Mantua is eight miles east of Brigham City on US-89. It had a series of early names, including Little Valley for its lacation, Flaxville because the early settlers concentrated on raising flax, Copenhagen because a majority of the settlers were Danes, and Geneva for the Swiss city. Lorenzo Snow, fifth president of the Mormon Church, named the town after his birthplace, Mantua, Ohio. There is a counterclaim by some that the name comes from the early French-Canadian trapper's loose cloak, a Manteau.