Mormon Battalion gold 'bought' much of the Ogden area

      Ogden, as viewed through all the microwave apparatus, atop Mount Ogden Peak.

By Lynn Arave

IS the Ogden, Utah area worth $1,950, or about 103 ounces of 

gold?

Dutch colonists are often said to have purchased all of Manhattan 

Island, New York in 1626 from the local Indians for trinkets and 

cloth, worth only about 1.5 pounds of silver, or perhaps just $24.

Jump forward in time from that event, some 221 years, to the Utah 

Territory, in 1847, to a somewhat similar event in history.

Today's Ogden was the only place in the territory already settled 

by whites when the Mormon Pioneers arrived in July of 1847.

Mountain man Miles Goodyear and his family had built a fort (today's Fort Buenaventura) and cabins in what is present-day West Ogden in 1845-46, before the Mormon pioneers arrived.

James Brown, a Captain in the Mormon Battalion, under the direction of Brigham Young, used Mexican or Spanish gold coins, worth about $1,950 -- earned from service in the Mormon Battalion -- to purchase much of today's Ogden area.

                                         Captain James Brown

That price included: a fort, about 210 square miles, 75 cattle, 75 goats, 12 sheep, six horses (and a "$10 cat," according to some sources) from Goodyear on November, 24, 1847.
(Where Goodyear got that many cattle is another story ...)

Based on prices per Troy ounce of gold for that era (at least in the weight of gold), that purchase price might have equaled about 8 1/2 pounds (103 ounces) of gold paid by the Mormon Pioneers.

In today's current gold values, what the pioneers paid in gold could now be worth almost $136,500. (In today's dollar values, that $1,950 is only worth about $47,500, though).
This gold was Brown's own money, not only earned for his service in the Mormon Battalion, but also from some of his business enterprises in California. 
(Despite "owning" all of the Ogden area land, Brown never charged any settler for homesteading land there.)

             The historic Miles Goodyear cabin today, at 2104 Lincoln Avenue, Ogden.

Goodyear's deed (claimed with an alleged grant from the Mexican government) described the boundaries as:

"Commencing at the mouth of Weber Canyon and following the base of the mountains north to the hot springs; thence west to the Salt Lake; thence south along the shore to a point opposite Weber Canyon; thence east to the beginning."

By that geography lesson, the purchase likely stretched from Weber Canyon to Ogden Canyon (today's 12th Street) and to the Great Salt Lake in between.

(There is a hot springs near the Box Elder-Weber County line, but that’s northwest and so the purchase boundaries were more likely referring to the hot springs at the mouth of Ogden Canyon.)

    Much of the Ogden area as viewed from Ben Lomond Peak.        Photo by Liz Arave Hafen.

 So, the area included not just most of today's Ogden City, but also some of West Weber and West Warren, all of West Haven, Hooper, Roy, South Ogden, Riverdale, Washington Terrace and Uintah.

Also included would have been some of Davis County -- parts of South Weber, Sunset, Clinton, West Point and Hill Air Force Base.

Of course Goodyear almost certainly had no true deed to the property, or even a land grant from Mexico.

"So far as the land was concerned he had sold Captain Brown a wooden nutmeg!" is how the book "Beneath Ben Lomond's Peak" summarized the land transaction.

Goodyear was seemingly more than a capable mountain man, he was apparently a shrewd salesman and entrepreneur too.

This was the only such land purchase made anywhere by the Mormon Pioneers -- call it a payment for privacy.

As Goodyear moved out and took his family to Benicia, Calif., only some scattered Native Americans were left in the area. Goodyear’s  former home first became known as Brown's Fort, or Brown's Settlement. Soon "Brownsville" took hold as the name and held for several years.

The city was named for Peter Skene Ogden on Feb. 6, 1851, when it was incorporated.

Peter Skene Ogden was the brigade leader of the Hudson Bay Fur Company, who were in the Ogden Valley in the 1830s(but ironically who never set foot on the front side of the Wasatch Mountains into today's Ogden City.

