About Brigham City
Brigham City was founded in 1851 by Mormon Pioneers in the Bear River Valley at the mouth of Box Elder Canyon. The jagged, rocky peaks of Wellsville Mountain tower over the city on the northeast, while grasslands extend for miles to the west, giving way finally to the mud and salt flats of Great Salt Lake. Grass and sagebrush cover the lower slopes of the mountain and patchy forests of Junipers cling to the upper slopes where they can.
Brigham City was laid out with wide streets and large city blocks so that the settlers could raise their animals and gardens at their homes. The city was named after the Brigham Young, the prophet of the Mormon Church. Fourteen years after their arrival, the pioneers undertook the construction of a beautiful tabernacle. A fire gutted the building in 1896, and the rebuilt building stands today in a square at the center of the city.
Under the direction of Church leaders, the settlers of Brigham City practised a cooperative system of industry aimed at producing food, clothing and other commodities for the community. The system, called the United Order, operated from 1864 to 1880.
As of the year 2000, Brigham City was home to 17,411 people. It lies just off Interstate 15, the main north-south artery along the Wasatch Front. Utah Highway 13 passes through the city on Main Street, and roughly paralleling the freeway. Utah Highway 38 begins on the north of the city and follows the foot of the mountains northward. U. S. Highway 89 passes the city on the south and east following Box Elder Canyon eastward to Mantua and Cache Valley.
