SNOW Basin has been site of more than ski races over the decades. For three years, from 1961-1963, there was a "Snow Basin Hill Climb" that raced sports cars on the Snow Basin paved road.
The course included 12 hills in its slightly less than two-mile-long event. It was also billed at the first such car race in Utah for some 20 years.
"100 sports cars to compete in Basin" was a May 29, 1962 headline in the Ogden Standard-Examiner. The Ogden Motor Sports Racing Association was the original sponsor of the race.
The first race in 1961 had to be postponed from May 28, to June 9-10, because of inclement weather.
Even though the race's third and final event, in 1963, attracted 1,300 spectators, it was never held again. A car did flip over in that final event, but no one was injured.
After the Snow Basin Race was gone, the annual Moab Hill Climb each spring gained great popularity. (It was later renamed the Easter Jeep Safari.)
-Jump forward to July 1, 1967 and a different Snow Basin Hill Climb was held -- this one for bicycles. However, this race began at the mouth of Ogden Canyon, went east up the Canyon and accessed the original Snow Basin Road to the resort. This race also only lasted a few years.
-MORE HISTORY: The Civilian Conservation Corps ("CCC") helped build the road in Wheeler Canyon in the late 1930s and early 1940s. However, World War II halted their work before the road was completed. According to the Standard-Examiner of Oct. 27, 1955, the Utah National Guard finally completed the road. Several narrow sections of the canyon had to be dynamited to create a two-lane wide road. Today, the road is also titled "Art Nord Drive," in honor of A.J. Nord who was assistant regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service in the area and who pushed to complete the canyon road.
-BEFORE Pineview Reservoir was built (1934-1937), there was a much smaller reservoir located just west of the current Dam and at the head of Wheeler Canyon. "Big storage reservoir" was an Oct. 31, 1905 headline in the Salt Lake Tribune. This Utah Light & Railway Company and Ogden City water storage project provided electrical power, as well as summer water. Sometimes called "Power Dam," it was built from 1909-1910, was an average of 23 feet deep and held 21 million gallons of water. Its construction meant the road through Ogden Canyon had to be rerouted. This dam was drained and replaced by Pineview, located to the east.
-Ogden Peak was the original title for Mount Ogden Peak, according to the first U.S. Geological Survey through Weber County's eastern side in 1873. Next, according the Standard-Examiner of July 19, 1956, the peak was briefly dubbed "Henderson's Peak," to honor one of the men who conducted that first survey. A third temporary name, "Observatory Peak," was the moniker for the mountain during the time of the Malan's Basin Resort, at the end of the 19th Century. By the early 20th Century, Mount Ogden became the accepted name now listed on all maps.
Mount Ogden as viewed from the eastern, Snow Basin side.
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