A vital source of water for desert flora and fauna, the Ancestral Puebloan people, the Paiute Indians, and for the Mormons who followed them into this stark, stunning country, Pipe Springs is now a monument to pioneer history. Visitors can experience the Old West amid cabins and corrals, an orchard, ponds and a garden. There's a museum with regular guided tours throughout the day and, in summer, rangers and costumed volunteers reenact various pioneer tasks.
The Mormon fort, built by one AP Winsor over the natural spring that made the site so important, never saw a shot fired in anger. It later became the central structure of the ranch that developed here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The small museum examines the turbulent history of local Paiutes and Mormon settlers.