(Can you imagine if Brownsville had become the name of today's Ogden?)

By 1860, Ogden had a population of 1,463 people, but was primarily a farming community.

Ogden really took off in 1869, with the establishment of the transcontinental railroad. Soon, Ogden became "Junction City," near where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads met.

Eventually, the equivalent of today's chamber of commerce adopted the motto: "you can't get anywhere without coming to Ogden!"

That was true as all passengers and shipments by train in the Mountain West went through Ogden.

Weber County today boasts more than 237,000 residents and the portions of Davis County in the Goodyear purchase have many thousands more. So, the $1,950 "purchase," more than 165 years ago -- legally necessary or not -- certainly appears to have been a great investment of sorts.

SOURCES: www.nma.org; www.ogdencity.com, "Beneath Ben Lomond Peak" book, by Daughters of Utah Pioneers; "The Utah Story" book, by Milton R. Hunter; "Weber County is Worth Knowing," by William W. Terry.

--Originally published by Lynn Arave in the Ogden Standard Examiner on Dec. 6, 2013.

-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  

Cathedral Valley: Spectacular Utah Badlands

By Lynn Arave

ABOUT 200 years ago, trappers and other trailblazers pushing into the American West began traversing bleak, torturous landscapes mostly barren of vegetation and browse.
They called these places "badlands." Nowadays, often as not, we call them "national parks."
A perfect example can be found in the spectacularly eroded backcountry northeast of Fruita and the Fremont River in southcentral Utah. There, in 1945, Frank Beckwith and Charles Kelly, the first superintendent of what was then Capitol Reef National Monument, christened an area of fantastically eroded cliffs, sandstone monoliths and panoramic views. To them, the scene seemed downright Gothic.
So they called it Cathedral Valley. There you'll find, among many other jaw-dropping formations, the Temples of the Sun, Moon and Stars.

This quiet remote place has a reverent atmosphere, filled with solitude and wonder.

"The landscape of South Desert and Cathedral Valley looks eternal," Rose Houk writes in her book "Capitol Reef: Backcountry Eden." ". . . But change is nature's universal theme.""It's spectacular and remote," observes Al Hendricks, superintendent of today's Capitol Reef National Park.
Cathedral Valley's sometimes atypical Colorado Plateau scenes are often depicted on postcards and in books, but getting there requires heading off the paved U-24 highway that bisects Capitol Reef, often to travel a dusty — and in wet weather, potentially treacherous — 58-mile loop that crosses the eerie Bentonite Hills, rises over the South Desert and descends into Cathedral Valley and the Caineville Wash . . . or vice versa.
Compared to the more popular Waterpocket Fold area to the south, not many people choose to make this trip.
"Very often, you may be the only one visiting them that day," Hendricks says.
The Cathedral Valley tour is a fascinating passage through the geologic eons, from ancient seas that laid down sandstone layers to not-quite-so-distant volcanic and ice ages that have left big basaltic boulders strewn about as if giants had been playing marbles with them.

The wonders along this backcountry loop greatly add to Capitol Reef's picturesque inventory. The park's better-known Capitol Dome, Hickman Arch and Grand Wash are familiar to most visitors because of their proximity to historic Fruita, Capitol Reef's headquarters. But the moonscape hills, plateau-top views, shimmering gypsum hillocks and pyramid-like temples in the park's northern sector are certainly worth taking in as well.
Overnight visits are possible, but a minimum of seven hours is usually required to complete the Cathedral Valley loop. The route also passes through some private land, where no trespassing is the rule, and winds in and out of national park boundaries and into Bureau of Land Management territory.

Here are just a few of the sights:

---

Fremont River Ford: This one obstacle, 11.7 miles east of Capitol Reef's visitor center on the loop's west end, probably deters many a potential backcountry tourist, even though the road beyond is generally OK for all vehicles with good ground clearance. The river crossing is shallow year-round (about 10 inches deep), except in spring runoff or after a rainstorm, according to the park's $1 "self-guiding auto tour" tabloid. Access to Cathedral Valley itself is possible at the other end of the loop, at Caineville Wash, 18.6 miles east of the visitor center — and the road there does not require a splash across a river, if you plan on going out the same way you came in.

