...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.

Richard Roberts