Free museums in Utah
Museums that listed free admission on their own websites when we checked. Some ask for a donation at the door, and free can change, so the museum's own site has the last word.
87 museums on this list, checked against their own websites in October 2026.
By region
Salt Lake County 13
- Murray City MuseumMurray History FreeA free city museum that has moved into the historic Cahoon Mansion on Poplar Street. Its main exhibit, Land, Lead, and Leadership, follows Murray from farm town to smelter town between 1870 and 1950, and a second exhibit in the City Hall hallways uses family artifacts and aerial maps going back to 1937. Staff are part time and it sometimes closes during posted hours, so call (801) 264-2589 first.
- Wheeler Historic FarmMurray Homes and farms FreeA 75-acre working farm and Salt Lake County park, open to the public since 1976 on land the Wheeler family farmed for 56 years. The grounds are free from dawn to dusk; the Victorian farmhouse, holding over 6,000 artifacts from the 1890s to the 1940s, is seen on a paid tour.
- Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk ArtSalt Lake City Art FreeThe state's folk art collection lives in an old farmhouse in the middle of Liberty Park, with more than 450 pieces made by Utah's many communities. Galleries cover Native American ancestral and contemporary work, ceramics and occupational crafts, and the current show, Once Upon a Tree, looks at wood and paper and runs through January 9, 2027. It pairs well with a park walk.
- Church History MuseumSalt Lake City History FreeThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints runs this free museum on West Temple, telling the faith's history through art and artifacts. The main floor exhibit, The Heavens Are Opened, covers early Church history with film, documents and artifacts, and the second floor holds a children's exhibit and temporary exhibits. Every three years the museum hosts and exhibits a theme-based art competition for Latter-day Saint artists from around the world.
- Clark PlanetariumSalt Lake City Science FreeSalt Lake County's planetarium at The Gateway has more than 10,000 square feet of hands-on space exhibits you can wander for free. The shows cost extra: dome films in the Hansen Dome Theatre, big-screen films in the Northrop Grumman IMAX Theatre, and laser shows.
- Gilgal Sculpture GardenSalt Lake City Art FreeThomas Battersby Child Jr. made this garden in the mid twentieth century, tucked in the middle of a Salt Lake City block behind houses and businesses, and it is now a city park. It holds 12 of his original sculptures, including the Sphinx and Elijah's Cave, plus more than 70 stones engraved with scripture, poems and literary texts. Admission is free, and walking tour brochures are on site.
- International Peace GardensSalt Lake City Animals and gardens FreeA string of national gardens inside Jordan Park, each built with its own gate, statues and plantings by a different country or community. You can walk from a Little Mermaid statue in the Danish garden to a torii gate in the Japanese garden and a small Matterhorn in the Swiss one in one loop. It is best from May to October when the beds are in bloom.
- Museum of UtahSalt Lake City History FreeUtah's first state history museum opened on the Capitol complex, with four permanent galleries (Becoming, Connecting, Building and Inspiring Utah) that tell the state's story through objects and art. The Mormon Meteor III land speed car is on display, along with the Alice Merrill Horne Collection of more than 2,000 artworks. Admission is free, and the temporary show The Past is Personal runs through spring 2027.
- Pioneer Memorial MuseumSalt Lake City Pioneer FreeThe Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum just west of the Capitol packs four floors and a carriage house with the belongings of Utah's early settlers, from homemade tools and painted pine furniture to pianos and crystal hauled across the plains. The carriage house holds full-size vehicles, including a Conestoga wagon, a stagecoach and a 1902 fire engine. Admission is free, so it works as an easy weekday stop when you are near Capitol Hill.
- Utah Sports Hall of Fame MuseumSalt Lake City History FreeA small free museum on the mall level at City Creek, north of Nordstrom, that tells the stories of Utah Sports Hall of Fame inductees. It also covers the high school and college coaches, game officials and distinguished service honorees the foundation recognizes. It opened in 2019, and there is an online virtual tour.
- The Gale MuseumSouth Jordan History FreeSouth Jordan's city museum opened in June 2006 in the building that used to be the South Jordan branch library, and many exhibits are built for small kids. They can practice on slates in an 1892 schoolhouse, gather eggs and hang laundry at the Beckstead farmhouse, and check what a Model T fill-up cost at a vintage service station. Older visitors get the Bingham Canyon copper mining story and From Gale to South Jordan, which covers the city's first 100 years; admission is free.