Bentonite Hills: Their name sounds like a title for a Western novel: "These Bentonite Hills." From a distance, the mounds, about 8.5 miles from the River Ford, really do look otherworldly — like an artist's palette, splashed with gray and white and dark vermillion. Up close, the barren soil — "Plants can't take root here," Hendricks says — looks equally alien. Crackly when dry, like stepping on popcorn, it becomes gooey and slippery when wet. So this part of the loop is best avoided when the latter seems likely.

Cathedral Valley Overlooks: A 1-mile hike from the loop road, 17 miles from the ford, offers a high view of the Temples of the Sun and the Moon. A spur road 27.2 miles along presents the panorama of Upper Cathedral Valley's monolith complexes.South Desert Overlooks: There are two major overlooks of the colorful South Desert, one about 14 miles from the ford, at the end of a short spur (the "Lower" overlook), another atop a high knoll 27 miles along (the "Upper" overlook), near the loop's summit. The views, high on a rising plateau, are to the south toward the Henry Mountains and the Waterpocket Fold, and they are something to behold.

Thousand Lake Mountain: A six-site campground is near the loop's highest point, 28 miles from the river ford, near where a Forest Service road heads off to Thousand Lake Mountain.

Upper Cathedral Valley:Towering above the sloping plain — sometimes 500 feet tall — the Entrada sandstone monoliths of Upper Cathedral Valley, 30 miles from the ford, rise in spectacular groupings above cracked-mud draws and pinyon-and-juniper lowlands.

Morrell Cabin: Mostly hidden by a small bluff in Upper Cathedral Valley, but near the loop road, the Morrell Cabin was used by stockmen, and today remembers the park's cowboy past. It was built in the 1920s by a ranching family.

Gypsum Sinkhole: A gigantic cliffside maw opens up below some cliffs at the end of a short spur road 33 miles from the ford. Underground gypsum deposits have eroded away, creating a sinkhole some 200 feet deep in places.

Glass Mountain: A shimmering mound off the Lower Cathedral Valley spur to the Temples of the Sun and Moon, 42.5 miles from the river ford (15.5 miles from the Caineville Wash intersection), has been dubbed "Glass Mountain." It is specked with unusually large flat selenite gypsum crystals, also known as "moonstone," according to the Park Service. The glassy rock adds to the unearthly setting when the Temples of the Sun and Moon are glimpsed in the near distance.

Temples of the Moon and Sun:

This is an intimate "Monument Valley." This is a place where you can drive right up, touch and ponder the layered pyramids in relative solitude. They offer a serene experience that's rare in today's overused national parks. The near-twins stand like sentinels, rising up to 400 feet high above the valley floor, but visitors can see other incipient temples along the cliffs nearby — the Temples of the Stars.

---

Spring and fall are Cathedral Valley's busiest periods, according to Hendricks. Summer, he says, is too hot for most visitors.
If there's a catch to Cathedral Valley, it's that it requires that minimum 15-mile, one-way drive along Caineville Wash's dirt roads to visit the magnetic Temples of the Sun and Moon.

"Our biggest issue here is flashfloods," Hendricks said.
He said the valley and the loop drive that accesses it are places where extra water and provisions are wise, because even the park rangers don't travel the road every day — and some days no one may come along to help a stranded traveler.
High-clearance two-wheel drive vehicles can sometimes travel the road safely, but probably can't do so now without a high probability of getting stuck. That's because additional work needs done on the road by the park service and Wayne County. More soil moisture is needed for that work to proceed.

---

"Four-wheel drive does come in handy here," Hendricks says. He believes deep pockets of dust are a particular hazard currently for two-wheel vehicles. "It's so dry. It's like driving in powdered sugar," he said.

-All photographs by Ravell Call.

(-Adapted from a Nov. 23, 2003 article in the Deseret News by Lynn Arave and Ray Boren.)

