Utah’s Oldest Town

If you’ve lived in Utah your entire life like I have, you probably think you know everything there is to know about Utah. It’s located on the lands of five indigenous tribes the Utes, Navajo, Paiute, Goshute, and Shoshone, it has the Salt Flats, many national parks, and a sometimes-smelly lake called the Great Salt Lake.

But the other day I was wondering what the oldest town in Utah is. I thought maybe it would be someplace around Salt Lake City or possibly someplace like Fillmore (the original state capitol). As it turns out, the oldest town in Utah is Ogden. 

According to the Utah History Encyclopedia, Ogden was founded in 1845 by Miles Goodyear, a mountain man working in the northern Utah area. Goodyear offered his fort and claim to the Mormons which they bought in 1847. For context, Utah became the 45th state in 1896 and Vernal(located in eastern Utah) wasn’t incorporated until 1897. 

 Ogden got its name in 1851 from the Hudson’s Bay Company trapper Peter Skene Ogden, who was trapping around the Ogden area in 1825. In 1869 when the transcontinental railroad was completed the community changed drastically when Brigham Young and the rest of the Mormon leadership made an agreement with the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroad companies that Ogden would be the main terminal of the transcontinental line in order to establish political and economic control away from the increasing non-Mormon community. 

Ogden is now home to Weber State University, is located near Hill Air Force Base, and is surrounded by things for people who are into the outdoors to do.

So, there you have it, you now know the oldest town in Utah. Go forth with all your big brain knowledge.