by Benedict Ogden at Night BOOM TOWN by Marjorie Hill The antiquity of the story of this territory is revealed oy the mountains near Ogden, for they contain some of the oldest rocks known to man. Those mountains disclose also, through still-visible terracing, the fact that the entire valley was once covered to a depth of 850 feet by the waters of pre-historic Lake Bonneville. The city itself is perched today on the great deltas of the Ogden and Weber Rivers. It was on the banks of the Weber river that the Shoshone Indians pitched their teepees for many years before the heavy boots of the white man forced indelible trails into the western wilderness. When trappers and traders began to filter into the valley, it was changed from an Indian village to a white man's camp, and during the 1820's and 1830's was an important crossroad for the tough and hardened men who lived on the bounty of the newly-opened country. It was during this time that Peter Skene Ogden explored the territory and endowed Ogden River, Ogden Hole, and Mount Ogden with the names which were to lead to the present designation of the city then undreamed of. No permanent home was built here by white settler until 1844 or 1845 when Miles Goodyear, Connecticut hunter and trapper, erected a small cabin of cotton-wood logs near the Weber River at what is now 28th Street. When a corral and stockade had been added, the red-headed settler, proud of his creation and deeming it worthy of a name, began to call the place Fort Buenaventura, for a legendary river then believed to be a western outlet to the Pacific Ocean. Shortly after the first Mormon pioneers reached, in July of 1847, the spot which was to become Salt Lake City, they sent scouts to inspect Goodyear's location. They found that the tales they had heard of the plentiful water, rich soil, and abundant wild game of the area had not been exaggerated. In November of the same year, under the direction of Captain James Brown, the trapper's property was purchased for approximately $2,000, after which transaction Goodyear, his Indian wife, and their children left the settlement. Captain Brown immediately moved his family into the fort, and the place came to be known as Brownsville. A few courageous families joined the Captain, but the fort did not become an important settlement until two years later when 100 families were sent to the newly-surveyed townsite.. It was then that the community acquired its present name. Struggling against Indians, disease, insects, and nature's tricks of flood, drouth, and severe winters, the settlers labored bravely, first merely to eke out an existence and later, when their position became more secure, to add to their dreams of a successful and progressive Ogden. By 1850 the population was over 1000 and was increasing steadily. A great deal of the community's progress during this period was due to the efforts of Lorin Farr, who served Ogden for twenty-two years as its first mayor. These years saw the building of an elaborate system of irrigation canals, the development of education, the opening up of the timber resources of Ogden Canyon, and the beginning of commerce with a factory and several stores. Other improvements were also evident, the most far-reaching in its consequences being the completion of the transcontinental railroad with the meeting of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific companies at Promo-tory Point in 1869. Practically over night the famous Golden Spike ceremony changed Ogden from a country village to a booming railroad town. The community was stirred to violent activity by the sudden realization of the possibilities afforded by its strategic location. Business and commerce grew by leaps and bounds, and as new citizens poured in, the advancements were made in such municipal matters as a health department, fire department, and police services. Just before the turn of the century, Ogden boomed. Homes and factories were wired for electricity; the telephone system was established; a clothing factory started production; the canning industry was begun; and an electric street railway was installed to replace cars drawn by horses. Most of Ogden's progress in the years immediately following were made in the field of civic improvements, with such advancements as a curb and gutter system, paved streets, and a hospital. Thus the pattern of the city's development has continued over the years, with steady betterment in numerous directions making Ogden one of the most important centers of manufacturing, livestock, milling, canning, and agriculture in the west and one of Utah's leading communities in education, art, and other fields of endeavor which lead to better living. Page 6 by Benedict Velma and Joan Roush by Jerry Carlile "Corinne dreams in the sun like an old man remembering his