- Conservation Garden Park at Jordan ValleyWest Jordan Animals and gardens FreeA waterwise demonstration garden run by the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District, showing landscape designs and plants suited to northern Utah. Its online database lists more than 1,000 waterwise plants tried and tested at the park, and classes are taught by horticulture and waterwise landscaping experts. More garden than museum; general admission is free.
- West Valley Cultural Celebration CenterWest Valley City Art FreeThe Utah Cultural Celebration Center in West Valley City runs free galleries, with the Pilar Pobil Celebration Gallery as its main space. The Bridge, Plaza and Crescent galleries show local artists, traveling exhibits and educational displays, and most of the work there is for sale. Through October 14 it has the Utah Women Artists Exhibition 2026 and Plein Air Riverfest, paintings made at the 2026 Get to the River Festival.
Davis, Weber and Morgan 11
- Bountiful Davis Art CenterBountiful Art FreeA community art center on Bountiful's Main Street with rotating shows in its Main, Front and Annex galleries, free to visit. It hosts juried exhibitions such as the Statewide Emerging Artists' Annual and runs paid classes in pottery, watercolor and figure drawing.
- Hill Aerospace MuseumHill Air Force Base Military FreeMore than 70 historic aircraft and aerospace vehicles at a museum just off base by the North/Roy Gate, so no base pass is needed. The collection includes a B-17, an SR-71 Blackbird and the F-117 stealth fighter, and there are flight simulators and scavenger hunts. The museum suggests planning one to two hours.
- Utah State University Botanical CenterKaysville Animals and gardens FreeYou can walk the pollinator and edible demonstration gardens, the William A. Varga Arboretum and the trails around the Kaysville Ponds. Spooky Week at the BOOtanical Center runs October 26 to 30, 2026, with scavenger hunts, storytime and trunk-or-treat.
- Heritage Museum of LaytonLayton History FreeLayton's city museum covers the history, people and culture of Layton and nearby towns, from Native American heritage and pioneer settlement to neighborhoods and everyday life, through artifacts and historic photographs. The collection includes the Dell Adams gun collection, an old prescription cabinet and a train exhibit, and the Joseph Hill Cabin can be toured on request. Kids get an exploration corner and a monthly scavenger hunt, and entry is free.
- Smout Log Cabin Daughters of Utah Pioneers MuseumMarriott-Slaterville Pioneer FreeMarriott-Slaterville City restored the cabin and the Susan Marriott DUP Camp filled it with artifacts. It opens by appointment and is free; the state directory lists the street number as 1507 while the DUP lists 1570.
- Eccles Community Art CenterOgden Art FreeA nonprofit art center in the historic home of David and Bertha Eccles in Ogden's Jefferson District, with free admission to its galleries.
- Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw GalleryOgden Art FreeWeber State University's art gallery sits inside the Ethel Wattis Kimball Visual Arts Center on the Ogden campus and runs a rotating lineup of exhibitions across many media. It closes in summer and over university breaks, so plan around the school calendar.
- Ott PlanetariumOgden Science FreeWeber State's planetarium is a thirty foot, sixty seat full-dome theater with a list of more than twenty shows, from dark matter to a photon's trip from a distant star to someone's retina. The public open hours are free. The university's public observatory has nine pier-mounted telescopes and holds free star parties about once a month.
- Weber County DUP and Miles Goodyear CabinOgden Pioneer FreeThe Weber County chapter of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers runs this museum on Lincoln Avenue in Ogden, with the Miles Goodyear Cabin on the same site. It collects and displays things Utah pioneers made or used, and keeps histories of pioneers who arrived before 1900. It is open mid-May to mid-September and closed for the season now.
- Plain City Camp DUP & John Carver CabinPlain City Pioneer FreeA small Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum tied to the John Carver cabin in Plain City, kept by the local DUP camp. The DUP directory lists it as open by appointment with free admission, so call ahead before you drive out.
- Morgan County DUP MuseumMorgan Pioneer FreeCheck before you go
Utah County 12
- Timpanogos Cave National Monument Visitor CenterAmerican Fork Science FreeThe National Park Service visitor center in American Fork Canyon has exhibits, a man-made cave and free Junior Ranger booklets. There is no entrance fee to visit, but the cave tours need a paid ticket bought ahead on recreation.gov. The park's own pages give the season as May through mid October for the visitor center and late May to early or mid October for tours, so by mid October call 801-756-5239 before driving up.
