When visiting the Four Corners region, a stop at the Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum in southeast Utah should be on your list. Both a state park and a museum, this history-filled destination is tucked into a residential neighborhood in charming Blanding, Utah.
Why is it in a neighborhood filled with homes? The museum is built next to what remains of an Ancestral Puebloan village, which you can tour. Apparently, this area has drawn people to live here for centuries!
Repository of Ancestral Puebloan Artifacts
The Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum houses the largest collection of Ancestral Puebloan artifacts on display in southeastern Utah. Opened in 1978 on 6.6 acres of land, the museum is dedicated to inspiring and educating visitors about pre-European and contemporary history of Indigenous cultures of the Four Corners region, including the Navajo, Ute, and Paiute communities of southern Utah, and the descendant pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico.
Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum is named for the Ancestral Puebloan site on its grounds. Within the walls of the museum, you will find archaeological exhibits that create a record of the people who have lived in this mesa and canyon landscape for the last 13 millennia.
Wander the many exhibit halls in the museum and marvel at archaeological materials excavated from this area and beyond, including baskets, Ancestral Puebloan pottery, tools and arrowheads, sandals, and much more.
The museum also exhibits educational displays and art. Check out their current exhibitions on their website.
Ancient Village and Chaco-era Great House at Edge of the Cedars
The museum is located on an Ancestral Puebloan site that comprises two sections: a large agricultural village occupied between 850 and 950 CE, and a Chaco-era great house built and occupied between 1075 and 1225 CE.
The Chaco-era component includes a multi-story great house and an excavated and restored kiva, as well as several smaller pueblos that were used for living and storage. You can even climb down into the kiva and imagine families gathered inside for ceremonies or community meetings.
The great house has been stabilized and partially reconstructed, and you can walk the paved interpretive trail around the pueblo at your leisure. Signs direct you to the roof of a 1,000-year-old kiva in the great house and to the ladder where you can descend into and explore the partially subterranean ceremonial room.
While you’re outdoors, be sure to explore the interpretive nature trail and the beautiful sculptures, including the Solar Marker by artist and archaeologist Joe Pachak. On the summer solstice, a slender beam of sunlight passes through an opening and bisects the center of a spiral in this awe-inspiring piece of art that harkens back to solstice markers created by ancient cultures.
The museum displays more than 800 pottery vessels in its Visible Storage Room, spanning some 700 years of pottery-making traditions from about 600 to 1300 CE. This unique exhibit has glass walls and allows visitors to peer into the collection. A computer allows visitors to click on the image of a particular pot and learn more about it.
Museum visitors may also see a cache of digging sticks and other utilitarian artifacts, one-of-a-kind objects such as a macaw feather sash (dated to 1150 CE), the ladder from Perfect Kiva, and rare items like the Horse Rock Pueblo basket collection and a dog-hair rope. Every object tells a story bringing us closer to understanding the ancient people.
If you are fascinated with ancient cultures, you won’t want to miss exploring one of the largest collections of Ancestral Puebloan pottery on display in southeastern Utah, plus artifacts from various cultures and peoples who lived . . . and still live . . . in the area around Cedar Mesa.
Joe Pachak’s Murals and Sculptures
Throughout the museum, murals created by Bluff, Utah, artist Joe Pachak reproduce rock-art panels of San Juan County. The murals include some images no longer seen because they are beneath the waters of Lake Powell.
Among Pachak’s artistic contributions to the museum are rock-art inspired sculptures, including the Sun Marker. Like Ancestral Puebloan archaeoastronomy sites, it is a calendar marking the movement of light and shadow at summer and winter solstice.
Special Events
The museum offers programs for the public, including archaeology and art exhibitions, lectures, and an annual Archaeology Day held on the first Saturday of May. During the free Archaeology Day event, enjoy demonstrations, hands-on activities, lectures, and guided tours of the ruins along with demonstrations in pottery making, traditional Pueblo weaving, flint knapping, carving, jewelry, and basketry.
Visiting Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum
Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum is operated by Utah State Parks. This museum and state park is located at 660 W. 400 North in beautiful Blanding. It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. from December through February. From March through November, the museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. and closes at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
It is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Be sure to allocate at least a couple of hours to explore everything there is to see here and learn more about various ancient cultures.
The day-use fee is $5 for adults and $3 for children and Utah seniors 62 and older. There is no fee for children under five.
Can’t visit yet? There are several virtual tours available on the museum’s website to explore.
If you’re looking to expand your knowledge and understanding of the history and culture of America’s Indigenous peoples, the archaeological repository and the restored kiva makes Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum in southeastern Utah a “must-do” stop on your journey through the Four Corners region.
