PIONEER TRADES
Skilled trades people played a crucial role in the vitality of the early Utah settlements. Their work was difficult, physically demanding, and the hours were long. Your visit to the Park won't be complete without a stop at our blacksmith shop and other craft demonstrations.
Our blacksmith will demonstrate how the West was built with a forge, anvil and hammer. As you watch him work, he'll recount how pioneer blacksmiths made and repaired farm equipment, tools and generally kept the settlements in good working order. And don't ask him about horseshoes - blacksmiths didn' t shoe horses, farriers did.
Most furniture was too heavy and bulky to be brought across the plains in pioneers' wagons, so skilled furniture makers were in great demand in the settlements. At our Dinwoodey Furniture Shop, a woodworker will explain how local soft wood was used for furniture in the absence of more favored eastern hardwood trees, and then painted to look like hardwood.
At the Jewkes Home you can card wool and watch the spinner turn it into yarn on the spinning wheel. She'll also explain how various native plants were used to make colorful dyes for the yarn. At the Deseret News Press you can learn how early newspapers were printed one page at a time on a simple sheet-fed press. Over in the saddlery, a skilled leatherworker will explain how a deer or cow hide becomes a fine leather pouch or a saddle.
So come watch how our history was shaped in the skilled hands of real craftsmen.
