The Brigham City Woolen Factory

The Brigham City Woolen Factory was built in 1870, and began operation on February 4, 1871, with thirty-two workers. As a result of the Civil War, cotton for warp threads on the large looms was scarce, and so the Brigham City coöperative started a cotton farm on the Virgin River at Washington, just upstream from St. George. The cotton farm was named Camp Lorenzo.  The unfinished walls of the Camp Lorenzo headquarters building were still standing when visited by this author in the 1981.

The never-finished dormitory building at Camp Lorenzo

Photograph Copyright 1981 Frederick M. Huchel

Wool is extremely flammable, and the woolen factory caught fire and burned in 1877. It was rebuilt, larger and better, and ran into the late 1880s, when the United Order disbanded. 

 The Rebuilt Mill, 1878
Public Domain

The superintendent of the mill, James Baron, moved operations to Hyrum. In 1907, the mill burned again. In 1915, Mr. Baron rebuilt the mill, and returned the operation to Brigham City. The mill burned again in 1950. The Baron family rebuilt the mill, larger, stronger, and better. This time, they built the offices as a separate structure, to prevent loss of records should another fire consume the mill.

The 1950 Fire
From Through the Years, 1953

The grandsons of James Baron, Lowell, Dale, and Rex (Brother Glen had retired from the business), sold the business in 1988. Mismanagement brought bankruptcy to the new owner. Another owner tried mightily to bring the business back, but in the end, was not successful. The building has sat empty since about 2003. (KSL.com, June 30, 2014).

Then, on Sunday evening, June 29, 2014, a five-alarm fire destroyed the empty woolen mill.

Photographs posted at KSL.com

As it turns out, the fire was not caused by the arsonist who destroyed the grist mill and the planing mill. It was started by a teenager from California, according to his confession, accidentally (see KSL.com, July 8, 2014.  See also here).

So, the woolen mill, the last remaining of the Brigham City coöperative industries, was the last to fall to destruction. It burned, in June, 2014, for the fourth — and likely final — time. Our historical resources from Brigham City’s pioneer days are fast disappearing.