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Each September, in northern Utah, the town of Brigham City welcomes thousands of visitors to celebrate the harvest season during its famous “Peach Days.” Beginning in the early 1900s, the festival celebrated the importance of fruit grown in this rural area. While the event leveraged the popularity of Brigham City peaches, it also cemented the popularity of harvest festivals as a tourist activity.
It all started in 1855, when William Wrighton took Brigham Young’s advice to grow fruit trees in Brigham City. Wrighton purchased 100 peach pits for $1 -- and the decision really paid off! Fruit trees grew especially well in Brigham City’s warm days and cool evenings. Within just three years Wrighton had successfully grown and harvested peaches -- and his success encouraged others. By the turn of the century, train cars full of peaches were shipped out of Brigham City on a weekly basis to towns all around Utah. Other fruit-related businesses flourished as well, including nurseries, canneries, and shipping companies that specialized in produce. The fruit business was booming in Box Elder County and when interest grew around the idea of a community event celebrating local agriculture, the peach festival was born.
The first Peach Days event in 1904 was successful, but relatively modest -- the courthouse lawn hosted fruit displays and a few other activities. But the following year, the Box Elder Commercial Club sponsored Peach Days and their work attracted a lot of visitors from surrounding areas. The club offered concessions and hosted a parade, and advertised the event in newspapers and on billboards. Of course, the publicity highlighted the peach harvest, but it also promoted Brigham City as a great place to live.
Over the years, the single-day event grew to span multiple days. Attractions included fireworks, dancing, beauty contests, a parade with fancy floats, and of course -- free peaches. Today, Peach Day activities include a mountain bike race and a 10K run. But, it wouldn’t be a harvest celebration without actual fruit displays. "Peach Days" continues to be one of the most popular harvest festivals in the state, attracting some 40,000 visitors -- a number that doubles the population of Brigham City for one weekend every year.
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See “Utah Fruit Culture, Past, Present, Future,” Salt Lake Herald-Republican, December 31, 1899; “Peaches by Carloads for Peach Day Crowds”, Salt Lake Herald-Republican, September 16, 1915; Frederick M. Huchel, A History of Box Elder County, Utah State Historical Society, 1999; “From 100 Peach Pits to Peach Days in Brigham City,” The History Blazer, September 1995; Darby Doyle, “Utah’s Fruit Way: Find Local, Fresh Fruit Along Highway 89,” Visit Utah; Audrie McConkie, “Millions of Peaches: One Hundred Years of Brigham City Peach Days,” The Utah Statesman, September 13, 2004.