[5] Glendale was originally called "Berryville", and under the latter name permanent settlement was first made in 1864.

[7] Glendale is located in western Kane County at an elevation of 5,800 feet (1,800 m) in Long Valley, along the East Fork of the Virgin River.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Glendale has a total area of 7.8 square miles (20.2 km2), all of it land.

In 1871 Mormons from the Muddy River settlement in Nevada came to settle, naming their town "Glendale".

The people of St. Thomas, Nevada, relocated en masse to Glendale that year, preserving their old ward organization in the new location.

[9] By the late 1800s, the Mormon communities in the area had grown in the nearby towns of Orderville and Mt Carmel Junction, and Glendale became part of the United Order, a program of economic and moral reform that began in 1874 under Brigham Young.