Another 'Sardine Canyon' is also found in northern Utah -- Up Ogden Canyon

                                     The late Hermitage Inn in Ogden Canyon.

IT has to be more than a coincidence that both of the Sardine named canyons in the entire United States are located in the State of Utah .... and only some 30 miles apart.
There's the well-known Sardine Canyon along the well-traveled route of U.S. Highway 89, between Brigham City and Logan.
And, then there's the little known and hardly visible Sardine Canyon, located off Ogden Canyon, south of the Alaskan Inn and not far from where the original historic Hermitage Inn was found.
The Hermitage hotel opened in August of 1905. It boasted 25 rooms and cost some $30,000 to build. Soon after, a second story was added to the motel, with another hotel 16 rooms. Horse-drawn buggies carried passengers to the resort before a rail line was built in Ogden Canyon.

Trout and chicken dinners are the specialty of the rustic Hermitage. Boating was also popular on the Ogden area, near the hotel. (Two of the owners' own children drowned in a boating accident there.)
The Hermitage had a short run of some 34 years. An explosion and fire leveled the resort in January of 1939 and it was never rebuilt.
-In fact, the Hermitage received all of its original water from Sardine Canyon, according to the Ogden Daily Standard of Nov. 5, 1912.

William "Billy" Wilson, who built the Hermitage out of lumber in the area, also made a dam in Sardine Canyon to supply his business with ample, yet independent water, according to the Standard of May 17, 1912.
-This other Sardine Canyon was also famous for another event -- it was the site of the first open air (non-Mormon) Christian religious services in Utah. According to the Ogden Daily Standard of May 30, 1913.
Christians from Brigham City to Salt Lake City gathered at the Hermitage and then traveled up the trail to the nearby Sardine Canyon for their outdoor services. 

                    The Alaskan Inn, about half-way up Ogden Canyon.


-Today, part of Sardine Canyon, as well as Sardine Peak, are accessed by a popular mountain bike loop trail.
-The "why" the two canyons have the same name is somewhat of a mystery.  The Ogden Canyon Sardine version is indeed a narrow and small canyon, deserving of a sardine-can type title.
The Highway 89 Sardine Canyon name has a lengthy history that is explored in detail elsewhere on this blog.

        The other Sardine Canyon, along Highway 89, between Brigham City and Logan.

-Historic black and white photos are from "History of Ogden, Utah in Old Post Cards," by D. Boyd Crawford.