Founding year: the first Parowan post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Parowan’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Parowan is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #32 of 119 in Utah. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Parowan’s overall grade.
Utah towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Utah town has 3.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Parowan’s 22.1 sits above most of its state (74% of Utah towns have fewer) while its 7 historic buildings outnumber those of 73% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.4 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Parowan’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fremont culture and Anasazi people were the first known inhabitants of the area where Parowan now exists. Petroglyphs, pithouses, arrowheads, pottery, and manos dating from A.D. 750 to 1250 found in the area are evidence that it was on a major thoroughfare of early indigenous peoples. At Parowan Gap, a mountain pass 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Parowan, ancient people inscribed petroglyphs on smooth-surfaced boulders that feature snakes, lizards, mouse-men, bear claws, and mountain sheep. Located near the Parowan Gap there are dinosaur tracks. East of the Gap and petroglyphs hikers can discover Hadrosaurs tracks that were originally formed in non-resistant mudstone. The tracks have three toes and can be found on the side of 12800 N. Later, the Old Spanish Trail passed through the area.
The Parowan post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Parowan rank for history?
Parowan is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #32 of 119 in Utah. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Parowan?
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Jesse N. Smith House (listed 1975, the first). 7 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Parowan?
11% of Parowan’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.4 points), against a typical 2.8% for an Utah town; the median home was built in 1986.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (4), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1872
2013
