In 1855, LDS Church President Brigham Young declared that “Iron we need and iron we must have.” The mid-nineteenth century Mormon pioneers of Utah depended on the metal, using it in the manufacture of stoves, plows, sawmill bearings, even nails. Shipping iron from St. Louis was expensive, and Young envisioned a regional iron works that would meet the community’s needs and make the Mormon Zion self-sufficient.

The LDS Iron Mission was established in April of 1850 in southern Utah and, for the next decade, this colony of hard-working Saints tested a variety of smelting techniques, yielding objects such as pots, crank shafts, and bells. Despite sustained, even heroic, efforts, the iron missionaries did not succeed. Nature itself worked against them. Droughts, floods, and inferior raw materials challenged them at every turn. The iron works closed in 1858, but its legacy remains today in townships that have survived for over 150 years. A Trial Furnace chronicles the lives of the people who discovered an inner strength and resilience more durable than the iron they went south to find.

Distributed for BYU Studies.

Morris A. Shirts was the first dean of the College of Education at Southern Utah University.
Kathryn H. Shirts holds master's degrees from Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Divinity School.

Illustrations
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction

PART I: "Iron We Must Have"
1. Prelude to the Iron Mission, 1847–1849
2. The Iron Mission Trail, December 1850–January 1851

PART II: Settling In
3. Fort Louisa, January–May 1851
4. Community Farms and Buildings, February–May 1851
5. Parowan City, May–November 1851
6. On to Cedar City, November 1851
7. Settling Cedar City, Winter 1851–Winter 1852

PART III: Trying Iron
8. The Pioneer Iron Works, February–May 1852
9. First Fruits of the Furnace, May–October 1852
10. The Deseret Iron Company, April–November 1852
11. Change in the Townsite, Growth in the Company, Fall 1852–Summer 1853
12. Forting up during the Walker War, 1853–1854
13. The Noble Furnace, 1854–1855

PART IV: Facing Failure
14. The Iron Works in Decline, 1855–1861
15. In Retrospect: Why the Iron Works Failed

Appendices
1. Mormon Way-Bill and Advice to Emigrants
2. Iron Missionaries, December 1850–June 1851
3. Examples of Lots Assigned in Fort Louisa/Fort Parowan: 1851–1853 (based on surveys by William H. Dame)
4. Cedar City Settlers, 11 November–31 December 1851
5. Brigham Young's Address to the Saints in Parowan and Cedar City, May 1852
6. Shareholders and Officers in the Deseret Iron Company
7. Articles of Incorporation of the Deseret Iron Company, 1852 and 1853
8. Cedar City Lot Entitlements, Plat A
9. Excerpts from an Address by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, 27 May 1855
10. Cedar City Lot Entitlements, Plat B
11. Utah Territorial Militia (Nauvoo Legion): 10th Regiment, Battalion and Company Muster Rolls,
10 October 1857

Bibliography
Index