-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  

No Mirage: UDOT Operates a Seasonal Ferry on Lake Powell

                                                                                Photos by Ravell Call.

By Lynn Arave

THE Utah Department of Transportation maintains 5,840 total miles of road in Utah, including 971 miles of interstate highways. It also maintains a one-ship navy.

What? A ship in the desert? Yes. UDOT operates a ferry service seasonally across 3.1 miles of open water between Bullfrog Marina and Hall's Crossing on Lake Powell.

A wet, green state like Washington has dozens anddozens of ferries, but it seems unusual for the nation's second-driest weather state to have one.

The ferry, an extension of state Route 276, operates daily each spring and summer, weather permitting.

Maintaining a ferry crossing is the most feasible way to connect highways in this remote area.

The ferry, which will mark its 30th year of operation in 2014, has a vehicle capacity of 22 cars or any combination of cars, trucks, buses or other equipment that can fit on the deck. Passenger capacity is 150 for an approximately 25-minute ride.

A ride on the ferry is a scenic opportunity of its own, offering great views of Lake Powell and the surrounding area.The ferry saves about an hour in travel time for people headed to Halls Crossing, Bullfrog Marina and other areas. The only alternative route in the area is about 70 miles longer and means driving through White Canyon and Fry Canyon.

The service is not cheap. In 2005, it cost UDOT about $363,000 to operate the ferry, including a $100,000 charge to renew its license with the U.S. Coast Guard. UDOT almost canceled service in 2005, but increased the fees and reduced free rides for some groups.

When it was announced the ferry might close, people throughout the western United States sent UDOT e-mails requesting that it remain open. The Kane County Office of Tourism argued closure would negatively impact tourism, travel and emergency services in the area.

Besides tourists, area employees also regularly take the ferry. Some school buses use it to transport schoolchildren each day.

The ferry is an important link between two of Utah's most remote and rural counties — Kane and San Juan.

Regarding the unique nature of operating a ferry in a desert, Kitchen said among a flurry of local inquiries about snow removal, receiving a request for employment information on the ferry last month from a Coast Guard captain in New York seemed out of place.

Reservations on the ferry are not accepted. It is first-come, first-served. Fees are $10 for foot passengers and increases from there, depending on a vehicle's size.

 The schedule varies depending on the season.

Go to: udot.utah.gov and search for "ferry" for the latest schedules and prices.

(-Updated from a Jan. 24, 2009 article by Lynn Arave in the Deseret News.)

Back When Utah Had Just Six Counties ...

Utah hasn't always had 29 counties. Back in 1850, there were only six counties in the vast "State of Deseret," a territory that encompassed all of present-day Utah and Nevada, as well as portions of Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho and even California and Oregon.

The original six were Great Salt Lake, Weber, Tuilla (that's how they spelled it), Utah, San Pete and Little Salt Lake counties. Davis County was created later in 1850.The boundaries of these six (as well as other counties years later) long were inexact, marked only by geographic features. For example, the boundaries of Weber Countywere described as "extending as far south as Stony Creek and west to the Great Salt Lake."

A major problem with doing a 20th-century story on counties is that many of the geographical features used as past county boundaries no longer exist. Hence, there are several different versions of early county maps of Utah.

By 1852 there were a dozen counties: Weber, Desert, Davis, Green River, Tooele, Utah, Great Salt Lake, Juab, Millard, San Pete, Iron and Washington. These 12 covered all of the Utah Territory from Wyoming into Colorado.

The territorial government moved the Davis-Weber line north more than a mile in 1855, probably as a way to give five-year-old Davis County more land because it was then - by far - the proposed state's smallest county.

                              Today's south Hooper sign, that's actually in Davis County.

Ironically, this boundary change, considered minor at the time, would be destined to affect many cities in its path. For example, Hooper was permanently divided between Weber and Davis counties by this shift and South Weber moved into Davis County. Some history books erroneously list this alteration as taking place in 1877.

