In recognition of Ogden’s arrival, a series of bicentennial events will be held around the upper valley in the coming days as part of OV200, or Ogden Valley 200. All events are free and open to the public.

“It’s really pretty unique and amazing that we have some history of record here that’s got a 200-year anniversary attached to it,” OV200 chairman Dave Martin told the Standard-Examiner. “You don’t find many people in Utah or events taking place where there’s actually a 200-year record of the anniversary of it. So, that makes it really unique, because when Peter Skene Ogden came into Northern Utah through Cache Valley and, eventually, Ogden Valley down into Mountain Green, they were the first to come in and actually record their travels.”

Teaching and preserving that history is an important part of the OV200 mission, according to Martin, who says that much of the real history wasn’t widely known until journals from Ogden’s expedition were released by the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives several decades after the fact.

As such, even now, much of what people think they know about Ogden actually comes from the local folklore and oral tradition.

“As historians, we look forward to sometimes maybe getting some scraps of primary evidence and primary sources, but we hit the motherlode here (with the journals),” Martin said. “The funny, almost ironic thing about the whole situation as it all unfolded is how reluctant people who had accepted these erroneous historical accounts of where Ogden Hole was, where Peter Skene Ogden was, what he saw, what he did, what he didn’t do. It was hard to turn that around.”

One of the ways in which Martin and other local historical experts have worked to correct the record is by holding the annual “In Search of Ogden Hole” lecture series, an event that will return to Eden’s Hearthside Event Center, located at 5612 E. 2200 North, at 7 p.m. May 21 as part of the OV200 celebration. Brigham Young University professor Jay Buckley and Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation Vice Chairman Brad Parry will serve as presenters for the event, which focuses on Northern Utah’s presettlement involvement in the fur trade and the interaction between the native Shoshone and fur trappers.

This year’s special bicentennial event will also include a deep dive on the Ogden journals. Some of Ogden’s descendants are expected to be in attendance as well.

A commemoration and re-enactment at the Peter Skene Ogden/”Deserters Point” monument at the Utah Department of Transportation rest stop near Mountain Green on westbound Interstate-84 will be held on May 24, at 10 a.m. The event will commemorate an encounter between John Henry Weber’s trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and Ogden’s trappers from the Hudson’s Bay Company.

There will be a presentation by Buckley, and members of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation will be in attendance. Descendants of Ogden will also be greeted and honored by Ogden City Mayor Ben Nodalski and Morgan City Mayor Steve Gale. Meanwhile, members of the Fort Buenaventura Mountain Man Association will help bring the event to life, dressed in full mountain man regalia.

Other OV200 projects include the construction of four heritage roadside markers to be placed and dedicated at Ogden Valley locations where Ogden camped from May 16-25, 1825, and the ongoing location and registry of Ogden descendants, who are presented with certificates recognizing their lineage. Additionally, OV200 will have a presence at the starting line of Saturday’s Ogden Marathon, where Ogden descendants, dressed as mountain men, will officially start the race with the firing of muzzleloaders.