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Junction City Lauded
By Brooke NelsonOgden gets a write-up in national magazine
OGDEN -- Called the "Disneyland for adrenalized adults," Ogden made National Geographic Adventure's top 12 picks for the next great adventure town.
Fifty cities nationwide were named, and 12 were selected for extended write-ups in the magazine hitting newsstands today.
"We are obviously thrilled and honored. This obviously has been our focus, to become the capital of outdoor and high-adventure recreation," said Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey.
The article mentions easy access for residents to river rafting, water skiing and park areas, specifically highlighting the newly built 148,000-square-foot Salomon Center.
It also mentions the city's close proximity to Salt Lake City and Olympic venues like Snowbasin Ski Resort, and the city's plans to continue to improve outdoor opportunities.
"A change of address could bring instant gratification, but a move is a long-term investment so Adventure magazine was looking for innovative places that aren't just prime relocation spots now, but smart investments for the future," said Ethan Fried, magazine publicist.
National Geographic Adventure isn't the first publication to take note of Ogden's recreational perks.
"It's been a great year for recognition of Ogden as a place for outdoor enthusiasts to live and visit," said Rich Koski, director of sales for the Ogden/Weber Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"The National Geographic Adventure article comes in a year in which Sunset magazine, Skiing Magazine, the New York Times and Outside magazine have all featured Ogden as a recreational asset."
Outside magazine placed Ogden at No. 3 on its annual list of the "Best 10 Towns in America."
Rock and Ice magazine will also be announcing Ogden as the No. 3 climbing hot spot in America in September, Godfrey said.
Outdoor enthusiast Kym Buttschardt owns the local restaurant Roosters and said pictures of the restaurant will appear alongside the write-up.
"It just solidifies that there's soul here -- that there are some special businesses here, and not just ours," she said. "There's been lots of activity, lots of excellent national press for Ogden."
The presence of major companies like Amer Sports helps with exposure, she said. Many Roosters customers have an affinity for the outdoors and adventure, she said.
"We have customers from all over the country that come in," she said.
The full list of the next great adventure towns is available at www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure.
Add Your Comment
What all these magazine and newspaper rankings and reports suggest to me is that Ogden can, and has, successfully appealed to sportsmen and women, to outdoor oriented companies, and to travelers... without the sale of Ogden's largest park for a real estate development and without even one of the two gondolas our Mayor insisted for so long were the lynch-pins of successfully making Ogden a center of outdoor recreation.
He deserves credit, certainly, for successfully repackaging Ogden as an outdoor center when the original plan to market the city as a kind of new high-tech silicon valley didn't work out. Outdoors companies have come in, bringing jobs. XTERRA events have come in. And the City has drawn lots of very very good ink in an impressive number of national publications, the latest of which the SE reported on today. And the city is expanding its outdoor recreational opportunities [see the recent articles about building a BMX course in Ogden].
It must, however, be a little frustrating to the Mayor, that the success of his media and marketing efforts on behalf of Adventure Base Camp Ogden... and they have been successful... has demonstrated that the gondola/gondola park-sale scheme he advocated for so long as absolutely necessary, was in fact not necessary at all.
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