Becky Wright

Roy Rogers, for those too young to know, was called "King of the Cowboys." A star on radio, film and television, he was second only to Walt Disney characters when it came to product endorsements. Kids everywhere collected Roy Rogers cap guns, furniture, lunch boxes and more.

Rogers was born Nov. 5, 1911, in Cincinnati, and named Leonard Slye. He grew up on a farm in Duck Run, Ohio, where he learned to play mandolin, sing and yodel.

Readers drive from as far away as South Jordan to attend the Brigham City Library's discussion series.

"It's like a free college class, with all of these professors leading discussions in their area of expertise," said Sue Hill, director of the library.

Shirley Skeen goes out of her way to drive by Melissa Hofer's home. The two Layton women aren't friends -- they don't even know each other.

"I don't know her name," Skeen said. "I call her the 'Flamingo Lady.' "

Winter

As winter sets in, West Point farmer Allen Bennett balances his books, orders seed and repairs boxes used to store onions.

Last winter, he also dried corn. The moisture content in corn shipped to Ogden by Wyoming farmers was too high, so Bennett was hired by the mill to run it through his natural gas-powered dryer.

"They've got supposedly 12,000 bushels," he said at the beginning of March. "That's nine to 11 semi loads."

Running the dryer, sometimes until midnight for days at a time, can push Bennett's monthly gas bill to as high as $7,000. "The gas company loves us," he said.

He makes almost nothing drying corn for neighbors, he says, and about $82.50 a ton when he hires out to dry corn for the mill. He estimates that's about $10 to $15 an hour for his time.

Look at a map of southern Wyoming, and you may notice a pattern there --the bigger towns are spaced evenly apart.

It's not coincidence. It's history.

"In 1868, when Union Pacific came through Wyoming, they established a community every 100 miles," said Jim Davis, of Evanston. "About every 100 miles, they needed a place to service the locomotives."

Evanston was the railroad's last stop in Wyoming.

"They were looking to establish a community at Wahsatch," Davis said, speaking of a site in Utah west of present-day Evanston. "I think they quickly discovered there was no real good access to water, so they came back. That's how Evanston was located where it's at."

The town is proud of its history -- and it's preserving it in a big way.

Many stories about Ogden's Historic 25th Street have been forgotten.

"The early history, from the coming of the railroad in 1869 through World War II -- for most of it, there's no one alive who remembers it," said Val Holley, who's working on a book called "25th Street Confidential: Drama, Decadence, and Dissipation Along Ogden's Rowdiest Road."

Some stories and pictures have been saved in Special Collections at Weber State University's Stewart Library.

"I've been there many times over the last three years," he said.

Holley presents some of his research at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the library's Hetzel-Hoellein Room. His lecture is part of the 6 p.m. opening reception for "Treasures Brought to Light," an exhibit celebrating the 40th anniversary of WSU Special Collections. Admission is free.