Ogden, Utah

“ Ogden has some twenty thousand people. Its present considered commercial and manufacturing importance is but a suggestion of the greatness to be. Ogden Canyon, easy of access, is a mountain rift with beauty of stream and wall. The sugar mills and electric power plants are interesting.
GREEN RIVER RUNS OVER COPPER-STAINED ROCKS AND PEBBLES THROUGH A COUNTRY OF ROMANTIC SCENERY AND ABUNDANCE OF WILD GAME.
Utah is great in agriculture, fruit growing, stock raising and mining. ”

“ With the opening up of railroads, it is reasonable to expect a much larger gain in the next decade. There is at present but one railroad into the Territory—the Utah and Northern, a narrow guage, running through the eastern part, though other lines have been projected, the most important of which is one to run from Ogden, Utah, to some point on the Pacific coast in the State of Oregon. ”

“ Astor sent him to Astoria, on the far Pacific. He reached there just in time to find the post in the hands of the British. Of course Ogden became British again. He it was that explored the Yellowstone, the Utah and Shoshonie countries, made his winter rendezvous at Ogden's Hole in the Bear River Mountains, paddled his canoes on Great Salt Lake, and discovered Ogden's River, that Fremont renamed the Humboldt. He raided the beaver dams of Colorado, and following Jedediah Smith over the Sierras, trapped on the Sacramento. ”

“ No event occurred more exciting than the shooting of a buffalo that crossed his path—this being the third, beside sundry antelopes and several prairie wolves that had fallen to his revolver, in the course of his journey since leaving Omaha. On riding into Ogden, Captain Glazier was surprised to find it so important a city. It forms the western terminus of the Union Pacific, and the eastern terminus of the Central Pacific, railroads, and is the second city in size and population in the Territory of Utah. ”

“ But for myself, having seen nearly all the canyons of Utah and many of Colorado, I confess that the Weber and Ogden would have sufficed for all mere sight-seeing purposes.
It was in the Ogden refreshment-room, waiting for the train for San Francisco, that I saw a performance that filled me with astonishment and dismay. It was a man eating his dinner. And let me here remark, with all possible courtesy, that the American on his travels is the most reprehensible eater I have ever seen. ”

“ A successful trapper and trader, he led for many years parties into the interior, where he explored the Yellowstone and Lewis River countries, and Utah, giving his name to Ogden's Hole and the Utah city therein. In 1825 he had a disastrous encounter with Ashley, and from that time onward competition with American traders was keen. He followed Jedidiah S. Smith west to California, trapping on the upper Sacramento and discovering Ogden River—which Frémont renamed Humboldt. In 1835 Ogden was appointed chief factor of New Caledonia, and made his headquarters at Fort St. ”

“ Where the road could not be carried round or over the spurs of the mountains it passes through tunnels, often cut through solid stone. A few miles farther the line reaches the city of Ogden, in the state of Utah, the territory of the Mormons. ”

“ In four years, the South Brigades had explored Oregon, Idaho, the north of California, Nevada and Utah as well as the corner of Wyoming—a fairly good record for brave men, who made no pretenses and thought no greatness of daily deeds. The next few years, other men led the Oregon brigade South. Ogden was sent North to open up that Russian strip of coast leading to the interior of British Columbia. Henceforth, he led the canoe brigade to the famous Caribou and Cassiar regions, but he came back to pass his last days in Oregon, where he died on the banks of the Willamette about 1854. ”

“ As the Indians expected to be shot, they lost no time in getting away. This put a quietus on their cattle killing, and from that time they became more peaceable.
As more mines were discovered and operated, the population of the territory rapidly increased. The traffic on the Helena and Benton road was very great during the boating season on the upper Missouri, and before there was a railroad nearer than Ogden, Utah, consequently more settlers came into the valley. There were twelve locations between the Sun River71 Crossing and The Leaving. ”

