Brighton, Iowa  Brighton is a city in Washington County, Iowa, United States. It's part of the Iowa City, Iowa Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 652 at the 2010 census. Brighton was laid out in 1840. During the 1840s and 1850 quickly developed into one of the largest centres of hog production west of the Mississippi. In 1851, David Powers discovered the fossil remains of a Mastodon. The fossil was three and a half feet long, fourteen inches wide at the larger end, and weighed eighty-three pounds. In 1854 Brighton was sorely afflicted by the Cholera. In 1882, the Iowa Central Railway and the narrow-gauge Burlington and Western Railway battled for right-of-way as they built west from Coppock toward Brighton. At several points, crews for the rival railroads tore up tracks the other had put down. The line through Brighton was originally platted as a street. The B&W claimed the entire street as its right-of way, and after vandalism, arrests and court battles, the two lines built parallel tracks down the street (with the B&W claiming the center line) to their crossing west of town. This has been described as the Brighton Railroad War. Both lines crossed the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad on the east side of town. The Burlington and Western was later widened and taken over by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy and the Iowa Central was taken over by the Minneapolis and St. Louis. Brighton is located at (41.173361, -91.820784). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land. Brighton is located where Iowa State Road 78 and Iowa State Road 1 meet and is located near the Skunk River and near Lake Darling State Park. As of the census of 2010, there were 652 people, 269 households, and 178 families living in the city. The population density was . There were 295 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 98.8% White, 0.3% African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.2% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, and 0.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.8% of the population. There were 269 households, of which 29.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.0% were married couples living together, 12.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.6% had a male householder with no wife present, and 33.8% were non-families. 27.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.