Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
A rare piece of 20th-century technology is preserved within Old Irontown State Park outside of Cedar City, Utah. An arrastra is a Spanish-born technology to crush ore or flux in mining operations. Iron miners from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used this technology as early as the 1860s. A horse or mule (or even person) would push/pull a wooden beam attached to a grinding stone around in circles to slowly crush the material down. Simple and ingenious, the arrastra technology was brought to Central and North America in the 1600s by Spanish colonists. So cool to see this example so well preserved after more than 150 years.
A rare piece of 20th-century technology is preserved within Old Irontown State Park outside of Cedar City, Utah. An arrastra is a Spanish-born technology to crush ore or flux in mining operations. Iron miners from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used this technology as early as the 1860s. A horse or mule (or even person) would push/pull a wooden beam attached to a grinding stone around in circles to slowly crush the material down. Simple and ingenious, the arrastra technology was brought to Central and North America in the 1600s by Spanish colonists. So cool to see this example so well preserved after more than 150 years.
