Washington Cotton Factory

This factory was the closest thing the Cotton Mission had to a payoff. Brigham Young sent families to Utah's Dixie to grow cotton, and to turn the crop into cloth he ordered a mill: built between 1865 and 1870 under Appleton Harmon, the Washington Cotton Factory became the industrial center of the mission. It ran as a cooperative, then briefly under private lease, spinning and weaving southern Utah's cotton. But the Dixie cotton economy never paid, undercut by cheaper cotton elsewhere, and the factory wound down around 1900 — the sturdiest monument to a venture that mostly disappointed.

What the plaque says

Built 1865-1870 on orders from Brigham Young. Appleton Harmon supervised construction. Center of Dixie “Cotton Mission”. Operated as a co-operative business and briefly under private lease until c. 1900

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm — 6.4 mi
  Real dinosaur footprints preserved in ancient sandstone
• Snow Canyon State Park — 8.6 mi
  Red and white sandstone cliffs with ancient lava flows
• Hurricane Canal Trail — 13 mi
  The hand-dug canal that built Hurricane, now a walking trail blasted into the Virgin River gorge
• Grafton Ghost Town — 25 mi
  A photogenic ghost town used in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

More markers nearby

• Relief Society Building Built 1857 — 0.3 mi
• Adair Spring The Birthplace Of Utah's dixie Washington City Utah — 0.6 mi
• Adair Spring — 0.6 mi
• Temple Timber Trail — 0.6 mi