“ Ogden divided his brigade as usual into different parties under McKay and Payette and Sylvaille, scattering his trappers on both sides of the Snake south as far as the bounds of the present State of Utah.
Toward the end of September, when in the region of Salmon Falls on the Snake, he was disgusted to encounter a rival party of forty American traders [290] led by a man named Johnson. “My sanguine hopes of beaver are blasted,” he despairingly writes. “I am camped with the Americans. Their trappers are everywhere. They will not part with a single beaver. ”

“ Every device was employed to increase the number of the Saints in Utah, to bring the population up to the figure required for admission as a state, and he encouraged outlying settlements at every attractive point. In this way, by 1851, Ogden and Provo had become large enough to form Stakes, and in a few years the country around Salt Lake City was dotted with settlements, many of them on lands to which the "Lamanites," who held so deep a place in Joseph Smith's heart, asserted in vain their ancestral titles. ”

“ It is the chief town and ecclesiastical capital of the State of Utah, and is situated on the river Jordan, eleven miles from Great Salt Lake. It is built at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, four thousand three hundred and thirty-four feet above sea-level. The valley is world-famed for its beauty, resources, climate, and health-giving properties. By rail it is thirty-six miles south of Ogden, on the Union Pacific Railroad; eight hundred and thirty-three miles from San Francisco, and one thousand and thirty-one miles from Omaha. ”

“ During the early years of the drama in Utah, several of the towns besides Salt Lake had very talented companies. Provo, Springville, Ogden, Brigham City, and St. George each had fairly good theatres and many very capable players. It is somewhat remarkable, however, that out of the hundreds of persons who have "gone on the stage" in Utah, so few have drifted into the profession and left their homes to follow it ”

“ The canyon walls are from five hundred to eight hundred feet high, and possess more weird and striking rock formations than any other known canyons of equal length.
AT COLORES, ROCKS TURNED BY THE LATHE OF THE WINDS INTO UNUSUAL SHAPES, ARE IN SIGHT FROM THE CAR WINDOW
Out of the Canyon the train breaks into one of Utah’s wonderful valleys, and in a little while reaches the Union Station at Ogden. ”

“ Brethren came to it from Salt Lake City. Gentiles came from everywhere. The settlement grew and prospered.
In 1849, people began to talk of locating a city right there at the junction of the two rivers.
In 1850, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and others, laid out the settlement and called it Ogden, after Peter Skeen Ogden, the explorer, long since dead, but whose dashing, daring, brilliant adventures were still charming to the men of that wild land. Every time the city's name is mentioned it is another proof that although,
"The man might die, his memory lives." ”

“ It was such inhabitants that Brigham Young, in 1850, advised to "put up good dwellings, open good schools, erect a meeting-house, cultivate gardens, and pay especial care to fruit raising," so that Ogden might become a permanent settlement and the headquarters for the Mormons in the northern portion of the Territory. ”

“ The most of the settlers through this locality, we are told, are Mormons,{154} but the aspect of their condition and surroundings show them to be a thrifty, industrious, enterprising people. We arrive in Ogden at 11.20 A. M., where a stop of only twenty minutes is allowed. We are met by Conductor E. S. Croker, C. C. of Wasatch Division No. 124, and J. H. McCoy, of same division, who is yardmaster for the Union Pacific Railroad at this point. Much as we desire to make a tour of this interesting city, our limited time will not allow it, but we can see that it is a thriving business place. ”

“ His father had been a loyalist, in early times, in New York, and had emigrated to Canada. Young Ogden was for a short time in the service of Mr Astor, and later of the Northwest Company, from which he was transferred to the Hudson's Bay Company. He had been active in establishing posts and negotiating commercial relations with Indian tribes. In one of his expeditions he discovered the Humboldt River. [13] Ogden was a contrast in every way to McLoughlin and Douglas, being short, dark-skinned, and rather rough in his manner, but lively and witty, and a favorite with everybody. ”