- Mapleton Historical MuseumMapleton History FreeNow called the Mapleton Heritage Museum, it sits inside the 1892 Roswell Darius Bird home in Old Towne Square with pioneer artifacts and photos of the town's early settlers. The square around it adds the 1880 Levi Kendall Cabin, an 1888 Relief Society Hall that was rebuilt brick by brick, and a blacksmith shop made from old Mapleton barn wood. Tours are free and booked by email with the city.
- Orem Heritage Museum at SCERAOrem History FreeA free museum of Orem history in the historic building just south of the SCERA Center, with about 2,000 artifacts. Exhibits run from a coal stove, butter churn and victrola to a blacksmith shop, agricultural displays, military displays from World War I through Korea, and Geneva Steel and SCERA memorabilia, and there is a working model railroad diorama of 1940s Orem.
- UVU Museum of ArtOrem Art FreeUtah Valley University's art museum, now in the Lakemount building on 1800 South in Orem, with free admission and free parking in the lot above the building. Through November 21, 2026 it shows the Faculty Art Exhibition, with work by 44 UVU art and design faculty, and through January 9, 2027 a student-curated show of abstract work from the permanent collection.
- BYU Bean Life Science MuseumProvo History FreeBYU's Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum covers living things from bacteria to whales, with galleries on evolution, endangered species, freshwater and ocean life, African wildlife and the world's waterfowl and pheasants. Admission is free.
- BYU Education in Zion GalleryProvo History FreeA permanent exhibition in the gallery of BYU's Joseph F. Smith Building, open since 2008, about how Latter-day Saints have joined religious and secular learning. The south side follows the study, experience and revelation cycle through the church's education history; the north side is built on the four aims of a BYU education. Admission is free and guided tours run on weekdays.
- BYU Museum of ArtProvo Art FreeIts shows mix American art and sacred art from the collection with visiting exhibitions; this fall that includes Gordon Parks photographs and a show on Lorenzo Ghiberti's Baptistery Doors. There is also a sculpture garden.
- BYU Museum of PaleontologyProvo Dinosaurs FreeBYU's fossil museum says it holds one of the largest dinosaur collections in the world, and it shares a front parking lot with LaVell Edwards Stadium. Exhibits include Kosmoceratops, Supersaurus and Camarasaurus vertebrae, the pterosaur Caelestiventus hanseni from the Saints and Sinners Quarry, and displays on collecting fossils and lab tools.
- Museum of Mormon History of the AmericasProvo History FreeA private Provo museum, now called the Museum of Mormon Mexican History, on the history of the Latter-day Saint church in Mexico; it is not affiliated with the church. Exhibits cover the 1880s colonies in northern Mexico and the flight to El Paso during the Revolution, the first Spanish translations of the Book of Mormon, and Mexican newspaper coverage of the church. Entry is free with donations welcome, and texts are in English and Spanish.
- Provo Pioneer VillageProvo Pioneer FreeThe village began in 1931, when David Loveless gave the John Turner home and his collection to the Sons of Utah Pioneers, and it now holds original buildings including the Turner Cabin, Haws Cabin and Loveless Home. It is laid out by use: homes and gardens, a granary and corn crib, a blacksmith shop and mercantile, and a school on the town square. Summer evenings bring fiddling, storytelling and demonstrations like candle dipping and spinning, and entry is free.
- Santaquin Chieftain MuseumSantaquin History FreeSantaquin's free town museum fills a former elementary school built in 1903, which taught local kids until the early 1980s and was dedicated as a museum in 1990. Fifteen rooms each cover a piece of town life, including a blacksmith shop, mine room, post office, country store and a miniature town. Pick up the free Historical Sites booklet for a walking tour of the town afterward.
- Springville Museum of ArtSpringville Art FreeA free art museum whose collection began in 1903, when artists Cyrus Dallin and John Hafen donated Paul Revere and Mountain Stream. It now holds more than 2,700 works, over 2,000 of them Utah art from pioneer times to today, plus what it calls the largest public collection of twentieth-century Russian and Soviet art in the western United States. The building was dedicated in 1937, and the Sam and Diane Stewart Sculpture Garden was dedicated in 2009.
