OGDEN

A short history of Ogden

Originally named Fort Buenaventura, Ogden was the first permanent settlement by people of European descent in what is now Utah. It was established by the trapper Miles Goodyear in 1846 about a mile west of where downtown Ogden sits today.

In November 1847, Captain James Brown purchased all the land now comprising Weber County together with some livestock and Fort Buenaventura for $3,000 (equivalent to $104,000 in 2025). The land was conveyed to Captain Brown in a Mexican Land Grant, this area being at that time a part of Mexico. The settlement was then called Brownsville, after Captain James Brown, but was later named Ogden for a brigade leader of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden, who had trapped in the Weber Valley a generation earlier. There is some confusion about which "Ogden" was the first to set foot in the area. A Samuel Ogden traveled through the western United States on an exploration trip in 1818. The site of the original Fort Buenaventura is now a Weber County park.

Ogden is the closest sizable city to the Golden Spike location at Promontory Summit, Utah, where the first transcontinental railroad was joined in 1869. It was known as a major passenger railroad junction owing to its location along major east–west and north–south routes, prompting the local chamber of commerce to adopt the motto, "You can't get anywhere without coming to Ogden." Railroad passengers traveling west to San Francisco from the eastern United States typically passed through Ogden (and not through the larger Salt Lake City to the south). However, Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, no longer serves Ogden. Passengers who want to travel to and from Ogden by rail must travel via FrontRunner commuter rail to Salt Lake City and Provo. Renowned Danish impressionistic writer Herman Bang died in Ogden in 1912 during a lecture tour in the United States.

In 1972, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints completed construction of and dedicated the Ogden Utah Temple in Ogden. The temple was built to serve the area's large LDS population. In 2010, the LDS Church announced they would renovate the Ogden Temple and the adjacent Tabernacle. The work which began in 2011 includes an update to the exterior, the removal of the Tabernacle's steeple to make the Temple's steeple a main focus, and a new underground parking garage and gardens. The Temple was rededicated in 2014.

Because Ogden had historically been Utah's second-largest city, it is home to a large number of historic buildings. However, by the 1980s, several Salt Lake City suburbs and Provo had surpassed Ogden in population.

The Defense Depot Ogden Utah operated in Ogden from 1941 to 1997. Some of its 1,128 acres (456 ha) have been converted into a commercial and industrial park called the Business Depot Ogden, colloquially known as "BDO".

Two ships in the United States Navy have been named after Ogden: USS Ogden (PF-39) in 1943, and USS Ogden (LPD-5) in 1964. On September 17, 2024, the National Park Service announced that Ogden had been named a World War II Heritage City.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Ogden, Utah, revision 1380465715 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.