The move also affected the ultimate size of other area communities that didn't exist then, but which do now, including Riverdale and Roy in Weber County, and Sunset, Clinton and West Point on the Davis County side. And, the ploy didn't work - Davis is still Utah's smallest county.

Five years later, 11 more counties were created, but the overall land area of the Utah Territory was the same. The 12 existing counties were made smaller to create these new ones: Carson, Humboldt, St. Mary's, Beaver, Malad, Cache, Grease Wood, Box Elder, Summit, Cedar and Shambip.

Each time the territorial boundaries of Utah were reduced (in 1861, 1862, 1866 and 1868), county boundaries also had to change.

It wasn't until 1879 that Utah's counties really started to resemble anything similar to what we have today. By then five new counties - Rich, Kane, Sevier, Piute and Morgan (carved from the eastern side of Davis County) - had all been created.

But seven others, Carson, Humboldt, St. Mary's, Cache, Grease Wood, Cedar and Shambip, had all disappeared.

Another, Rio Virgin, had been created in 1869 in southern Utah, but it survived only three years before Washington County gobbled it up. Still another, Waleda County, isn't shown on any Utah maps but may have actually existed somewhere in Utah for at least a brief time.

It wasn't until 1880 that the waters of the Great Salt Lake were divided and given to Salt Lake, Davis, Weber and Box Elder counties. Before that, and despite what early county maps show, the lake apparently didn't belong to any particular county or counties, and the dividing lines of counties near the lake had ended at the lake's shores.

When Utah gained statehood in 1896, Uintah, Carbon, Emery, Grand, Garfield and San Juan counties were all added within the borders of the state for a total of 27 counties - only two fewer than today's total. 

In 1914, Duchesne was created by dividing Wasatch County, and three years later Daggett was sliced from the eastern portion of Summit County.

There's not room here to list all the county changes, but when the dust had cleared by 1917, Utah had made about 100 boundary changes and created as many as 40 counties - 11 of which have passed into oblivion.

The derivations of many county names are obvious: Wasatch for the mountains of the same name, Iron for the rich mineral deposits there, Salt Lake (called Great Salt Lake County until 1868) for the lake of salt water and Beaver for the creature that once thrived in nearby streams.

But other name origins are not so obvious:

- Millard County was named for President Millard Fillmore. Two other counties were also named for U.S. presidents - Washington and Garfield.

- Morgan County was named for Elder Jedediah Morgan Grant, an LDS Church apostle, and Rich County is named for another apostle, Elder Charles C. Rich (the county was named "Richland" at first, but the name didn't stick).

- Emery County was named in honor of George W. Emery, a territorial governor who favored Utah. The county was previously named Castle County.

- Davis County was named after Capt. Daniel C. Davis of the Mormon Battalion, and Weber County's name, though uncertain, came from an early trapper in the area, John Weber.

- Cache County came from the French word meaning "to hide," since many trappers "cached" their furs and supplies in that area.

- Daggett County was named after Ellsworth Daggett, Utah's original surveyor-general. "Tuilla" was somehow respelled "Tooele" two years after its creation in 1852. No one knows for sure where this county name came from, but an Indian word is the likely candidate.

- Perhaps the weirdest county name of all - the extinct "Shambip" county - is another whose origin falls into the unknown category. This county existed for about a decade and comprised what is now the southern half of Tooele County. Its name origin could possibly be from the Goshute Indian name for the bulrush.

(-Updated, but originally published in the Deseret News, by Lynn Arave, July 27, 1989.)

-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  

Ogden: 'This is the Place?'

                     

                    The Devil's Gate area today, not so rugged.

By Lynn Arave

"Ogden might have been the one big city in the State of Utah."
That's was the headline in the June 13, 1914 Ogden Standard-Examiner.
After all, Weber Canyon's Devil's Gate rerouted the Mormon Pioneers a different way than they intended into the Salt Lake Valley. Here's a "What if?" scenario:

It is July 21, 1847 and Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow, advance scouts for the Mormon Pioneers, emerge into the valley of the Great Salt Lake and survey the area as the first of their group, composed of 143 men, three women and two children.
A day later, on July 22, the first wagons enter the valley. A survey of the area continues.
Then, on July 24, Brigham Young's wagon leaves Weber Canyon and enters the valley at today's South Weber/Uintah.
 "This is the right place," Young proclaims, "Drive on."