Park City and Heber 5
- Wasatch County Daughters of Utah Pioneers MuseumHeber City Pioneer FreeIt covers Wasatch County's early settlers and communities from 1830 to 1900. It holds the tool chest and tools of Alexander Fortie, architect and a builder of the Wasatch Stake Tabernacle, and a Native American display of original items and facsimiles. Kids get Seek and Find sheets to work through the cases.
- Henefer Camp DUP MuseumHenefer Pioneer FreeA small Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum on Henefer's Center Street, opened by appointment. Neither listing describes the collection, so call ahead to find out what is on display.
- Alf Engen Ski MuseumPark City History FreeA free ski museum in the Joe Quinney Winter Sports Center at Utah Olympic Park that covers how the Intermountain region became a winter sports hub. The same complex holds the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame, the PSIA Intermountain Division Hall of Fame and the Eccles 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Museum.
- Eccles Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games MuseumPark City History FreeThe 2002 Winter Games museum, in the building that served as the media center during those Olympics. It covers every sport from luge and skeleton to curling, the Paralympics, the torch relay and the volunteers, and it has started collecting for the 2034 Games. Entry is free and it shares the building with the Alf Engen Ski Museum.
- Kimball Art CenterPark City Art FreePark City's nonprofit art center, with free rotating gallery exhibitions plus classes, camps and artist talks. The current show, Between the Lines, runs through January 3, 2027, and receptions and panel discussions go along with each exhibition.
Cache and Box Elder 7
- Brigham City Museum of Art & HistoryBrigham City Art FreeBrigham City's own museum, started in 1970, with a collection of more than 12,000 items covering art, historical artifacts, ephemera, natural history specimens and oral histories. A permanent exhibition covers the town's history, and five to six temporary history and fine art shows rotate through each year; the Development photography competition exhibition runs October 3 to December 4, 2026. Admission is free.
- World of Puppetry MuseumBrigham City Art FreeA puppet museum inside the Northern Utah Center for the Arts, which rebranded from the Fine Arts Center. Opened in 2000, it holds over 150 puppets from 16 countries, from Indonesian shadow and rod puppets and Burmese and Indian marionettes to a 1940-50 Howdy Doody set, Kermit and Lamb Chop. Kids can pull marionette strings, perform at a shadow stage and make a puppet craft.
- Clarkston DUP Heritage MuseumClarkston Pioneer FreeFour rooms of pioneer artifacts kept by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers inside an 1871 tithing granary, the kind of building that once held a town's grain and produce. It opens on only a few days a year, so it suits a Memorial Day or Pioneer Day drive through Cache Valley, or a call ahead for an appointment.
- Cache County DUP MuseumLogan Pioneer FreeThe Cache Pioneer Museum in downtown Logan collects and exhibits objects, pictures and histories of Cache Valley's early settlers. Behind the display cases it holds about 1,600 digitized pioneer histories, 300 digitized pioneer portraits and a scrapbook collection of clippings and obituaries from roughly 1930 to 1960, which makes it useful for anyone researching a Cache Valley family.
- Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (USU)Logan Art FreeUtah State University's art museum holds over 5,000 works, weighted toward 20th and 21st century American art and art of the American West. Its ceramics collection, which started with more than 400 vessels Nora Eccles Harrison gave along with the building, now tops 1,200 pieces.
- USU Museum of AnthropologyLogan History FreeA small anthropology museum in Room 252 of Old Main on Utah State University's Logan campus. USU students conceived and built every exhibit, which look at how human lives change, how people share knowledge and how they make art.
- Wagon Land AdventureTremonton History FreeA collection of more than 350 documented horse-drawn vehicles west of Tremonton. Most of them belong to Eli Anderson, and the nonprofit Wagon Land Adventure Foundation, founded in 2008, runs it. Some vehicles are in original condition and others have been restored. Visits are guided tours you set up ahead by phone or email, and the site's virtual museum calls the visit free.
Tooele and the West Desert 3
- Tintic Mining Museum (Tintic Historical Society)Eureka Mining FreeThe Tintic Historical Society, founded in 1973, runs this free museum in a historic railroad depot on Eureka's Main Street. It shows minerals from the district, old mining tools, historic clothing, an antique still, a replica of the Eureka City Courthouse and a multi-level map of the mines. The society has also opened the old City Hall and jail for tours.
