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OGDEN — For years, residents living along West 2nd Street in northern Ogden have pushed to preserve and highlight the unique historical attributes of the neighborhood, one of the first areas of Weber County to be settled by pioneers.
It started in earnest a few years ago as redevelopment pressures mounted, said Anna Keogh, a resident in the Bingham Fort neighborhood who's been central in the efforts.
"They want to buy this to develop it?" she said, recalling her incredulity and shock at the notion. "This is history. It's better than reading about things in a book or website. This is real."
Along the way, neighborhood boosters secured an honorary designation for Second Street through the neighborhood — Chief Little Soldier Way — and successfully fought a developer's proposed townhome development. On Saturday, a monument at the northwest corner of Second Street and Wall Avenue that recounts the history of the Bingham Fort area will be formally dedicated at a public ceremony, a big step along the way.
"We're just trying to make our own piece of Ogden as good as it can be," said Tammy Creeger, another neighbor who's been active in the efforts. The peaceful coexistence of the original settlers and the Northwestern Shoshone Indians who inhabited the area is a key element of the history and homes remain dating to the 1860s, around the time those first settlers arrived.
But Saturday's ceremony doesn't end things. Neighborhood residents have asked Ogden leaders to consider declaring the area a historic district and Keogh dreams of converting a five-acre parcel in the area into a park that would highlight the history of the area.
City councilman Rich Hyer, whose district includes the neighborhood, said securing the funds needed to buy the property for the proposed park could be a challenge. But he lauded their efforts. "I'm just impressed with what they've done. If all our citizens were that engaged, it'd be great," he said.
Hyer, Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski and Merlin Pacheco, an elder with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, are among the planned participants in Saturday's ceremony, to start at 10 a.m. at the site of the monument. Creeger will also host a reception in the backyard of her nearby home, a portion of which dates to 1863, when Latter-day Saint pioneers first settled the area.
'A strong history of mixing cultures'
The Bingham Fort area — named for the fort that once protected the original pioneers who moved to the area starting in the late 1850s and early 1860s — isn't the fanciest in Ogden. But it's old, at least by Utah standards, the oldest in Ogden, in fact, according to the Lynn Community Plan, the city document that guides development in the area.
The Ogden City Council last month updated the community plan to include some of the historical information that has emerged thanks to the efforts of Keogh, Creeger, the Weber County Heritage Foundation and others. Leaders from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had ordered the construction of Bingham Fort as a safety precaution for settlers, Keogh said. But its gates were never used, reads the community plan, given the good relations between the new inhabitants and the Shoshone Indians who were already living in the area.
"This community has a strong history of mixing cultures and taking the good that each has to offer and nurturing relationships even when there are differences," reads the plan.
Keogh can tell story after story of the neighborhood's early history, which has figured in residents' efforts to preserve the remaining vestiges of those early days. Among their first achievements was securing the honorary designation for Second Street through the neighborhood — Chief Little Soldier Way, named for the Shoshone chief who led the tribe when the original settlers first arrived. Though a townhome development took shape at the northwest corner of Second Street and Wall Boulevard, the residents successfully lobbied against a rezone that could have resulted in more townhomes and the demolition of some of the original, historic homes.
The Weber County Heritage Foundation helped secure signage outside around 15 of the original neighborhood homes noting their historic relevance. Now comes the ceremonial unveiling of the memorial, actually installed last September, and who knows what more. As Creeger sees it, the various accomplishments show the power of the public in making a difference.
"I encourage everyone to get involved, gather together and stand up for what you believe in," she said.
