Back when Riverdale road was muddy, not congested

 RIVERDALE Road in Weber County, Utah today is an ordeal in driving through heavy traffic. However, 93 years ago, the highway, a main thoroughfare between Ogden and Salt Lake, was a different kind of adventure.

“Cars stall in mud. Team required to drag adventurous motorists to safety on highway” was a March 18, 1922 Standard-Examiner headline.

Three feet of heavy mud blocked the road at a point likely just east of today’s Riverdale Road overpass at the Weber River – and there was no detour to be found back then. Horse teams had to be mobilized to pull several autos that became firmly imbedded in the mud. Then, the horse teams kept busy all morning in hauling cars across the heavy sea of mud and sand.

                                "Death Curve" in Roy today, 1900 West and Riverdale Road.

More historical tidbits:

-“Death Curve” in Roy, where today’s Riverdale Road meets 1900 West, has long been a dangerous place.

“Will put sign at Death Curve” was an Aug. 30, 1926 Standard headline. After three vehicles had turned over taking the sharp turn, causing 11 injuries, a sign was placed near there that stated, “Death Curve ahead. Be careful.”

A Roy resident near the curve said his fences are broken frequently by accidents there and trees are impossible to grow there, being broken off.

-Before 1905, Riverdale Road or 24^th Street were the only ways to access Kanesville or Hooper from Ogden. It was that year that the “Sand Ridge Cut Off” was built in a very sandy, barren area, a road roughly where today’s 30-31^st Street heads west to Roy.

-Some 70 stop signs were placed along the length of Washington Avenue/Highway 91 (today’s Washington Boulevard) in late November of 1927 at various intersections to improve safety. Other signs were erected to show where various side roads led.

This was all part of an effort for better signage along the main highway through Utah, between Idaho and Arizona.

-A historic flagpole was erected on Lewis Peak back on Sept. 28, 1916, according to a report in the Standard on Oct. 2 of that year. Participants drove to the top of the North Ogden Divide by auto and then most of the party hiked or used horses to haul materials to the peak. The peak’s namesake, Lewis W. Shurtliff and a few other old-timers, Harry Newman and H.H. Frank, watched the younger members climb the mountain.

Some members of the party had to hike down the west side of the mountain to obtain water to mix with the cement used for the pole. A U.S. Flag was also placed there. Shurtliff was in the first group known to climb the 8,031-foot peak back on June 6, 1852 with two other boys, Martin H. Harris and Ira N. Tiffany. Lewis Peak is located northeast of Ogden’s Five Points.

Ogden’s first two viaducts

WHEN did the 24^th Street Viaduct across the railroad yard originate in Ogden?

It was rebuilt in more modern times, but here’s the scoop on the original trestle-like viaduct:

“Iron workers start on the railroad viaduct” was a January 24, 1909 headline in the Standard-Examiner.

“Contractor E.H. Dundas and a force of men are placing derricks and making other preparations for an active campaign – temporary western approach is to be torn down at a later date,” the story continued.

As early as February of 1902, the Ogden City Council had mentioned the need for such a viaduct, because of safety reasons, as well as traffic congestion and even more for tourism.

Crossing dozens of train tracks was bumpy, time consuming and downright dangerous in such a busy railroad area.

Eleven cars of iron and steel arrived from the east to begin the project. The viaduct was open in the summer of that same year, as the rush project enhanced downtown access from West Ogden.

Some two years later, in 1911, special and serious problems on the new viaduct were being wrestled with. The Southern Pacific Railway Company asked Ogden City in September of that year to begin sprinkling the viaduct with water twice a day.

Refuse accumulated on the viaduct and sparks from locomotives passing underneath the structure had caused many fires to date.

Such fires have burned holes in the wood planking of the viaduct. An average of one fire response call a day was the average.

By December 24, 1924, the Standard reported a plan by Ogden City and the Weber Club to light up the viaduct at night, as well as the area around the Union Passenger Station. This was to hopefully make Ogden one of the most brilliantly lighted cities in the west.

“The fact that the viaduct has been the scene of many crimes recently has suggested to the Weber Club that this long bridge over the yards would be much more safe at night if brilliantly lighted,” the Standard article reported.

How about the railroad/river viaduct in Riverdale, when did that initial project take place?

The area where this southern viaduct approach to Ogden would go was called “Death Curve” in a Dec. 31, 1922 Standard article.

Apparently, the original road in the area not only had a sharp curve by the river, but was also narrow and simply inadequate.

Financing and proper planning had delayed this project for years.  It was finally built in 1923, a concrete structure with dirt fill.

Of course, that viaduct has also been totally rebuilt in recent years. It is also certain that no one ever dreamed 90 years ago that the later viaduct – the Riverdale one – would eventually become far busier and more crucial to Ogden City than the original 24^th Street Viaduct would.

(-Originally published in the Ogden Standard-Examiner on March 14, 2014.)

-NOTE: The author, Lynn Arave, is available to speak to groups, clubs, classes or other organizations about Utah history at no charge. He can be contacted by email at: lynnarave@comcast.net