Twenty Mormon families and fifteen bachelors from Salt Lake City settled the area, and built homes inside protective walls originally measuring 200 feet (61 m) long and 7 feet (2.1 m) high. Flash flooding that washed away the dams and irrigation systems led to crop failures and caused the abandonment of the town by 1881.[5]
The US Census listed its population as 191 in 1880.[6]
Brigham City was one of four Little Colorado River colonies.[7] The other colonies were Joseph City, Sunset, and Obed. Joseph City is the only remaining colony.[8]
Brigham City was added to the National Register of Historic Places as of June 9, 1978,[9] and the remnants are currently undergoing restoration.[4] 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 [10][11]
Demographics
Brigham City appeared in the U.S. Census in 1880, with a population of 191.[12] The original townsite has since been annexed into the city of Winslow and is now a historic site.[13]
^Moffat, Riley (1996). Population History of Western U.S. Cities and Towns, 1850–1990. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 9. ISBN0-8108-3033-7.
^Tanner, George S and J Morris Richards, Colonization on the Little Colorado: The Joseph City Region (Flagstaff, Arizona: 1977) xiii.
^Tanner, George S and J Morris Richards, Colonization on the Little Colorado: The Joseph City Region (Flagstaff, Arizona: 1977) 21, 32, 34.
^Stone, Lyle M. and Gerald A. Doyle & Assoc. 1980 "A Research Report and Restoration Considerations for the Interpretive Development of Historic Resources at Brigham City, A. T. for the City of Winslow, Arizona." ARS, Tempe and Gerald A. Doyle & Associates, Phoenix.
^Ferg, Alan 1992 "1991 AAS Excavations at Brigham City and Plans for 1992." The Petroglyph (Arizona Archaeological Society) 28(3):14–15 and 2005 "Brother Behrman’s Pottery." Archaeology Southwest 19(2):7.
