Which Utah Town Was Really The 1st Utah Town?

Folks from Ogden claim it was the first town in Utah. Salt Lake City-ites stake their claim as well, as do citizens of Bountiful and Provo.

But which city was REALLY first in our state?

First, the folklore:

Four men went into a room to decide which was the oldest city in the state of Utah.

There was a man from Ogden, a man from Salt Lake, a man from Provo and a man from Bountiful in the room.

Officials locked the door and waited for a resolution. An hour later, after a lot of noise and ruckus, the men emerged from the room, beaten and battered, one of them beaming with pride. All four agreed Ogden was the oldest town in the state.

"Wow, I didn't expect a consensus," the official exclaimed.

The man from Ogden, obviously less battered than the others, said, "It took awhile, but I got them to see it my way."

The story, although fictional, is based on the idea that people from Ogden are maybe just a bit tougher than the rest of us.

Another Ogden legend is that Al Capone, the famous gangster, took the train to Ogden looking to expand his empire. After 10 minutes on 25th Street of the northern Utah city, Capone supposedly muttered, 'This is too rough of a town for me."

The truth of the matter is this: As a settlement in Utah, Ogden was, in fact, first, because of the founding in 1845 of a small picket enclosure, Fort Buenaventura, on the Weber River by Miles Goodyear, a mountain man working in the northern Utah area.

But as an incorporated town, Salt Lake City actually beat Ogden to the punch. Bountiful and West Jordan were close behind. All of this was around 1846.

St. George was founded a decade later, but has since surpassed Ogden and Bountiful in population, while the relatively young West Valley City (1980) is actually the second largest municipality in the state.

The founding dates of communities settled in these years which eventually became important population centers are Salt Lake City (1847), Bountiful (1847), Ogden (1848), West Jordan (1848), Kaysville (1849), Provo (1849), Manti (1849), Tooele (1849), Parowan (1851), Brigham City (1851), Nephi (1851), Fillmore (1851), Cedar City (1851), Beaver (1856), Wellsville (1856), Washington (1856) and St. George (1861).

So technically, Salt Lake City was the first real town in Utah.

But don't tell that to a guy from Ogden unless you want a black eye.

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