One point of confusion about life in Weber County has just been cleared up beyond a shadow of a doubt, and that is the origin of our county's name.
Many residents of the county have been led to believe that "Weber" was a corruption of "Weaver" whom legend described as an old trapper who wrote so poorly that historians transcribed his name incorrectly. Not so, according to Dr. David E. Miller, a native of Syracuse in neighboring Davis County. Dr. Miller, professor of history at the University of Utah, looked into the name's origin at the request of his brother Dr. William Miller, president of Weber State College. There's no better authority on the history of our area than Dave miller. In addition to his basic studies of history, he has spent months in Canada and in England looking through the archives of the Hudson's Bay Company and other early day trapping firms. In a brief report to the WSC president, the University of Utah historian gave this account:
"During the fall and winter of 1824-25, a brigade of American trappers under the leadership of John H. Weber followed Bear River from its big bend at present Soda Springs, Idaho, southward into Cache Valley. Winter camp was established near the present site of Franklin, Idaho. With the arrival of spring 1825, Weber and his men followed Bear River to the points of its discharge into great Salt Lake, then turned to the South, exploring and trapping the various streams that flowed westward out of the Wasatch Range. During that spring, Weber and his men reached, explored, and trapped Weber River - named for John H. Weber, leader of the brigade." Dr. Miller concluded, "Obviously, Weber County and Weber College took their names from the same source."
As to the erroneous legends, the historian said that apparently, during the passing years, as the name of the stream passed from mouth to mouth, it was sometimes mispronounced as "Weaver's Fork or Weaver's River" by fur men. They never saw the name in print and could not have read it anyway. So, for the record, it is to John H. Weber and his exploration of our area that we owe our name. And he hid pronounce it "Weber", not "Webber" as Midwesterners are prone to do when they first come here. It's like the announcer in Los Angeles said when the Weber Wildcats were in the NCAA tournament, "Weber may have lost this game, but as a result of the Wildcats progress to the quarter finals, there are millions of sports fans who now know it's Weber State College, not Webber State." Today Weber State College is Weber State University.
Pre-Pioneer Period in Weber County
Over eons of time the area where Ogden City is now underwent many geological changes. The last occurred during the Pleistocene epoch, the last of the geological periods whose period extends into the present time. By the time the great upheavals of the earth's surface had pretty well subsided, the Great Basin had been formed; the climate changed, and cooler, wet years were more frequent.
Because of the great amount of water carried into the region in clouds from the ocean, the low pocket of land west of the Wasatch Range filled to a depth of some 1,000 feet above the present level of the Great Salt Lake.
The newly formed lake remained stationary for a long period of time, pounding incessantly against the shore line which extended from west of Cedar City to northern Cache Valley. Over many thousands of years the lake carved wide shelves or beaches around its perimeter. The upper large shelf has been named the Bonneville Terrace. At that level the lake overflowed through Ted Rock Pass north of Preston, Idaho, descended to the Ocean via the Portneuf, the Snake and the Columbia rivers.
At first the waters of the outlet ran over a loose gravel formation, which eventually eroded away until bedrock was reached. At this level the lake stabilized for a long period of time and formed the Provo Terrace.
Wet and dry cycles followed each other and the lake rose and fell a number of times. During one of these alternate periods the lake stabilized for a fairly long period and another of the largest terraces were formed. This terrace has been given the name of Stansbury in honor of the man who first reported the existence of "an ancient inland sea".
During the time the lake occupied the upper levels, two great and powerful streams, the Weber and the Ogden, Aided by several small creeks, all fed by the abundance of water during the wet periods, carried vast amounts of rocks, boulder, gravel and sand into the lake forming a continuous delta from opposite Lewis' Peak north of Lagoon.
There was in this ancient lake a northwest current. This current flow was a determining factor in the way the arterials, which were carried into the lake, were deposited in a continuous delta. The western edge of the delta extended into the lake at its furthest point in west Roy where the Denver and Rio Grande railroad tracks are at present time.
After the lake receded the Ogden and Weber rivers cut swaths through the formations of the delta. The Ogden meandered back and forth in a westerly direction on its way to the newly formed level of the lake. As it meandered its way west it left benches to the north and south. Ben Lomond High School is on one of these and from 8th Street on the south, all the way to Weber Canyon is the other portion.
