A section of a village showing a typical arrangement of barns and houses on village lots with farmland in the background

(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, FOLK 012, No. 017.)

Mormon villages are a cluster of homes surrounded by farming lands. The home lots were arranged on blocks separated by wide streets, laid out north-south and east-west. Public buildings were located in the center of town. Farmers lived in the town and drove out to their farming plots for work. The concept was originally envisioned by the Church of Jesus Christ founder Joseph Smith to facilitate cooperative efficiency and to maintain religious education and practice.

This seed of cooperative efficiency would blossom in Utah and lead to many economic cooperative efforts that would change how farmers worked their land and sold their crops.