youth." On the flat lands near the Bear river delta stand a handful of houses, the weathered business buildings, and the school and church, all that remains of Corinne City. It is hard to imagine this sleepy farming village once aspired to become the capital of Utah, once had hopes of becoming a great agriculture center, once boasted of 7,000 inhabitants, and once was the busiest point in the state. Today, the town's largest beer parlor languishes under the title Dew Drop Inn, but there were, less than a century ago, 100 roaring saloons, two dance halls, and an immense gambling tent. Crews from "Hell's Half Acre" construction camp flocked here to drink, gamble and cavort with the soiled ladies who had followed the rails from Omaha. The story began in 1868. Mark A. Gilmore, with five companions, stood on the banks of the Bear River and visioned a throbbing Gentile metropolis, a great freighting, smelting, and shipping center, one that would outshine Salt Lake in importance. Because they feared Mormon power, realized Brigham Young would not sanction a Gentile settlement in the midst of his theocratic kingdom, they obtained powerful backing from the Union Pacific Railroad, to survey and lay out a town. Immediately, hard-boiled adventurers fresh from the Civil War poured in. Within two weeks more than 300 frame buildings, shanties and tents mushroomed on the site; population rose to 1500, not including 5000 Chinese laborers left by the railroad. Thousands of freighters swarmed into the infant city, for rich silver mines in Idaho and Montana, cut off from the world, needed supplies and an outlet for their ores. Corinne became the Chicago of the west. One company, the Diamond R, kept 400 mules and eighty wagons constantly on the road, coming and going. Men spent weeks away from civilization, and when they reached town they wanted a good time. Corinne gave it to them. Then, because refined ore was easier and cheaper to ship than raw ore, they built a smelter. While slag piles mounted on the banks of the river, the bullion sped east and west along the main line. In 1871, the citizens of Corinne chipped in four thousand dollars for a boat to haul ore from the Tin-tic district and Nevada to the new smelter. The "City of Corinne," a stern-wheeler, seventy feet long, with three cargo decks, was launched. Other boats followed her from the local navy yard the "Kate Conner," the "Rosie Brown," and the "Pluribustah." One unusual enterprise which, for awhile, did a thriving business in Corinne was that of Johnson and Underdunk. For $2.50, these wiley characters granted a divorce without the presence of applicants. The decrees, so tradition says, were completely legal-ribbon, wax, seals, and all. Some 2,000 of them plagued courts all over the country for the next ten years. But failure dogged Corinne in everything it did. In 1872, a diphtheria epidemic swept the community. Hundreds died and people began to desert the city. When Indians surrounded the town in 1876, helping themselves to anything they wanted, more people pulled out. Brigham Young constructed the Utah and Northern Railroad to Silver Bow, Montana. Freighters were forced out of business. Though Corinne fought desperately for it, the railroad junction was established at Ogden and the merchants established themselves there with it. Smelters were built nearer the mines, so Corinne's smelter closed down; the lake steamers were useless. The old "City of Corinne" ended her days as an excursion boat off Black Rock, finally burning with the Garfield Beach Pavilion. On a Bear river sandbar, the "Kate Conner" sank with a load of ore. What became of the "Rosie Brown" and the "Pluribustah" is still a mystery. Though Corinne lay on the verge of death, though the weak-spirited had left, the die-hards challenged the Mormons on their own ground. In 1890, the Bear Lake and River Water Irrigation Company put in a dam and diversion canal in Bear river canyon, opening 10,000 acres of irrigation. At first the land produced heavily. Then within a year, as if in fulfillment of Brigham Young's prophecy that water would rise and destroy the Gentile city, alkali and salts, reached to the surface, turned the fields to worthless swamps. In 1903, the Lucin Cutoff was completed, leaving Corinne stranded on a branch line. Even the strongest men left now. The town became virtually a ghost. Quietly the Mormons had waited for this "iniquitous city" to burn itself out. When the debacle came, when the quick money and the infidels who sought it had gone, the Saints moved in. They drained the land the Gentiles had despoiled, reclaimed it, and irrigated their alfalfa and sugar beets with canal water. Today two or three hundred farmers live peacefully and pleasantly in this sleepy Mormon village on the banks of the muddy Bear river. Page 7