Brigham City is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

Navajo County Navajo County () is a county in the northern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, its population was 106,717. The county seat is Holbrook. Navajo County comprises the Show Low, Arizona Micropolitan Statistical Area. N ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Founded by member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

near the present city of Winslow in 1876, it was one and one-half miles north of Winslow's current city center, along the

Little Colorado River The Little Colorado River () is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. state of Arizona, providing the principal drainage from the Painted Desert region. Together with its major tributary, the Puerco River, it drains an area of about in ...

. It was organized as a Latter-Day Saints ward in 1878, but by 1881 it had been abandoned. Twenty Mormon families and fifteen bachelors from Salt Lake City settled the area, and built homes inside protective walls originally measuring long and high. Flash flooding that washed away the dams and irrigation systems led to crop failures and caused the abandonment of the town by 1881. The US Census listed its population as 191 in

1880 Events January *January 27 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the incandescent light bulb. Edison filed for a US patent for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected ... to platina contact wires." gr ...

. Brigham City was one of four Little Colorado River colonies. The other colonies were

Joseph City Joseph City (elevation 5,000 ft) is a Census Designated Place located in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. It is located on Interstate 40, approximately eighty miles east of Flagstaff and about thirty-five miles west of Petrified Fo ...

Sunset Sunset (or sundown) is the disappearance of the Sun at the end of the Sun path, below the horizon of the Earth (or any other astronomical object in the Solar System) due to its Earth's rotation, rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth, it ...

, and Obed. Joseph City is the only remaining colony. Brigham City was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as of June 9, 1978, and the remnants are currently undergoing restoration. Only one of the communities' buildings and portions of the encircling wall remain. Archaeological excavations have been carried out at the location of the grist mill, the pottery, and other features

Demographics

Brigham City appeared in the U.S. Census in 1880, with a population of 191. The original townsite has since been annexed into the city of Winslow and is now a historic site.

References

{{authority control Ghost towns in Arizona Former populated places in Navajo County, Arizona Winslow, Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Navajo County, Arizona Populated places established in 1876 1876 establishments in Arizona Territory Tourist attractions in Navajo County, Arizona Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona

Demographics

See also

References