| What makes it historical? |
When the Mormons moved into Utah Territory, one of their big goals was financial indpendence, and with the Civil War threatening to disrupt cotton production, Brigham Young saw the southern part of the state as the perfect location to establish Utah’s “Dixie!” After initial experiments with cotton seeds from Nancy Anderson of Parowan, the first cotton farm opened in Tonaquint in 1858. Even though Brigham Young ordered 300 families to move to “Dixie” and work the cotton fields, they weren’t successful right away because of floods.
This sandstone factory, built under Appleton Harmon’s supervision between 1865 and 1867, produced 500 yards of cotton cloth per day, but Utah’s “Dixie” didn’t turn a profit until the Silver Reef mining boom of 1878! By then, the only cotton merchants making money were selling to miners, but the silver crash of 1884 and the regrowth of the original Dixie took out both industries. The cotton factory changed hands off and on until 1914, when it was abandoned. |
