John Sillito

Ogden John Sillito

In 1845, Miles Goodyear founded a settlement at Fort Buenaventura, located near the confluence of the Weber and Ogden Rivers. The area was renamed Ogden in 1851 by Mormon Church president Brigham Young after Peter Skene Ogden, a Hudson's Bay Company fur trapper. Ogden prospered as an agricultural town and then thrived with the arrival of the railroads, when the growing community, often referred to as "Junction City," became a major railroad hub. Union Station became a well-known landmark surrounded by rowdy gambling houses and brothels as well as ethnically diverse residential neighborhoods. Since 1889, Ogden has also been an important center of higher education, and it is now home to Weber State University. World War II brought Ogden into the modern era as a transportation and military center with the establishment of Hill Air Field, Defense Depot Ogden, and the Naval Supply Depot.