- James L. Bevan Tooele Pioneer MuseumTooele Pioneer FreeA free pioneer museum in Tooele with a covered wagon, a buggy and other pioneer-era objects, plus Native American baskets, pottery and arrowheads. It also keeps historic books, maps, family histories and rare photos of early Tooele settlers and the growing city. Hours are short most of the year, so call 435-882-3168 first.
- Tooele Valley MuseumTooele History FreeThe Tooele Valley Museum and Historical Park covers more than three acres of the old Tooele Valley Railroad complex, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Locomotive #11 is the centerpiece, a steam engine townspeople kept from being shipped to Salt Lake in 1969. Around it are permanent exhibits on the county's railroad, mining, military history and the International Smelting and Refining Company.
Central Utah 12
- Cove Fort Historic SiteCove Fort History FreeIra Hinckley, his brother Arza and local workers built this volcanic rock fort in 1867, halfway between Beaver and Fillmore. Until the early 1880s it served travelers, the Pony Express and telegraph lines, and the families provided lodging and meals and ran a farm, blacksmith shop and small ranch. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offers free tours led by missionaries; plan an hour to an hour and a half.
- Delta DUP Museum (McCullough Log Cabin)Delta Pioneer FreeA Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum in the McCullough Log Cabin in Delta's city park. Admission is free, but it opens by appointment only, so call 435-864-2279 before planning a stop.
- Great Basin MuseumDelta Science FreeDelta's town museum on Main Street (US 6/50) covers the area from the Cambrian seas to the cars of the last century. Cases hold trilobites and other early fossils, snowflake obsidian and geodes from the surrounding desert, Fremont and Paiute artifacts, and pioneer household goods. A restored surrey carriage and vintage automobiles round it out.
- Snow College Art GalleryEphraim History FreeSnow College's gallery sits inside the Humanities Building on the Ephraim campus and keeps the college's permanent collection, including the Lund-Wassmer Collection. Each year it shows an Artists in Residence/Works in Progress show and a juried student exhibition, along with a bi-annual faculty show and national solo and group shows.
- Snow College PlanetariumEphraim Science FreeA fulldome planetarium in room 324 of Snow College's Graham Science Center in Ephraim. Shows are free, but tickets must be reserved through Eventbrite; Science Night shows need no reservation.
- Fairview Museum of History and ArtFairview Art FreeA free museum campus in Fairview whose centerpiece is Spirit, a Columbian mammoth skeleton about 15,000 years old dug up in 1988 at Huntington Reservoir, 18 miles east of town. The Heritage Building, Fairview's 1900 elementary school, later served as sculptor Avard Fairbanks's workshop and still holds many of his original plasters, works by woodcarver Lindon Graham and hundreds of pioneer artifacts. The Horizon Building, finished in 1995, adds the Theodore Milton Wassmer art collection, Clark Bronson's wildlife sculpture and painting, and natural history and Native American exhibits.
- Joseph Camp Clear Creek DUPJoseph Pioneer FreeA small Daughters of Utah Pioneers satellite museum in the Sevier County town of Joseph, run by the local Joseph Camp. DUP says its satellite museums hold pioneer artifacts from their own area; this one's listing gives no further detail on the collection.
- Sally Kanosh DUP MuseumKanosh Pioneer FreeThe 1870 Kanosh tithing office, a small Greek Revival building in the temple form, which the church handed to the local Daughters of Utah Pioneers in 1952. It now serves as their meeting place and relic hall for local pioneer artifacts. Visits are by appointment and free.
- Sanpitch DUP Camp MuseumMoroni Pioneer FreeA small museum in Moroni run by the Sanpitch Camp of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers.
- Redmond Camp Christine DUP CabinRedmond Pioneer FreeCamp Christine of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers keeps this cabin museum on Center Street in Redmond.
- Round Valley Camp DUP MuseumScipio Pioneer FreeA Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum in tiny Scipio, just off I-15. It opens by appointment and admission is free; neither listing describes the collection.
- Spring City - Canal Creek DUP MuseumSpring City Pioneer FreeA Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum that the DUP directory lists as the Spring City/Canal Creek DUP Museum and Old Jail. It sits in Spring City's old city hall, built in 1893.
Southern Utah 17
- Big Water Visitor Center Museum, Grand Staircase-EscalanteBig Water Science FreeThe BLM's dinosaur stop for Grand Staircase-Escalante, on Highway 89 about 18 miles northwest of Page, Arizona. A full-length mural shows the Late Cretaceous landscape, and the paleontology and geology exhibits include dinosaur bones from a monument where fourteen new dinosaur species have been identified since 2005.
