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