The 8 best things to do in Gunnison.

The Casino Star Theatre opened on Main Street in 1913, in an ornate Beaux Arts building of fluted columns and terra cotta garlands, and more than a century later it is still a working movie house. It sells tickets to current first run films, a few nights a week, and hosts the occasional live show. That a town of 1,400 keeps a 1913 theater running at all is remarkable; that it runs the same movies playing in the multiplex two counties over is the part people do not believe until they see the marquee.

The building is widely cited as one of the oldest continuously operating theaters in Utah. It ran almost without a break for a century, took its Star name in the 1930s, landed on the National Register of Historic Places, and was rescued and restored by a local nonprofit that formed to save it. Tickets are sold at the door rather than online, and the prices are the kind small towns still manage, so check the theater's own listings for what is playing and plan to bring cash or a card to the window.

The full history of the theater, its restoration and the Dragon it helped create is on the sibling Casino Star Theatre and the Sanpitch Dragon page.

Gunnison began as two small 1859 settlements on the lower San Pitch that were joined in 1862 on higher, drier ground, and the town was named for Captain John W. Gunnison, the Army officer who led a Pacific railroad survey through Utah. What grew up here is a plain, square, valley floor farm town, and Main Street shows it honestly. A slow walk of a few blocks takes in the Casino Star Theatre, a handful of brick storefronts and the workaday small town core.

This is not a polished tourist district; it is a real Main Street that happens to hold a genuine 1913 theater, and that honesty is the appeal. It pairs naturally with the Dragon down at the river and a stop at the park, and it is the best way to get the feel of a Sanpete valley town in half an hour.

Why Gunnison sits where it does, how it was settled and named, and what the valley economy is built on are told on the sibling what makes Gunnison different page.

Nine Mile Reservoir is Gunnison's own fishing hole, a warm water reservoir a few miles from town off US-89, sitting at about 5,400 feet. The state stocks it with rainbow and tiger trout, and it fishes best in spring and early summer before the water drops. The shoreline is open and undeveloped, which is the appeal for anyone who would rather fish from the bank or slide a kayak in than fight for a boat ramp.

There are no developed facilities out here, so this is a bring what you need kind of place: water, shade, and whatever tackle you plan to use. Water levels swing from year to year with the irrigation season, so a low year looks very different from a full one. It is a simple, unfussy spot, a few minutes out of town, and a good place to spend a quiet morning.

Be careful with the name: this is Gunnison's Nine Mile Reservoir, not Nine Mile Canyon far to the east, and not the up valley Gunnison Reservoir near Sterling. The town's river and its water are covered on the sibling Gunnison Valley and the San Pitch River page.

Like a lot of Utah towns, Gunnison keeps a big letter on the hillside above it, a white "G" that stands for the valley and its high school. A rough trail climbs the slope to it, and the reward is a clean look back over the whole Gunnison Valley: the grid of town, the green squares of irrigated farmland, the San Pitch River threading through, and the plateaus that wall the valley on both sides. It is the kind of short, steep local hike that residents use for a quick workout and that gives a visitor the lay of the land in one climb.

This is a hillside scramble, not a groomed park trail, so wear real shoes and pick a cool part of the day. There is no water and little shade on the way up, and the footing is loose in spots. For thirty to sixty minutes of effort, it is the best free view in town.

The Gunnison city park is the everyday heart of town, and a genuinely good one for its size. It has a pavilion and picnic tables, a playground, ball fields, a volleyball area and, less usual for a small town park, a rock climbing wall. A running and walking path loops through, and the city pool sits right next door, a real outdoor pool that the town fought for years to build and opened in the late 1990s, brightened with murals.

For a traveler with kids, or anyone who just wants to stretch out on the grass between drives, this is the easy stop. In summer the pool is the center of gravity; the rest of the year the park, the path and the play areas carry it. It is free to use the park, and the pool charges the modest fee small town pools do.

How everyday Gunnison actually works, from groceries to the valley's own hospital, is covered on the sibling everyday Gunnison page.

Head north out of Gunnison on US-89 and you drive the length of the San Pitch valley, past irrigated fields and small Scandinavian founded towns, to Manti in about twenty minutes. Manti's landmark is the Manti Temple, built of local stone and finished in 1888, standing on a hill above the town where you can see it for miles as you approach. The grounds are open to the public, and the temple hill gives the best view of this end of the valley.

Manti also has a long, well kept historic Main Street, part of the string of stone pioneer towns that gave this stretch of US-89 its "Little Denmark" nickname. The drive itself, through the open farm country of the Sanpete valley, is one of the honest pleasures of a Gunnison visit.

The Scandinavian heritage corridor is covered on the region US-89 and Sanpete's Little Denmark page, the valley's farm economy on the Sanpete and Sevier farm country page, and Manti's own homes and neighborhoods on its Manti city guide.

Fifteen minutes south of Gunnison on US-89 is Salina, where I-70, US-50 and US-89 all meet. Two Main Street institutions make it worth the short drive. Burns Saddlery is a working saddle and leather shop that has been in the same family since 1876 and has made Western gear seen on the show Yellowstone, including hats and the gear worn by John Dutton. Mom's Cafe, a couple of doors down, has fried its plate sized Utah scones at the same corner since the 1920s.

Salina is also the last real town before one of the strangest stretches of Interstate in the country, the long services free run of I-70 east across the San Rafael Swell. For a Gunnison visitor, it is an easy add on: a saddle shop, a scone, and the feel of a highway crossroads town.

Salina has its own full guide on The Local, from the top things to do in Salina to the Burns Saddlery and Main Street story, plus the Salina city guide for homes and neighborhoods.