Years ago, in my twenties I traveled Europe extensively and created a blog about all of my experiences as an American traveling in Europe. Once I got pregnant with my first child, I knew I wouldn’t be able to travel and blog about Europe as I once had. This was actually a great opportunity to finally focus on my greatest love – my hometown of Ogden, Utah. This was a chance for me to show my International blog followers, my hidden gem in the world.
I quickly began researching my most interested part of Ogden’s history – the underground tunnels of Historic 25th Street. For those who don’t know, 25th Street is the street that leads out directly from the Union Station where for nearly a century, all train passengers came to eat, drink, sleep and be entertained while waiting to switch trains.
In 2015 when I became pregnant with my first child, I had an opportunity to write a blog series for the Historic 25th Street website. When I wasn’t at my day job, I was out talking to local shop owners and touring the basements of Historic 25th Street. My passion, interest, love and excitement for my hometown grew but after publishing my blog series, I found little time to continue pursuing my research with my continuously growing family.I forgot about my blog entirely and writing faded away with my busy life of being a mother of 3 little girls.
In 2022, while going through some life challenges, a mentor had reminded me of my passion for history, culture, writing, travel and most of all – my desire of building something more with my love for Ogden. This was when the seed that was planted in my 2015 Ogden blog series began to blossom into what is now Tour Ogden. Since this time, I have grown a small business that is shedding a light on Ogden in a way never done before. Tour Ogden is just so many things to me – a way to promote my passion for supporting local businesses, sharing local stories, preserving Ogden’s incredible history, showing off our mountain trails, exposing history that locals didn’t even know – the list goes on and on. Tour Ogden at its core is one of my main purposes in life and I can’t wait to share my incredible piece of the world with you.
I have inserted my blog post from my travel blog, Jackie’s World Travel that began my journey of creating Tour Ogden.
Enjoy my post attached below!
After extensively traveling Europe for the past 6 years and focusing my blog specifically on European travel, I am finally taking some time out to write about something very close to my heart – my hometown. I have lived in Ogden City, Utah, U.S.A my whole life and I truly believe that it is one of the most amazing places in the World. I have traveled far and wide seeking out amazing things, but every time I come home from my travels, I am that much more convinced that my home state and city is just as amazing, if not more amazing than any place I’ve traveled -Why you ask? Well, it’s kind of hard to miss the obvious reason; the gigantic mountains that are literally sitting in all of our backyards, but Ogden is so much more than that. Ogden’s vibrant history and specifically downtown Ogden’s historic 25th street’s history is a history that is worth telling and one that I am dying to share with my international, national and local followers.
Many people only hear about or have a great desire to visit the “historic” or trendy U.S. cities like Philadelphia, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boston or New York, but some cities in the U.S. such as Ogden are only recently having light shed on them and becoming more known for how amazing they truly are. After all, Utah was the host of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games with Ogden City and the surrounding area hosting several events. In my travel blog, I have taken great pride in shining light on places that most travelers don’t think to go when planning a trip to Europe. Whether it be a unknown fairy-tale town in Belgium or Czech Republic, to a amazing restaurant in the non-touristy area of Rome, I hope to give Ogden the same well-deserved recognition it deserves because I truly feel that Ogden is a hidden gem.
So with this said, I have put my European posts momentarily on hold due to an amazing opportunity I have received to do a guest post series for Ogden’s Historic 25th Street website. In this series, I will be focusing primarily on the fascinating underground tunnels and world of Ogden’s Historic 25th street during the time it was known as one of the most decadent towns in America.
Tour Ogden 