Ogden, 1840
The land that is now modern-day Ogden, Utah is dominated by Native American Shoshone Tribes. White immigrants have not yet made their way this far West. No person could have predicted that within 30 years time, this area would become known as the crossroads of America and a cultural melting pot connecting not only the nation, but the world in a capacity that had never been done before.
The trains were coming.
But I regress …
Despite what many people may think, Ogden was actually the FIRST permanent white settlement in Utah – not Salt Lake City. Ogden was originally founded in 1845 by fur trapper mountain man, Miles Goodyear. Goodyear originally established a trading post, Fort Buenaventura nearby (about a mile west from present-day Ogden.)Today, you can visit a historically accurate recreation of this settlement. One of Goodyear’s cabins was actually saved and moved to The Daughter of Utah Pioneer’s Museum site on Ogden’s Mormon Tabernacle Square, where it has been restored. This cabin is known as the oldest permanent residence in Utah.
The Mormon prophet Brigham Young and the Mormon pioneers actually arrived in the Salt Lake Valley two years after Goodyear, in 1847. James Brown, a member of the “Mormon Battalion,” bought the property from Goodyear. The new settlement that soon grew into a city was renamed Brownsville but was later changed to Ogden after Peter Skene Ogden, a famous trapper in Weber Valley in the 1820’s.
Ogden, 1850
Mormons have begun settling in Shoshone Territory.
The Mormons built a rock and mud wall along what is modern day 28th street, Wall Avenue and 21st street. The 8 foot wall had a six foot base a 31 inch top and 4 gates. Plans to extend the wall further were never completed due to the Indians becoming peaceful. Wall Avenue, the road that sits directly north and south in front of the Union Station today, got its name because of this Mormon Wall.
In the 1850’s -1860’s the Ogden area was nothing but a quiet Mormon agricultural outpost north of Salt lake City.
***This post is the 1st of an extensive blog series. Please stay tuned for the next post listed under, “Touring historic 25th street in Ogden.”
Tour Ogden 