Bushnell General
Hospital, built in 1942 to treat soldiers wounded in World War II, changed
the quiet community. The sixty-building facility constructed on 235
acres brought a major boost to the economy. From the beginning of its
construction until its close in 1946, Bushnell provided new jobs for
local people. Farmers sold produce to the hospital, and business on
Main Street increased with the influx of the hospital staff and patients.
After Bushnell closed, from 1950 until 1984 the facility housed the
Intermountain Indian School, a boarding school for young Indian students.
Brigham City's
growth rate increased rapidly with the construction in 1957 of Thiokol Chemical Corporation's Wasatch Division, the largest manufacturing enterprise
in Box Elder County's history. Brigham's population of 6,790 in 1950
increased to 11,720 in 1960, to 14,000 in 1970 and to 15,596 in 1980
as both Thiokol's solid-fuel motor production and number of employees
expanded. By 1990 Brigham City's population was 20,000.
See: Daughters
of Utah Pioneers, History of Box Elder County 1851-1937 (1937); and
Vaughn J. Nielsen, The History of Box Elder Stake (1977).
Kathleen Bradford