- Garth and Jerri Frehner Museum of Natural HistoryCedar City Science FreeA free natural history museum on the first floor of Southern Utah University's Science Addition Building, with collections on campus since as early as 1915. It shows large scale taxidermy, rocks and minerals, fossils, insects, shells and herbarium specimens. Its oddest piece is the Dancing Calves, born just north of Cedar City.
- Southern Utah Museum of ArtCedar City Art FreeSouthern Utah University's art museum, in a Brooks + Scarpa building designed after the region's slot canyons. The collection leans on Western landscape painters like Maynard Dixon, Edith Hamlin and Jimmie F. Jones, and has a deep print collection with works by Chagall, Whistler and Kathe Kollwitz. Entry is free, so it's an easy stop on a drive to the parks.
- Escalante Interagency Visitor Center MuseumEscalante Science FreeA visitor center on Highway 12 in Escalante staffed together by the BLM, the National Park Service and the Forest Service. Its exhibit room covers the geology and ecosystem of Grand Staircase-Escalante's nearly one million acres, and a small theater shows the film Traces in Time. Staff also hand out information on the Dixie National Forest and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and there is a covered picnic area out front.
- Hurricane Valley Pioneer Heritage Park MuseumHurricane Pioneer FreeThis museum tells how Hurricane got its name and how settlers spent thirteen years digging the Hurricane Canal by hand between 1893 and 1906 to water the valley. It also covers the town's first families, and the Bradshaw House, Hurricane's first permanent home, is open for tours nearby.
- Kanab MuseumKanab History FreeKanab's town museum, in the Deanna P. Glover Building, follows local history from the Ancestral Puebloans through the early settlers to the town's film-making years. It holds thousands of artifacts and archives, and the permanent exhibits are free.
- Kanab Visitor Center, Grand Staircase-Escalante National MonumentKanab Science FreeThe BLM's Kanab office for Grand Staircase-Escalante has interpretive displays built around traces in time, covering the Monument's geology and archaeology. Admission is free, and the front desk hands out self-guided activities, so it works as a first stop before driving into the Monument.
- Grafton Historic TownsiteRockville History FreeGrafton is a ghost town on the Virgin River, settled in 1859 and finally abandoned by 1944 after decades of floods. Volunteers with the Grafton Heritage Partnership have restored several of its buildings, and you can walk the townsite and its cemetery on your own. Film crews shot scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid here.
- Jacob Hamblin HomeSanta Clara Homes and farms FreeJacob Hamblin built this stone house in 1863 after a flash flood wiped out his family's earlier home at Fort Clara. It became headquarters for the Southern Utah Indian Mission and hosted visitors including Brigham Young and John Wesley Powell. Guided tours walk through rooms furnished in 1860s style and talk about frontier family life.
- Santa Clara Historical MuseumSanta Clara History FreeA free museum in the basement of Santa Clara's town hall covering the area's Indigenous village remnants and petroglyphs, Fort Santa Clara, and the Swiss emigrants who settled the town in 1861. Exhibits include religious artifacts, school days, cowboys and individual Swiss family stories. Its current series looks at the chapels, Relief Society house and school the settlers built by 1912.
- Brigham Young Winter Home and OfficeSt. George Homes and farms FreeBrigham Young spent his winters here from 1870 to 1877, and the restored house is furnished as it would have been then. Next door is the office where he ran church business and oversaw building the St. George Temple. Guided tours cover his family life in town and the settling of southern Utah.
- McQuarrie Memorial Pioneer MuseumSt. George Pioneer FreeThe Daughters of Utah Pioneers run this downtown St. George museum, which is packed with objects and stories from Washington County's early settlers, among them a leather sidesaddle that belonged to Mary Ann Woodward. Volunteers give guided tours if you ask, and on the third weekend of the month local historians talk about topics like the Old Spanish Trail. It is free and easy to fit around a day in town.
- St. George Museum of ArtSt. George Art FreeThe city's art museum collects art and artifacts from Utah and the West and rotates shows from its permanent collection alongside current artists. Recent exhibitions include Ben Steele's 45th State of Mind, which runs art history and pop culture through a Utah lens, and Aziza Abdieva's Fear Alchemy, built from Utah landscapes. Tours can be requested ahead.
