Located at the base of the Wasatch Mountains thirteen miles south of Salt Lake City, Sandy was a likely area for early settlement. The area was first used by nomadic bands of Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock Indians who roamed along the base of the mountains as they traveled from their winter home at Utah Lake to their summer fishing grounds at Bear Lake.

Permanent settlers first moved into Sandy during the 1860s and 1870s because of the availability of land in the less crowded southern end of the Salt Lake Valley. The original plat was essentially one square mile, situated on an alluvial terrace running north and south along the eastern edge of the Jordan River drainage system and paralleling the mountain range.

In 1863 there were only four homes between Union (7200 South) and Dunyon (Point of the Mountain): the Thayne homestead at 6600 South and 800 East, one in Crescent, one at Dunyon, and a fourth outside present-day Sandy boundaries altogether. Within a few years, Thomas Allsop, a Yorkshire farmer who had immigrated to Utah in 1853, owned almost half of present-day Sandy from County Road to Fourth East along Alta Road to Lindell Parkway. LeGrand Young owned the land between Fourth East and State Street.

Farmers willing to try their hand at the thirsty soil that inspired Sandy’s name took up land along State Street, which stretched from downtown Salt Lake City to Point of the Mountain. But it was mining that shaped Sandy’s first four decades. When silver mining began in Little Cottonwood Canyon, entrepreneurs recognized Sandy’s value as a supply station; soon its main street was lined with hotels, saloons, and brothels serving miners ready to spend their newly earned wages. Three major smelters were located in Sandy–the Flagstaff, the Mingo, and the Saturn–making Sandy the territory’s most significant smelting center for a number of years.

The railroad was also significant in determining the course of Sandy’s history. Built in 1873, the railroad connected Sandy to Salt Lake City and facilitated the transportation of ore and other products both in and out of the area. A streetcar line in 1907 facilitated the transportation of locals to jobs in Salt Lake City; and the automobile later continued to serve that function.

When the mines failed in the 1890s, Sandy faltered, then underwent a significant economic transformation into an agricultural community. The fact that Sandy did not disappear, like so many other mining towns that dwindled with their mother lodes, was due to its location, resources, and the spirit of its inhabitants.

Sandy was incorporated in 1893, largely as part of an effort to combat what Mormon inhabitants considered “unsavory” elements in the town. Due to its mine-based beginnings, Sandy was somewhat of a boom town, unlike the majority of other rural Utah towns. After incorporation, it was almost as if Sandy had redefined itself. Gone were the large numbers of single, transient men. By 1900 there was only a handful of saloons and hotels, and Sandy began to more closely resemble other rural Utah towns–a place where everyone knew everyone else. Church, farming, business, and family formed the focus of the inhabitants’ world.

This pace and way of life continued for more than six decades, interrupted only by wars, the Depression, and the changing seasons. No significant jumps in population, economic trends, or social patterns altered the predictable and stable rhythm of life.

In the late 1960s, however, this rural town dramatically changed course with its second boom. It had always been assumed by local leaders and citizens that Sandy would grow outward from its logical and historic center–the nexus of Main and Center streets. However, population growth overwhelmed the physical center as neighborhoods spread out in every direction over the land.

During the 1970s, pocket communities took shape, providing the services, schools, and shopping traditionally offered by a city. Annexation issues became prominent as Salt Lake County and Sandy vied for control over land and resources. Sandy became a collection of small local communities identified by a youthful, family-oriented population. For many it seemed that Sandy was a bedroom community, an extension of Salt Lake City. Nevertheless, in the 1980s Sandy officials worked to create a community with an identity of its own and a vision for the future.

Sandy High School students originally attended Jordan High School, which was completed in 1913. In 1962 Hillcrest High School was completed, followed by Brighton in 1969 and Alta in 1978. Sandy students attend seven middle schools and over a dozen elementary schools. The community is served by a new modern library completed in 1991.

Sandy’s major employers at the present are Alta View Hospital, Becton Dickinson/Deseret Medical, Economy Builders Supply, Jordan School District, MacManagement, Sandy City, Shopko, Wasatch Building Products, Inc., Western Rehabilitation Institute, Discover Card, and the South Towne Mall.

Christian denominations with congregations in Sandy include Alta Canyon Baptist Church, Berean Baptist Church, Blessed Sacrament Church, Church of Christ of South Salt Lake, Community of Grace Presbyterian Church, Eleventh Hour Christian Church, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Grace Community Bible Church, Grace Lutheran Church, Hilltop United Methodist Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mountain View Christian Assembly, Sandy Baptist Church, Seventh-day Adventists, and South East Baptist Church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has numerous stakes and wards. The city’s population in 1990 was 75,058.

The Provo River was named after Canadian fur trapper Etienne Provot. The city was settled in 1849.

Most Famous For: Brigham Young University; America’s Freedom Festival; Winterfest, Sundance, and Bridal Veil Falls

Attractions: Utah Lake State Park; Sundance Resort; Bean Life Science Museum, Bridal Veil Falls, BYU Earth Science Museum, BYU Museum of Art, BYU Museum of Peoples and Culture, McCurdy Historical Doll Museum, North Park Museum, Provo LDS Temple, Provo Town Square, Seven Peaks Resort Water Park, Utah Valley Symphony

Population: 101,154

Elevation: 4,549

Visitor Information:
Utah County Travel Council. Historic County Courthouse, 51 S. University Ave., Suite 110, 801-370-8393, 800-222-UTAH

City Parks: 21 parks

Churches: Most major denominations

Medical Services: Utah valley Regional Medical Center, 1034 N. 500 W., 801-373-7850

Auto Services: 93 gas stations and auto repair

Bus Station: Greyhound/Trailways, 124 N. 300 W., 801-373-4211

Walking Tours: Brigham Young University, 801-378-HOST

Mileage:
Destination Mileage
Bryce Canyon NP -215
Canyonlands NP – 259
Capitol Reef NP – 188
Cedar Breaks NM – 202
Flaming Gorge NRA – 195
Grand Canyon NP – 336
Glen Canyon (Lake Powell) NRA – 254
Zion NP – 264 Salt Lake City – 45

City Mileage
Nephi – 40
St. George – 258

Ogden City is located at the confluence of the Ogden and the Weber rivers in Weber County in northern Utah. In 1989 the city had a population of 69,000 residents. Weber County, which centers on Ogden as the county seat, had a population of 160,100.

