Brigham Young

About Brigham Young

Brigham Young (1801–1877) was a pivotal American religious leader who succeeded Joseph Smith as the second President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). His most defining historical contribution was leading the mass migration of tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints from the Midwest to the Salt Lake Valley, establishing a significant settlement in what is now Utah. This monumental organizational feat and his role as the founding governor of the Utah Territory solidify his #947 ranking in MIT’s Pantheon historical importance index.

Despite this substantial historical impact, Young’s modern internet attention shows a notable over-indexing. In 2025, his Wikipedia page accrued an annualized 2.7 million views, resulting in an Attention Gap of +9x, indicating he receives nine times the attention relative to his historical ranking. This contrasts sharply with figures like Edward Victor Appleton (#586 importance), who garnered only 14,000 views, or even Mark the Evangelist (#390 importance) with just 363,000 views. Young's high view count suggests a highly concentrated, dedicated modern audience relative to his standing among the broader historical canon.

Furthermore, the data reveals a recent surge in contemporary interest: his view count experienced a staggering year-over-year increase of +317.0%. However, this appears to be cooling rapidly, as his Q1-to-Q3 momentum shows an 83% drop, suggesting a significant recent event drove the bulk of the recent traffic.