- Utah Tech University Sears Art MuseumSt. George History FreeUtah Tech University's art museum mounts about six exhibitions a year and holds a sizable permanent collection owned by the school. Recent shows include work by Amiah Dominguez and Colleen Gianatiempo's Material Poetics in the foyer. Every Presidents Day weekend it hosts the Sears Invitational, a show and sale of roughly 200 paintings by about 150 artists.
- Western Sky Aviation Warbird MuseumSt. George Military FreeA nonprofit museum at the St. George airport that preserves historic military aircraft in two hangars, one of 2,500 and one of 8,000 square feet. The fleet includes a T-37 Tweet, MiG-15 and MiG-17 jets, an F-5B, a T-38 Talon and a 1965 BAC Jet Provost still in flying condition, and a P-51 Mustang and T-33 often visit. Tours are free; groups of ten or more should book a week ahead.
- Washington City MuseumWashington History FreeThe Washington City Museum is in the town's old two-story sandstone schoolhouse, which the city dates to 1877, and volunteers from the Washington City Historical Society staff it. Its displays and antiques cover the town's 1857 settlement for the Cotton Mission and the Cotton Factory. A monument plaza outside has statues and plaques of early settlers.
- Kanab Heritage House MuseumKanab Homes and farms FreeCheck before you go
Eastern Utah 7
- Bears Ears Education CenterBluff History FreeA free center in Bluff, sponsored by the Bears Ears Partnership, with material on the region's archaeology and the history of Bears Ears National Monument. Volunteers hand out free maps and advice to hikers, paddlers and climbers. A collaborative Tribal exhibit led by the five Tribes and Pueblos of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition is in development.
- Bluff Fort Historic SiteBluff Pioneer FreeA rebuilt pioneer fort in Bluff, run by the Hole in the Rock Foundation, telling the story of the 1880 settlers. The grounds hold fourteen family cabins, including the Barton cabin, the only original San Juan pioneer cabin left, plus a full-size replica of Bluff's first meetinghouse and a co-op replica with a theater showing films on the pioneers. Kids can climb into a covered wagon and pan for gold, and there is a Navajo hogan and a Ute tepee.
- Moab Arts CenterMoab Art FreeMoab Arts is a City of Moab department with a free Foyer Gallery of rotating shows. From October 3 to November 15 it hangs the Plein Air Artists Colorado exhibition, over 100 works by more than 60 artists, with a closing reception at the November 6 ArtWalk. The building also runs classes for kids and adults, an artist residency, the Red Rock Arts Festival and a Holiday Craft Fair.
- Frontier MuseumMonticello History FreeA free museum on Monticello's Main Street, opened in 1998 and listed on the city's welcome center site. It holds local pioneer items, vintage clothing and an old telephone operator's switchboard.
- Bryner Pioneer MuseumPrice Pioneer FreeA pioneer history museum in Price, run only by volunteers and paid for by donations. Its site does not list individual exhibits, but it has put up the flagpole that once stood at the Price Post Office, salvaged, repaired and installed at the museum. Entry is free, and volunteers will open it for tours outside regular hours if you call.
- Museum of Uintah CountyVernal History FreeVernal's county museum covers the Uintah Basin from its First Peoples through pioneer settlement, ranching and mining. A section on the Outlaw Trail tells the stories of local figures such as Matt Warner, Josie Bassett and the Newton Brothers, and the art gallery rotates its exhibits.
- Uintah County DUP MuseumVernal Pioneer FreeThe Daughters of Utah Pioneers keep this museum in Uintah County's first tithing office, a stone building from 1887 across the street from the Vernal temple. Inside are a Mormon handcart, the medical tools of Dr. Harvey Coe Hullinger, Fremont and Ute artifacts, early photographs of the basin and an organ from the Vogue Theatre.
The museums keep their own hours. We keep a weekly list.
Three free Thursday emails, each about its own corner of Utah.
- The Bench PressSugar House, Millcreek, Holladay and the east bench.Subscribe, free
- The Happy CamperLehi, American Fork, Highland, Alpine, Cedar Hills, Pleasant Grove and Lindon.Subscribe, free
- The Group ProjectProvo and Orem.Subscribe, free
Photos, left to right and top to bottom: Xboxtravis7992, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