“ Round the corner yonder lies Ogden, one of the most promising towns of all the West, and as we approach it the great expanses of meadow stretching down to the lake and the wide alfalfa levels give place to a barren sage veldt, where the sunflower still retains ancestral dominion, and the jackass rabbits flap their ears at each other undisturbed by agriculture or by grazing stock. ”

“ After crossing Bear River I find myself on a somewhat superior road leading through the Mormon settlements to Ogden. No greater contrast can well be imagined than that presented by this strip of country lying between the lake and the "Wahsatch Mountains, and the desert country to the westward. One can almost fancy himself suddenly transported by some good genii to a quiet farming community in an Eastern State. ”

“ He reached out to put his arm about her, drawn by the same warm attraction that had pulled the words from him at the riverside. The action was that of a man reaching out to lean his weary weight upon some familiar object, and there was something of old habit in it, as if he had been doing it always.
But she did not stay. He folded only moonlight, in which there is little substance for a strong man, even in Wyoming. Dr. Slavens sighed as the tent-flap dropped behind her. ”

“ They are doing humanity a great service in smoothing the desert and bringing the water into it.”
“We will leave it to them,” she said.
They tramped across the claim until they came in sight of Hun Shanklin’s tent. Its flap was blowing in the wind.
“The old rascal came over to make friends with me,” said Slavens. “He claimed that he never lifted his hand against me. There’s his horse, trying to make it down the slope to the river. I’ll have to catch the beast and take that rope off.
“There’s a man over there!” Agnes exclaimed. “Look! There among the rocks to the right of the tent! ”

“ Mrs. Mann was humming a little song as they started away toward the newspaper office, for she was tiring of Wyoming, where she had not seen a single cowboy yet; and the prospect of returning to the miller was growing dear to her heart. There was a quiet over Comanche that morning which seemed different from the usual comparative peace of that portion of the day–a strained and fevered quiet, as of hushed winds before a gale. It took hold of even June as the party passed through the main street, joining the stream of traffic which pressed in one direction only. ”

“ Mackenzie made friends with her in fifteen minutes, and had learned at the end of half an hour that friend was all he might ever hope to be even if he had come with any warmer notions in his breast. Mary was engaged to be married. She told him so, as one friend to another, pledging him to secrecy, showing a little ring on a white ribbon about her neck. Her Corydon was a sheepman’s son who lived beyond the Sullivan ranch, and could dance like a butterfly and sing songs to the banjo in a way to melt the heart of any maid. So Mary said, but in her own way, with blushes, and wide, serious eyes. ”

“ When she left Great Bend she went to Wyoming to take a job—Lander was the town she wrote from, I can put my finger on it in the map with my eyes shut. I met her when she was leavin' for the depot, draggin' along with her grip and no Welshman in a mile of her to give her a hand. I went up and tipped my hat, but I never smiled, Duke, for I was sour over the way that girl she'd treated me. I just took hold of that grip and carried it to the depot for her and tipped my hat to her once more. 'You're a gentleman, whatever they say of you, Mr. ”

“ The promotion was accompanied with the assignment, to the command of the New Caledonia District with head- quarters at Fort St. James on Lake Stuart ; the post established by Simon Fraser in 1806. This district extended from the Coast Range eastward, and included all streams drained by the Fraser river. As a young man Mr. Ogden is described as being a little below medium height and broad between shoulders and hips, but very muscular and quick in action, such a man as it would be unpleasant to line up against in a foot ball match. ”

“ He was known to the Indians during his later years as the Old White-Head. During his management at Fort Vancouver, he came to be generally known by the whites as Governor Ogden. He never became a citizen of the United States, but described himself in his will as of Montreal, Canada."
There are few instances in history where a man has filled so large a page in dealing with the native races of men as that of Peter Skene Ogden. And ther are none where greater patience, successful management and supreme courage were manifested. ”