New Peter Skene Ogden monument corrects history of explorer’s 1825 trek
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- The Daughters of the American Revolution’s Golden Spike Chapter has placed a new monument commemorating Peter Skene Ogden’s exploration of the area in 1825. The monument, a replacement for an erroneous marker placed almost a century ago, is shown here on Friday, May 27, 2022, at Oaklawn Park in North Ogden.
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- The Daughters of the American Revolution’s Golden Spike Chapter has placed a new monument commemorating Peter Skene Ogden’s exploration of the area in 1825. The monument, a replacement for an erroneous marker placed almost a century ago, is shown here on Friday, May 27, 2022, at Oaklawn Park in North Ogden.
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- Peter Skene Ogden, who explored eastern Weber County in 1825.
Mark Shenefelt, Standard-Examiner
The Daughters of the American Revolution's Golden Spike Chapter has placed a new monument commemorating Peter Skene Ogden's exploration of the area in 1825. The monument, a replacement for an erroneous marker placed almost a century ago, is shown here on Friday, May 27, 2022, at Oaklawn Park in North Ogden.
NORTH OGDEN — The 1825 sojourn of trapper and explorer Peter Skene Ogden through the eastern reaches of present-day Weber County is being commemorated on an updated monument commissioned by local members of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
A junior high school class in 2014 found errors on the previous marker, which was placed by the DAR in 1926, and asked the North Ogden City Council to get rid of it. That didn’t happen, but the DAR’s Golden Spike chapter began looking for solutions.
Things sometimes move slowly, but at 11 a.m. on June 11 at Oaklawn Park, 1200 E. 2500 North, North Ogden, the DAR will conduct a rededication ceremony, displaying the new marker to the public.
The best information at the time, in 1926, indicated that Ogden probably crossed the North Ogden Divide over an Indian trail, coming from Cache County, then passed through present-day North Ogden and Ogden. But in the 1950s, journals from Ogden’s 1825 trip were found in Hudson Bay Co.’s archives, leading to historians’ conclusion that the trapper never set foot in Ogden or North Ogden.
“They never did get on the west side of the mountain,” said Karen Stark, the DAR Golden Spike regent.
Mark Shenefelt, Standard-Examiner
The Daughters of the American Revolution's Golden Spike Chapter has placed a new monument commemorating Peter Skene Ogden's exploration of the area in 1825. The monument, a replacement for an erroneous marker placed almost a century ago, is shown here on Friday, May 27, 2022, at Oaklawn Park in North Ogden.
While the Ogden settlement may have been named after the trapper in the belief he had walked there, Stark said the city’s naming is still appropriate. The upper Ogden Valley was named Ogden Hole, and the Ogden River flows through Ogden, she pointed out.
“I’m grateful the DAR members were thoughtful enough in the 1920s to consider such a thing,” Jay Buckley, a Brigham Young University history professor, said Friday in an interview about Ogden and the monuments.
The original marker has been removed and will be refurbished for potential placement in the Ogden Valley, where Ogden did walk, Stark said.
Funds were raised for the new monument via a historical preservation effort by the Utah state DAR organization. DAR members agreed that putting the new marker in North Ogden still makes sense. It corrects the year of Ogden’s trek and the spelling of Ogden’s middle name, although Buckley said spellings were inconsistent in previous centuries — he’s found five different spellings of Ogden’s middle name.
Buckley said that although Ogden and his secretary, William Kittson, only crossed through Eden, Liberty and Huntsville then over Trappers Loop to Mountain Green, other members of Ogden’s party fanned out. Those explorers crossed the North Ogden Divide into the areas on the west slopes of the mountains and viewed the Great Salt Lake, Buckley said.
Image supplied, Jay Buckley, Brigham Young University
Peter Skene Ogden, who explored eastern Weber County in 1825.
In the 1950s, a University of Utah professor, David E. Miller, and colleagues combed Ogden and Kittson’s journals and went on an expedition to trace the exact campsite locations the explorers took through the Ogden Valley.
Buckley said an essay by Miller about his findings was published in the Ogden Standard-Examiner on Sunday, March 18, 1973. “It was, ‘We’re sorry to disappoint, people in Ogden and North Ogden,'” Buckley said.
Ogden explored in the area again, Buckley said. He and his Snake River Brigade arrived on the northeast shores of Great Salt Lake on Dec. 26, 1828. They reported heavy fog and seeing pelicans and sea gulls.
Buckley will speak at the monument’s June 11 rededication. Stark said mountain man reenactors and Shoshone tribe members are expected to attend. Members of the public are invited to attend.