Edge of the Cedars State Park

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]We continue our mini five series tonight. It's a look at the least five visited Utah State parks and why each of them are worthy of a visit.

[00:00:08]>> Yeah. Last night we showed you the number five least visited park, Frontier Homestead in Cedar City. Tonight, Alex Cabrero brings us to Blanding for a park that's more about the past than the future.

[00:00:19]>> A lot of the state parks you visit, it's all about hiking or camping or boating or some type of outdoor recreational activity. Edge of the Cedar State Park here in Blanding isn't one of those.

[00:00:30]Instead, here it's all about education, about learning about the Native American people who lived here and what they were doing long before anyone else.

[00:00:39]>> The history of Native American peoples here in the Four Corners area is just so beautiful.

[00:00:46]>> The history here isn't just something you look at because you're already in it.

[00:00:51]>> What we have here is a community center from a thousand years ago. Jonathan Till the museum curator here has made a career out of interpreting these special places.

[00:01:01]>> So this building is at least two stories tall >> like this great house where people lived, died, and in between figured things out.

[00:01:09]>> These are community spaces. These are places for people to gather to work out issues of God and politics.

[00:01:15]>> They are places that even a thousand years later still feel important. This was the center place. And those far-flung places like Salt Lake, that's the boonies. This was the center place a thousand years ago.

[00:01:32]>> Inside the museum, the story goes even deeper.

[00:01:35]>> This is a Clovis point. Uh it's a 13,000y old tool.

[00:01:40]>> That's right. 13,000 years showing people have been here for a very long time. Pyute peoples, uh, Ute peoples, um, and Da peoples, Navajo folks. And of course, the landscape around here is known as being an ancestral homeland, uh, for many or most or maybe all of the PBLO peoples.

[00:01:59]>> Till also showed us sandals.

[00:02:01]>> These are about 1500 years old.

[00:02:03]>> And an exhibit showing dogs were a part of their life, too.

[00:02:06]>> These folks had domesticated dogs >> for companionship and also for their hair. the white dog hair rope here. It's it's about 14 ft long >> and even a ladder.

[00:02:16]>> Really fine grained history >> with a photo showing how it was found.

[00:02:20]>> We keep learning so much about uh the history through archaeological research here.

[00:02:25]>> And maybe that's what makes this state park different from the others. Not because it's flashy or crowded, but because it reminds you a lot was happening here.

[00:02:33]>> The ideas that indigenous peoples employed >> long before it looked anything like it does today. Human history here in the four corners reverberates, resonates so powerfully.

[00:02:44]>> And a good chunk of that story is right here waiting for you to discover it.

[00:02:50]>> I encourage folks to come and visit.

[00:02:51]>> Yeah. Often a lot of people who are in this area, visitors, they're going to either Moab or Monument Valley, maybe even Bears Ears, but Edge of the Cedar State Park is certainly worth a visit.

[00:03:01]And you don't have to spend a lot of time here. Maybe 30 minutes, an hour to see the artifacts and the ruins out back. For those who love history, it is perfect. Again, it is number four in our mini five series, the five least visited state parks. Tomorrow, we'll take you to number three, and it's the former capital of the state of Utah. For now though in Blanding at Edge of the Cedar State Park, Alex Cabrero, KSL5 News.