Cache Valley through the years

The American West Heritage Center is a different sort of living history museum than many. Rather than portraying life at one particular time, it portrays a number of time periods in one particular place, Cache Valley, ranging from about 1820-1917. The living history portion is open mostly in the summer months with many activities which visitors can observe and sometimes participate in.

During other times, the main building has a small museum with static displays with information about the area.

The first display shows a little about the culture of the Shoshone people who lived part of the time in Cache Valley during each year, portraying their life around 1820.



The mountain men also were in the area in the 1820s. Like the Shoshone, the mountain men were rather migratory.



In the 1850s and 1860s the valley was first settled by Mormon pioneers. These folks came to Cache Valley to live permanently.



The last time period depicted is Cache Valley in 1917 during World War I.



Many classes which include Utah history in their curriculum come to visit for quite a nice, hands-on review of Utah history. I believe it makes their history lessons more memorable.