Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum and Kiva

Blanding Utah (December 2009)

Edge of the Cedars

Edge of the Cedars State Park had a great museum that explained the know history of the Anasazi people and their thousand year old ruins. If interested in exploring and understanding the ruins of Utah, this museum was a recommended learning experience.

Inside was information about archaeological research techniques and many displays of pottery, arrowheads, ornamental clothing, blankets, sandals, food preparation items, tools, and an original wooden ladder from a kiva.

We enjoyed going outside even more, where a kiva was fully reconstructed from the remains of the one built at the site long ago. We walked onto the roof and then climbed down a wood ladder into the dark round kiva below. A fire pit and mortared walls showed off the original construction.

Edge of the Cedars State Park museum's reconstructed Ancestral Puebloan / Anasazi kiva, which is entered through a hole in the roof via this wood ladder

 

Edge of the Cedars State Park museum's reconstructed kiva wood entrance ladder detail, showing wood-boring beetle egg chambers that were under the bark in the past

 

 

Butler Wash north Anasazi Ruins