SAINT GEORGE

town and parish, southern coast of St. George's Island, northern Bermuda. One of the oldest English settlements in the Western Hemisphere, St. George was founded in 1612 by colonists in the service of the Virginia Company of London, the same company that had sponsored the Jamestown settlement in Virginia. It served as Bermuda's capital until 1815 and was a centre of Confederate blockade-running activities during the U.S. Civil War. Of architectural interest are St. Peter's Church, established in 1612, and the State House, built in 1619. Pop. (1980) town, 1,647; parish, 4,587. city, seat of Washington County, southwestern Utah, U.S., on the Virgin River, near the Arizona line. Settled in the 1860s as a cotton centre by a Mormon group, it was named for George A. Smith, a counsellor to Brigham Young. The first Mormon temple to be erected in the state (completed 1877) is in St. George. It is the centre of Utah's Dixie, a region noted for poultry raising and fruit and vegetable growing. Its proximity to Dixie National Forest and Zion National Park (q.v.) make tourism an important economic factor. The Brigham Young Winter Home (1873, part of Dixie State Park) is in the city. Dixie College was founded there in 1911. Inc. 1863. Pop. (1990) 28,502.