Ogden claims to be the oldest settlement in Utah because of the founding in 1845 of a small picket enclosure, Fort Buenaventura, on the Weber River by Miles Goodyear, a mountain man working in the northern Utah area. Goodyear met the Mormons coming west in 1847 and offered his fort and claim, which the Mormons bought in November 1847. His claim included the fort and the area approximating the present Weber County boundaries.

In the fall of 1847 and the spring of 1848 James Brown and his family and the Lorin Farr family were sent by Brigham Young to begin settlement of the area, which became known as Brown’s Fort until 1851 when the name Ogden was given to the city. The name derives from the Hudson’s Bay Company trapper, Peter Skene Ogden, who was trapping in the valleys and mountains east of Ogden in 1825.

In the period from 1847 to 1870, the community survived as a rural agricultural area with small settlements forming along the Ogden and Weber rivers. In early times, settlement was limited by the extent that the water could be brought from the rivers and streams to the land. Later, the Pineview Dam and canal systems, and the Weber Basin Project in more recent times, expanded the water resources and the community consequently expanded.

With the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, the development of the Ogden community changed considerably. Politically, the Mormon community leadership was challenged by the increasing non-Mormon population that came into the area with the railroad. The non-Mormon leaders tried to wrestle the political and economic control of Utah from the Mormons and center their control at Corinne, a main stop on the transcontinental line north of Ogden.

Brigham Young and the Mormon leadership would allow none of this and took steps to bypass Corinne with a railroad line to the north as well as an agreement with the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroad companies that Ogden would be the main terminal of the transcontinental line. By 1874 the challenge of Corinne was over; Corinne continued to decline as businesses moved to Ogden, and Ogden became recognized as a major railroad and commercial center. In Ogden, Mormons and Gentiles (non-Mormons) mixed together in business and politics. In 1889 Fred J. Kiesel, a Gentile, was elected mayor of Ogden, the first breakthrough in Utah of the Mormon-dominated politics.

From the 1870s to World War II, Ogden was a major railroad town, with nine rail systems eventually having terminals there. Business and commercial houses flourished as Ogden with both east-west and north-south rail lines became a shipping and commerce center threatening to overshadow even Salt Lake City in that regard. Commerce houses such as those run by Fred J. Kiesel and the Kuhn Brothers, the manufacturing activities of John Scowcroft enterprises, the Amalgamated Sugar Company and other business ventures of David Eccles, the Utah Construction Corporation of the Wattis brothers, Thomas Dee, and David Eccles, and the shipment by rail to various markets outside Utah of the garden produce and fruits from local orchards were significant business activities of this period.

An attempt to further enhance this economic “boom” was promoted by William “Coin” Harvey, a resident of Ogden who sponsored a “Carnival” to draw developers of real estate and commerce to Ogden in 1890. Harvey’s efforts failed for the most part, and he went on to become a candidate for the presidency of the United States. Ogden’s commercial and railroad activities grew through World War I until the slowdown in the 1920s and the Great Depression of the 1930s created bad economic times.

The threat of war and the coming of World War II brought a renewed significance to Ogden as a transportation hub and center of government agencies and war industries. An aggressive Ogden Chamber of Commerce convinced the government to build Hill Air Base in the Ogden area in 1938. During the war years, Ogden was considered a safe interior area with an excellent system of rail connections to move needed war materials to the war zones. As a result, the Naval Supply Depot was built in Clearfield and the Utah General Depot in Ogden; the United States Forest Service Regional Office also was located in Ogden. German and Italian prisoners of war were interned in camps in the Ogden area. In its heyday during World War II as many as 119 passenger trains passed through Ogden every twenty-four-hour period.

After the war, the railroad business declined because of competition from automotive and air transportation; in the 1950s rail passenger service was almost entirely eliminated, except for Amtrack, which beginning in 1971 passed through Ogden on a tri-weekly schedule. Some government agencies and businesses related to the defense industry continued to gravitate to Ogden after the war–including the Internal Revenue Regional Center, the Marquardt Corporation, Boeing Corporation, Volvo-White Truck Corporation, Morton-Thiokol, and several other smaller operations. Ogden business leaders, realizing that Ogden was closely linked to government industries and thus suffered economic ups and downs because of changes in political ideas, devoted considerable effort to bring more private industry to the Ogden area. Through the efforts of the chamber of commerce and various business organizations, in recent years Ogden has attracted a variety of industries and commerce to its industrial park and mall areas.

Today Ogden enjoys a rather stable economic structure, which is no longer totally reliant on government projects and money. The community has a mixed population of Mormons and non-Mormons, and a variety of ethnic backgrounds, members of which are not as confrontational as they have been in the past but are more understanding and tolerant of the variety of people in the community. This mixture of ethnic and religious backgrounds has created a progressive attitude in community and educational affairs, and Ogden has a number of high-quality public and private schools. Weber State University provides quality education in many areas of learning at the university level.