Since pioneers founded Parowan in 1851, the community has thrived through faith, unity, cooperation, hard work, resourcefulness, ranching, agriculture, and local industry. Parowan’s pioneer roots lie in ranching and agriculture, with generations raising crops and livestock in and around the town, while early settlers also established cooperatives and used local resources to make products from dishes to furniture. Among its early industries, Parowan was home to what is believed to be the oldest standing adobe home in Southern Utah, associated with pioneer Jessie N. Smith and his family, and to the Parowan United Mercantile and Manufacturing Institution, whose cooperative produced furniture, cabinets, caskets, and other useful products, with examples preserved in historic homes. Native-clay pottery was also made in wood-fired kilns by craftsmen including Thomas Davenport, who began making dishes, bowls, and jugs in the early 1850s, and later Amos C. Hatch; Davenport’s kiln was excavated in 2009, and his pottery is displayed at Parowan’s Rock Church Museum. Soon after settlement, a local iron industry was established, with a furnace built nearby in Old Iron Town west of Cedar City, and Parowan’s agricultural base helped sustain the iron workers and their families until the industry diminished and mining ceased by 1858; other early industries included a sawmill, dairy, and cotton mill. Drama and music were also integral to community life: the Parowan Dramatic Association was founded in 1851 with Edward Dalton as its first president, performances were held in the Log Council House, the Rock Church Basement, and the Opera House, and the Aladdin Theater, built in the 1920s, later served for many years as a movie house before becoming home to plays presented by the Parowan Community Theater. The Parowan Cemetery, the oldest European cemetery in southwestern Utah, holds many of the pioneers who established the town and contains carvings from all seven regional mid-nineteenth century headstone carvers, including the only signed stone by Thomas Hugo Hickman, while many historic headstones use the Deseret Alphabet, as in the spelling “kanyon.”