2025 Historical Marker Reveal
To help celebrate our 20th year, the Cedar City Council will be revealing two bronze historical markers to honor our livestock heritage.
Schedule: Thursday October 23, 2025 from 6:00 pm to 6:15 pm.
Location: Start at Bulloch Drug 91 N Main St, Cedar City, UT 84720, end at Vittles Cafe 155 N Main St, Cedar City, UT 84720
Honoring Cedar Sheep Association
Bulloch Drug Marker
The first ten head of sheep came to Cedar City in 1862 and soon nearly every family in the community acquired a few to produce wool needed to spin clothing for the family. Soon, the local neighborhoods were overwhelmed with the space needed to care for the sheep and a community herd was formed. Located on Cedar Mountain, the herd was brought to town once a year for shearing. By 1869 there were more than 2,000 sheep in the herd and a local co-op, the Cedar Sheep Association, formed to manage the herd and in 1881, they built this building.
The annual shearing of the co-op herd was a big event and after wool needs of the community were met, the remainder was sorted and packed for transport up to Northern Utah. There, the surplus wool was traded for hardware, food items, and other consumer goods and brought back to Cedar City, for sale at the Cedar Sheep Association. Instead of receiving cash based on their share of the herd, stockholders could withdraw their dividend in merchandise.
Additionally, each week, the sheep association drove 25-30 old ewes to town each week where they would be processed by the local butcher in the basement of the association store and distributed to co-op members. In 1917, the community herd was disbanded, but the store remained and in fact an extension was built to the south with a large arch connecting the buildings.
The upstairs of the new building served as the offices of many medical professionals and in 1934, the Thornton Drug Store opened. In 1955 it became known as Bulloch Drug. The 1960’s saw the addition of a café and soda fountain, making Bulloch’s one of the most popular stops on Main Street. In 1999 Evan and Chris Vickers purchased this building and restored the historic structure.
Honoring Palace Drug
Vittles Cafe Marker
Built in 1895, this is one of the oldest buildings on Main Street. Originally, there was a curved parapet on the roof which had been removed by 1932. By 1909, this building become the home of the Palace Drug Store where you could purchase the modern medicine of the day including:
- Dr. King’s New Life Pills
- Chamberlain’s Stomach and Liver Tablets
- Bucklen’s Arnica Salve
- A “choice line” of Perfumery and Cigars and Tabaccos.
By 1924 the building held Lowary’s Cash Grocery with a bakery in the back. The store carried “the very choicest of the season’s offerings in Fruits and Vegetables . . . Which go toward helping you prepare good meals.”
In 1928, the store was given an exemption to the Sunday closing law and was allowed to open for business to support the “traveling public.”
The building served many commercial uses through the years until in 1962 it became the home of Hugh’s Cafe. Hugh Cheever had opened a very successful cafe further up the block that had become a community institution. After his building was destroyed in the 1962 Main Street fire he relocated to this spot. A 1975 ad read “Next time you call your wife and announce that you’re planning on bringing guests home for dinner, give her a break and add ‘to dinner at Hugh’s Cafe.’”
While Hugh Cheever closed his cafe in the late 1980’s this site continues to be both a home for thriving businesses and a powerful example of historic preservation.
Event Sponsors
Rich Wilson
