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....

From a fur-trapping fort to a thriving metropolitan community, change has always been a part of Ogden's history. Settled in 1850 by Mormon pioneers, Ogden was forever transformed by the arrival of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. As horse-drawn carriages gave way to motor cars, a busy downtown district grew up around Ogden's Union Station and notorious Twenty-fifth Street. Landmark businesses, such as J.G. Read & Brothers Company and the Broom Hotel, became a part of the city's unique identity. Also unique to the city were its celebrations and special events, like parades, musicals, and...