Hill Field: From wind-swept flat to teeming city in 4 years; Plus, Francis Peak history

                                      A past HILL AFB air show.

"TEEMING City thrives on what was only wind-swept flat four years ago" was a headline in the Ogden Standard-Examiner of Feb. 7, 1943.
"Ogden air depot at Hill Field stands as a monument to the ingenuity, industry and determination of the people of Utah," the story stated. Counter to the former wind-swept land, there now exists there, "a city comprised of huge repair hangars and shops, humming with activity; great warehouses with hundreds of thousands of air corps supply items; administrative office buildings covering many acres; miles of track over which are shunted hundreds of freight cars every day."

                           Hill AFB from the southeast Layton bench.

The Standard's description continued: "Like any other modern city, Hill Field has many schools, theatres, a chapel, living quarters consisting of both civilian and military barracks, a fire station, cafeterias, utilities, including gas, water and electrical installations, a well-developed police organization, and its own transportation system. ... The physical growth of Hill Field has been prodigious..."
-Nine months later, another newspaper reported on the same transition of former open land in northern Utah: "One time farm area now industrialized," was a headline in the Salt Lake Tribune of Nov. 7, 1943.
The article continued, "Farmers who used to till the soil on a vast expanse of valley land in northern Davis County never thought more about industrial plants or anything which was a very far cry from agriculture."
"Today they gaze at the $22,000,000 rambling air service command headquarters called Hill Field," The Tribune stated.
The article said thousands of workers now work at the base.
(In fact, the area was at one time part of what was called "The Sandridge," a sandy area that was more for dry farming on pioneer times.)
"Hill Field existed as an idea as far back as 1935 ... Sheltered by high mountains, far enough inland to minimize chances of enemy attack, easily accessible by rail and not too far from the Pacific coast," the Tribune story said.
The stated Hill Field was then the nerve center for 12 sub depots in eight states, all of which are controlled and supplied by Hill Field.
"Only 12 miles from Ogden and 30 miles from Salt Lake City, Hill Field grew up in the midst of what was to become one of the most acute labor shortage areas in the war industrialized west," the story stated.

-MORE HISTORY: Another government installation in Northern Utah is the lofty radar station atop Francis Peak in Davis County. "Francis Peak radar unit to begin test basis May 31. Highest radar site in nation" was a May 28, 1959 headline in the Weekly Reflex newspaper. At a cost of $1.5 million, the facility at more than 9,500 feet above sea level is operated by the FAA. It originally included a Utah Air National Guard facility too.
The facility initially had the radar power to see aircraft 100 miles distant and was manned 24 hours a day.
Although a dirt road to Francis Peak was roughed in by 1938, through the efforts of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Reflex newspaper of June 16, 1960 reported that the Utah National Guard was improving that 5-mile section of road that summer.

                                                Top, center, the Francis Peak radar station.