A History of Ogden by Dale L. Morgan, WPA Historical Records Survey Project

In publishing a history of Ogden, the city commission performs a public service of first magnitude. Although Ogden is the only city in Utah whose history reaches unbrokenly back to the days of the trappers, and although it has become a major city in the Intermountain West, no adequate history of Ogden has ever been written, and no comprehensive examination of the city has been attempted for over fifty years. Those interested in the unusual story of Ogden's origin, development, and modern character have had to go to many sources, some reliable, others not, and nowhere has something approaching the entire dramatic story been available. We must be grateful for those historical studies of Ogden which have been given the public. But the entire lack of an adequate history of the city, and the widespread desire that such a history be written, impelled the city commission to participate with the Historical Records Survey, a project operating under the Division of Professional and Service projects of the Works Projects Administration, in writing and publishing A History of Ogden.