Historic Brigham City Relief Society Granary

After the men had taken the harvest, the women and children went back into the fields for what was left. Answering a churchwide call to store wheat against hard years, Harriet Snow, who led the Relief Society women of the Box Elder Stake, set them gleaning the stubble grain by grain — a hundred bushels the first year, kept in the courthouse basement, then in a bedroom of her house. In 1877 her husband Lorenzo Snow authorized a granary of rock and brick on Co-op Square. The women filled it, and it held the town's reserve for decades.

What the plaque says

In 1876, Harriet Snow, Box Elder Stake Relief Society President, was asked by the LDS General Relief Society President, Emmeline B. Wells, to join with women's groups throughout the LDS Church to gather and store wheat against a time of need from drought, crop failure, or insect plague. Women and children went into the fields after the men completed the harvest and gleaned the remaining stalks and grains of wheat for storage. In Brigham City, 100 bushels of wheat were gleaned and stored first in the basement of the courthouse, and then in an upper bedroom of Harriet Snow's home. Harriet requested a granary be built and in 1877 Lorenzo Snow, her husband, authorized the construction of this rock building on what was known as Co-op Square. The granary was well-constructed of rock and brick. Primary children gathered glass to be crushed and worked into the mortar to help keep mice out. The women of the Relief Society kept the granary clean and used lime to keep bugs away. The stored wheat was used mostly for local needs, but at times wheat was sent outside Box Elder County. One such day of need arrived in 1898, when wheat was sent to Parowan and other southern Utah settlements that were suffering from drought. In 1906 a train car of flour from the Relief Society granaries was sent to earthquake-devastated San Francisco. At intervals unused wheat was sold and replenished to keep it fresh. The need for small, local granaries eventually passed, and this building was sold in 1913 to the Box Elder School District to store food for school lunch programs. Because of its thick walls, the building was used for cold storage. When use of the building ceased in 1967, it slowly fell into disrepair. In 2008 the Box Elder Chapter of the Sons of Utah Pioneers emptied the building of the old freezers, re-built the collapsing roof and refurbished the inside. This durable old building, the Brigham City Relief Society Granary, today stands as a reminder of the hard work, frugality and vision of the Pioneer settlers of Brigham City and Box Elder County. This kiosk was built as an Eagle Project in 2013 by Scott Shakespear and Varsity Team 801 with the support of the Box Elder Chapter of the Sons of Utah Pioneers. S.U.P. Monument # 148.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wellsville Mountains — 8.9 mi
  The steepest mountains in North America for their height
• Hyrum State Park — 12 mi
  A family-friendly reservoir at the mouth of Blacksmith Fork Canyon
• Powder Mountain — 15 mi
  The largest ski resort in the United States by acreage — a famously uncrowded "PowMow" now remaking itself under Netflix's Reed Hastings.
• Logan — 18 mi
  A vibrant college town tucked into a stunning mountain valley

More markers nearby

• Woolen Mill - Built 1870 — steps away
• Brigham City Fire Station — 0.3 mi
• Brigham City Co-op Store — 0.4 mi
• Brigham City, a Co-op Town — 0.5 mi