LITTLEFIELD – The most forgotten town in Arizona is a former Mormon colony that adjoins U.S. 91 in the northwestern corner of the state.

Littlefield was one of several settlements founded between 1850 and 1860 in what today is southwestern Utah, northern Arizona, and southeastern Nevada.

Most of these towns were strung out along the Virgin River, a minor tributary of the Colorado which has carved a series of river valleys in the three-state area.

Littlefield has changed little in the course of a century. It is still populated by Mormons, most of whom have the last name of Reber, and most of whom are descendants of the original pioneers.

Rather than cotton, the crop consigned by Brigham Young, they plant green onions and radishes, and during the harvest entire families pitch in to help.

It is also the harvest that whittles attendance at school, said, Dessie Reber, the teacher of the Littlefield elementary school.

Mrs. Reber, who is the mother of 6 children, and whose husband is a farmer, explains that there are about 22 people living in the town.

"And except for two families of Petersons, we are all Rebers," she said brightly.

At the present time enrollment is up because of a nearby highway construction job. Mrs. Reber counts among her students Mexican and Navajo children of construction workers, her own offspring, and if this weren’t enough, three sets of twins.

Littlefield has the charm that usually goes with an isolated village. Its main street wanders aimlessly through farmyards, past the schoolhouse, and ends near a cluster of houses and old rock buildings that comprise the center of the community.

Beyond the town is the checker-board pattern of farm fields, the Virgin River, marked by a windrow of cottonwood trees, and a range of mountains as barren as the valley is green.

*(This article was given to me by Dessie Reber Staheli out of her many scrapbooks from through the years. It does not have a date or source on it. If anyone knows where this article came from or how to contact Mr. Malach, please let me know so that I can give proper credit where credit is due)