Parowan Valley was home to prehistoric Anasazi and Sevier people who constructed granaries and pithouses, dating from about A.D. 750 to 1250. Petroglyphs of unusual variety from different periods were pecked into the stone of Parowan Gap about twelve miles northwest of Parowan. Cedar City is the tribal headquarters of the modern Southern Paiute Indians, whose ancestors used the plants and animals of the basin/plateau environment in a complex seasonal pattern.

The Dominguez-Escalante expedition passed through the area on 12 October 1776 on its unsuccessful search for a route to central California. The Catholic fathers followed the Old Spanish Trail long used by Native Americans to southern California. Fur trapper Jedediah Smith was the first American to use the route on his amazing journey of 1826. Mormon settlers dispatched by Brigham Young established Parowan in January 1851 as the mother colony of the southern frontier. Cedar City (originally Coal Creek) was founded the same year. Several pioneer log homes as well as some English two-bay log barns now very rare in the state remain in the county.