OGDEN — Weber Remembers, the commemoration of the events surrounding the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, returns next week to the Weber County Fairgrounds.

It’s now in its third year — it launched in 2021, the 20th anniversary year of the attacks — and organizers have added new elements to this year’s installment. Activities, all of them free, are scheduled for Wednesday through Saturday and Sept. 11 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day.

The centerpiece of Weber Remembers are displays focused on the events around Sept. 11, 2001. This year, though, new exhibits will be added featuring other key turning points in U.S. history dating to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, according to Jennie Taylor, one of the main event organizers.

“So kind of picture this photo timeline where you’re going to be able to walk through from 1776 through 9/11,” and learn about historic U.S. milestones, she said in a video promoting the event. “So great history, civics, heritage lesson.”

Moreover, there will be exhibits specifically featuring historical information about the U.S. Constitution with Constitution Day, Sept. 17, looming.

The additions, Taylor told the Standard-Examiner, stem in part from legislation passed by Utah lawmakers earlier this year designating September as American Founders Month. The state designation — which dovetails with Constitution Day, a federal designation — is meant to encourage the spread of the principles outlined in the U.S. Constitution that are the basis of the U.S. government.

Apart from the historic exhibits, New York Police Department and New York Fire Department reps who lived through events of Sept. 11, 2001, will be on hand at the Weber County Fairgrounds to talk about what they experienced, among many other things.

Taylor expects perhaps 10,000 to 13,000 visitors, including 6,000 kids coming as part of organized school field trips. Volunteers, she emphasized, are still needed to help manage the event.

The 9/11 terrorists, part of al-Qaeda, an Islamist extremist group, flew commercial airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, according to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. They destroyed the two towers of the World Trade Center and many other adjacent buildings and caused heavy damage to the Pentagon. Passengers on another airplane commandeered by terrorists fought back and the craft crashed into a vacant field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

In all, the attacks, meant to sow fear among the U.S. public, left 2,977 people dead, 2,753 of them in New York, according to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

The Weber County Fairgrounds is located at 1000 N. 1200 West in Ogden. Last year’s installment of the 9/11 commemoration was held at the Legacy Events Center in Farmington.

The Major Brent Taylor Foundation, named for the late North Ogden mayor and Army National Guard major killed in 2018 while deployed to Afghanistan, is the driving force behind Weber Remembers. Jennie Taylor is the widow of Brent Taylor.

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