By 1864 Lorenzo
Snow was ready to implement his plans for a cooperative community. A
mercantile store, established in 1864, was the first cooperative business,
but soon many different types of industries and services were added.
Workers were paid in scrip which could be used for trade in any of the
departments of the cooperative. By the mid-1870s, the cooperative association
was producing all the commodities necessary for maintenance of the community,
and Snow had realized his goal of making the people of Brigham City independent of the outside world. His cooperative became a prototype
for similar ventures in Mormon settlements throughout Utah. It was recognized
as the first and most successful of the Mormon cooperative organizations.
However, a series of financial disasters between 1876 and 1879 crippled
the organization and forced the association to begin selling its industries to private businessmen. The Co-op went into receivership in 1895.
After the demise
of the Co-op, private enterprise in the area flourished. By 1910 Brigham
City's population was 4,000, and its residents were running local industries
and retail businesses as well as operating farms. In the 1920s and 1930s
Brigham City essentially remained a small Mormon agricultural town specializing
in fruit production.