                        A newspaper graphic from 1946, in the Iron County Record.


If, for example, Devil's Gate, near the mouth of Weber Canyon, had not been so formidable of a fiendish gorge, this actually would have likely happened.
A Weber Canyon entrance into the Valley of the Great Salt Lake was the most direct access for the Mormon Pioneers and is where they would have traveled, if they could have.
Weber Canyon was a section of what was then called the Hastings Cutoff. An 1846 map made by T.H. Jefferson identified the Devil's Gate area as "Granite Canyon."

The wild Weber River roared over rocks in a deep, narrow crevice at the bottom of Devil's Gate. The canyon was only wide enough to handle the river, let alone wagons. 

Heinrich Lienhard, a frontiersman in Jefferson's frontier party, described his wagon passage through Devil's Gate as the wildest part of his journey across the wilderness of the west. 
In his diary account for Aug. 6, 1846, he recorded:

"The Weber River had broken down the steep, high Wasatch Mountains; it was a deep cleft through which the waters foamed and roared over the rocks.

"We ventured upon this furious passage, up to this point decidedly the wildest we had encountered, if not the most dangerous. We devoted the entire forenoon and until fully one o'clock in the afternoon to the task of getting our four wagons though. . . .

"In going back for each wagon we had to be very careful lest we lose our footing on the slippery rocks under the water and ourselves be swept down the rapid, foaming torrent."

That same year, the Allen and Avery group recorded its passage through the "Granite Canyon" area and for them it required grueling teamwork and sturdy rope to hoist wagons and oxen through the narrow passage. 

(However, the Granite Canyon name on that early map apparently wasn't scary enough for the Mormon Pioneers. After all, they had likely thought that the Devil himself may have stirred people to force them westward. So, the `devil' was a perfect name for a natural gorge that prevented safe wagon passage to their promised land -- and it was the more unpleasant cousin of the "Devil's Slide, " 23 miles to the east, that they had passed by days earlier.)
 The legendary Porter Rockwell led some advance Mormon Pioneer scouts in a survey of lower Weber Canyon.

They found the gorge worse than Hastings had described it. 
The 1914 Standard article stated that wagons had to be taken piece meal through the Gate in pioneer times and their loads had to be taken separately on pack horses on a nearby narrow Indian path.
The article also speculated that if the Donner Party had also traveled down Weber Canyon instead, perhaps The Mormon Pioneers would have done so too.
But, the scouts' recommendation to Brigham Young was to go through Emigration Canyon instead, as the Donner Party had done in early September of 1846.
Now Brigham Young was said to have seen a divine vision of the area of the Salt Lake Valley the pioneers were to settle in. Hence, why the pioneers still might have turned south and went some 30 miles to today's Salt Lake City from South Weber/Uintah, had they somehow emerged from Weber Canyon, instead of Emigration Canyon.
(If not that, then South Weber, Layton, or some nearby town, or towns, might have been today's Salt Lake City, as Miles Goodyear had already laid claim to everything between Weber and Ogden canyons.)

                                       Mouth of Weber Canyon.

For the Mormon Pioneers, it would not be until eight years later, in 1855, that Devil's Gate was partially tamed. Then, Thomas Jefferson Thurston, Abiah Wadsworth (one of my ancestors), Ira Spaulding, Charles Peterson, Roswell Stevens and other prospective settlers had built a road from South Weber and by Devil's Gate into the Morgan Valley. 

Thurston had viewed the Morgan Valley accidentally while scrambling over the mountain ridge above his Centerville home. He thought the lush valley similar to his former home in Ohio. Only primitive tools were used for this road building, and sometimes huge rocks would simply be pushed off from the walls above the gorge so that the road could be made on top of such fill material. That first road was completed by 1856.

