If there’s one thing a Sister Wives fan can predict it’s that every few seasons Kody Brown is going to uproot his family to start over new in a completely different state. Here’s the relatively definitive guide of everywhere the Brown family has lived:
Pre-TLC
Before the cameras started rolling on Sister Wives, Kody, Meri, Janelle and Christine Brown lived in many different places, together and apart. After Meri and Kody married in April of 1990 they settled down in American Fork, Utah, which is right next to Lehi and about a half hour south of Salt Lake City.
Piecing together accounts from the Brown family in their Becoming Sister Wives book [Amazon affiliate link], Kody and Meri soon relocated to be near Kody’s dad, who owned a ranch in Lovell, Wyoming. Soon after that, they moved into a cabin in Montana. It doesn’t mention in the book where in Montana the cabin was located, but I assume it was near the southern border of the state, not far from Lovell.
While the couple lived in Montana, their friendship with Janelle strengthened and eventually became a courtship. “Meri and I moved back to Wyoming to get ready to bring Janelle into our family,” Kody recalls in their book. However, once Janelle and Kody married and she moved in, things didn’t go well as Janelle found herself to be a third wheel.
Despite the turbulent household, the Brown family decided to court Christine, who was living in Utah. The courtship was short and soon Christine was added as the third wife.
There’s a bit of an information gap during this period, but Kody and Meri filed for bankruptcy in 2005 and listed a Powell, Wyoming address as their home. In the filing, Kody stated he was a salesman for a Billings, Montana sign company and had worked there for five years. Meri stated she was an engraver for an awards company in Powell, Wyoming, and had worked there for nine years.
After Janelle gave birth to her fifth son, Gabriel, in 2001 she struggled with postpartum depression. After a “particularly nasty fight” with Meri and then encountering a complete lack of sympathy from Kody, Janelle decided to move out of the house she shared with Meri and Kody. (Christine had her own apartment nearby.)
Janelle and her kids moved in with her mom for a few months before Janelle got her own home roughly 30 miles from the rest of the Browns. “Two years after I’d established myself in my own house, Kody told me that he was moving the family to Utah,” Janelle recalls in the Browns’ book. Janelle basically told Kody “See ya later,” but then he revealed that he had found a house large enough for everyone to live together, but also have their own space. Janelle was sold!
Sister Wives fans will recognize the description of the Browns’ house in Lehi that was prominently featured in the first season of the show.
Lehi
When we first met The Browns on television, Kody, Meri, Janelle and Christine had been settled for years in a large home that had been renovated specifically for polygamy. This is the only time Kody’s first three wives all lived under one roof, with Janelle inhabiting the left side of the Utah house, Meri on the top of the right side, and Christine under her at the bottom.
The layout of the Lehi house is important to understand. Christine, who left Kody in Fall 2021, expresses to this day that she did not enjoy being “the basement wife.” (This is a stigma prevalent in plural families implying that the wife who gets the “lower level” is “hidden” and has less standing in the family.) Her grudge ran so deep it seemed to be a big factor in their divorce after nearly 25 years of marriage. Nobody puts Baby in the basement!
The Brown family loved living in Utah because of the religious community, but ultimately fled for a number of factors including the addition of fourth wife Robyn, and the criminal charges polygamy could get you in the community at that time (polygamy has been decriminalized in Utah since, meaning the infraction gets you more of a ‘parking ticket’ than serious jail time.)
Las Vegas
With Robyn in tow, the Browns moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. The intention was for them all to be together in homes near each other but not conjoining, so they (eventually) bought 4 lots costing approximately $400,000 each.
But the move was not without its challenges. Before finding the perfect property for the cul de sac, the Brown family lived in 4 separate houses in Vegas.
The houses in the cul-de-sac were the same general size and layout, but customized to fit each wife’s needs and wants. Season 5 has a great episode arc where we get to see the arguments and excitement of the wives choosing which version of each home aspect would be “theirs.”
Most fans believed that life on the cul de sac was going great, with the family even sharing yards for all their children to play. However, cracks were beginning to form as it made it impossible to hide where Kody was (and wasn’t) spending his time. Kody got the itch to move, and so once again, the Browns packed their bags.
Flagstaff
The dream for Arizona was to purchase the large mountainside property of Coyote Pass and build family homes near each other. This wasn’t something that could easily or quickly be achieved however. Meri and Robyn both had to move into multiple different units before settling in Flagstaff.
While they eventually all ended up in places that suited them, all 4 wives ended up in different areas.
The future of Coyote Pass is unknown, but Christine recently shocked everyone by selling her portion of the property (See: Lot 3 below) to the family for a mere $10 as a peace offering, however this was just a nominal price and the real sell price could be much more. This suggests to fans that the family intends to stay on Coyote Pass and eventually build. Plans for the property we know for sure are Janelle wanting space for green houses and everyone wanting a piece of the pond.
UPDATE – There has been some confusion about the map above. This is the actual map of the lots on Coyote Pass from county property records with the names listed on the deeds for each. We did a complete Coyote Pass breakdown in a previous post, including a graph of the acreage and the price of each lot. There will be an updated post very soon reflecting the fact that Christine is no longer on any of the property deeds.
We will know much more about the Brown family’s future plans when Season 17 premieres Sunday, September 11th 10/9c on TLC.
Ashley Marie is a writer for Starcasm and the personality behind Twitter’s RealityByAshley. You can contact Ashley via Twitter or email at realitybyashley(at)gmail.com
