Cedar Fort, UT

Cedar Fort sits in western Utah County at the foot of the Cedar Valley and the open country west of Utah Valley. Settlers arrived in 1852, left during the Walker War, and returned in 1853 under Bishop Allen Weeks. They first built a picket fort from trees they thought were cedar, though the trees were junipers; a later stone fort was never finished, and portions of the old wall still remain.

The town keeps that pioneer story in its annual Pioneer Day, a weeklong celebration with a rodeo and the famously exuberant water fight that dates to the 1920s. Cedar Valley Elementary serves younger students, while older students attend schools in Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs through the Alpine School District. Fairfield and the Soldier Mountains sit across the wider valley, and the growing western Utah County communities are now part of the daily school and shopping circuit. Cedar Fort remains small, but its fort ruins, school, and July traditions keep the old settlement visible.