(Thurston is today's namesake for Thurston Park, the highest point in both Davis and Morgan counties.)

There was one angelic side to Devil's Gate too, in that the railroad having to conquer it gave Mormon settlers two years of employment by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1868-69 in Weber Canyon and areas east. This paid labor was timely, since the pioneers were struggling after the grasshopper invasions of 1866-67.

Years later, Devil's Gate was opened to one-lane passage with the construction of "Horseshoe Bend," a loop in the road around Devil's Gate.

 Families entering from either side of Devil's Gate by horse and buggy would send one person ahead on foot to stop traffic on the narrow path while they passed through.

An 1887 article in the Ogden Standard-Examiner referred to the west end of Weber Canyon as "The Devil's Road," thanks to the rough and rocky conditions of Devil's Gate. And, disputes over which county, Weber or Morgan, would maintain the bridge at Devil's Gate also reached a climax then.

At that time, a "Devil's Chair" rock formation was also infamous, just east of Devil's Gate.

"A snow slide and wreck at Devil's Gate" was a Jan. 10, 1892 headline in the Salt Lake Herald newspaper.

An 80-foot deep and 100-foot wide slide happened in Devil's Gate and a freight train going through couldn't stop and smashed into it. The result were six smashed rail cars and a dead engineer.

A Dec. 21, 1893 story in the Davis County Clipper newspaper described Devil's Gate/Horseshoe bend as a "man trap."

This article described passage through the area as not just perilous because of the "old banging bridge" that had to be crossed (and that hung precariously by the side of the mountain), but because the greater danger was 100 tons of rock hanging over head and about ready to cut loose and fall downward.
The article also mentioned Devil's Gate as truly lurking in the realm of "Satanic majesty" and that anyone who safely crossed through the place would thank God on the other side for safely haven done so.

Yet, by the early automobile age, the road through Devil's Gate was widened dramatically to two lanes.However, it also earned several new nicknames, like "Scrambled-Egg Curve," because of the frequent accidents involving egg transports there --  as well as other cargo spills -- livestock, vegetables and even oil. "Horseshoe Bend" was another moniker for the area.

 This spot simply had more accidents than any other portion of Weber Canyon. So, the "Devil" was still not conquered.

 After the wet winter of 1952, flood waters cut off travel through Devil's Gate for several weeks. Commuters from Morgan County to the west had to park their vehicles on the east side and walk around Devil's Gate to get rides to work from the other side.

It required  lots of dynamite and heavy equipment in the early 1960s to clear the path for the construction of two 583-foot-long concrete bridges, key components of creating Interstate 80-North (now I-84), finally conquering the bugaboo of Devil's Gate/"Scrambled Egg Curve" and the like. (It cost $2.5 million then, or $19.4 million in 2014 dollars to build the three-mile section of freeway in the area of Devil's Gate.)

Today, it is not easy to spot Devil's Gate. Motorists zoom through the area at 65 mph, hardly slowing down for what might have been the only insurmountable barrier the Mormon Pioneers faced in their historic trek.
With more and faster freeway traffic than ever, there doesn't seem to be a safe place to even visit the site anymore.
There's just a slight bend in the interstate highway at Devil's Gate now, located just west of the Weber-Morgan county line.
The Weber River still makes a loop northward at Devil's Gate and some remains of the old Horseshoe Bend highway are there. It is more of an isolated, rocky alcove now, probably frequented only by an occasional fisherman.
A large train trestle, reminiscent of the original 1860s train bridge that crossed Devil's Gate, is found nearby too.

(-A shorter version of this article was originally published by Lynn Arave in the Ogden Standard-Examiner on July 17. 2014.)

                         Devil's Gate area and I-84 westbound.

. .

                       I-84 over the Weber River today at Devil's Gate.

               Center and left of the power pole: A look inside Devil's Gate Alcove today.

    I-84 westbound and into the curve that is all that's left of Devil's Gate travel today.

    South Weber City today ... it could have been "This is the Place," if not for Devil's Gate.

-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