The Weber River was more capricious. After traveling west from the mouth of its canyon for a distance of perhaps three miles, it suddenly turned north and joined the Ogden about two miles west of Washington Boulevard near 18th Street. On its way the Weber also carried a vast amount of delta deposits leaving a fairly broad Weber River Valley.
Ogden City has been built on the sections of the delta north and south of the Ogden River and in the river "bottoms" formed by the two rivers, with West Ogden on a sandy portion of the delta west of the Weber River. The Ogden bench from the top of 24th Street hill west to West Ogden was at one time a continuous "fill" with a gentle uninterrupted slope between the two.
After the lake reached its present briny level about 15,000 years ago, suitable vegetation to the climate, the soil and the annual precipitation moved in, followed by certain members of the animal kingdom, the fowls, the fishes and the furry ones.
Not much if anything is known of the earliest inhabitants of the Great Basin area. Archaeologists surmise that there might have been some Paleo-Indian occupations about 12,000 to 9,000 years ago. This period of occupation, if true, was probably a combination of hunting for "Pleistocene mega fauna" (mastodons, saber tooth tigers, etc.) and the utilization of vegetation along the shores of the receding lake of the area.
Geographically, Weber County is situated in an interesting locality, a very small area in the Great Basin. The Great Basin, in appearance, is almost triangular. The main unique feature is that none of the waters of the large inland sea, which occupied a portion of the region for a few thousand years, did at its highest level, drain into the Snake River.
The Basin is truly a vast bowl. It occupies the west portion of Utah, nearly all of Nevada, as well as a portion of Oregon, and a thin slice of California, running from Oregon to the extreme southern tip of the state. At its northeast angle it extends into Idaho and Wyoming; portions of six states.
At the close of the last ice age, the waters of the melting ice cap plus abundant amount of precipitation settled in the low area on the eastern edge of the basin and formed a vast inland sea. Now evaporated into a small lake, the rest of its area is mostly desert.
Fort Buenaventura
The mountain/fur trade era is one of the most colorful periods in American History and Fort Buenaventura was the rendezvous for the trappers in the Rocky Mountain region established in 1843 by the trapper Miles Goodyear.
Fort Buenaventura was the first non-Indian permanent settlement in the Great Basin. Goodyear built a stockade for his protection, cabins for his family and helpers, and began cultivating a garden to prepare for the travelers that he hoped would stop at his new trading post. Goodyear's plans were hampered when the first major wagon train to use the new route, the Conner-Reed party, was delayed and then forced south by an impassable canyon.
Captain James Brown of the Mormon Battalion purchased Goodyear's holdings for almost $2,000 in gold. The name of the area was then changed to Brown's Fort, later to Brownsville and finally to Ogden, after Peter Skeen Ogden of the Hudson Bay Company and early explorer to the area.
For Goodyear, the Great Basin was getting too crowded anyway and he took 2,000 horses (all other livestock had passed to Brown with the sale of the fort) and moved to California.
Goodyear found great success in selling horses to the 49ers on their way to the gold fields. After a short, but successful life as a trapper, trader, and miner Miles Goodyear died November 12, 1849 at the age of 32 and was buried in Benicia, California.
Today many people interested in the mountain man lifestyle relive the era on weekends, dressing in buckskins, camping in teepees and attending modern day rendezvous. Muzzle loader shooting contests, tomahawk throwing and other tests of mountain man skills, along with trading and socializing are all part of these rendezvous. Once a year a rendezvous is held in the Fort Buenaventura State Park in Ogden.
Ogden History
On January 12, 1848, Captain James Brown sent his sons, Alexander and Jessee along with other settlers to take care of the livestock left by Miles Goodyear at Fort Buenaventura.
The Brown family took possession of the Miles Goodyear cabin, which was the first cabin built in Ogden and still stands in Ogden's Temple Square. He also took possession of the livestock left by Miles Goodyear in the purchase of the fort. These cattle plus the vast abundance of vegetables raised by James Brown and his colony kept the settlers from starving the first cold winter. The generosity of the first Mormon settler of Ogden City will be remembered by historians.
In 1849 Brigham Young and the Mormon Church voted at the general conference to lay out a city in Captain James Brown's neighborhood. Lorin Farr, Ogden's first Mayor, along with other powerful men selected by the Mormons, arrived at Weber in January of 1850. Land was purchased and laid out to form a city in square blocks. For twenty years after, Lorin Farr remained Mayor and under his fostering care and judicious administration the city grew up.