From about 400 – 1350 A.D. the area was home to the Great Salt Lake Fremont Indians, followed by the Northern Shoshone and Goshute tribes.

The first permanent settlement by people of European descent in Utah was made here and originally named Fort Buenaventura.It was established by the trapper Miles Goodyear in 1846 about a mile west of where downtown Ogden is currently located.

The settlement was then called Brownsville, after Captain James Brown, but was later named Ogden for a brigade leader of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden, who had trapped in the Weber Valley a generation earlier. There is some confusion in which “Ogden” was the first to set foot in the Utah city. Peter’s older brother Samuel Ogden traveled though the western United States on an exploration trip in 1818. The site of the original Fort Buenaventura is now a Weber County park.

Mormon settlers bought the fort for $1,950 in 1847 and Ogden was incorporated as a city in 1851, making it the third incorporated city west of the Missouri River – after San Francisco and Salt Lake City.

It became a typical western community of homes and businesses centrally located with farms surrounding the outlying areas. The Ogden River to the north and the Weber River to the west created a natural boundary to separate farm land from land for development.

January 23, 1855  John M. Browning was born in Ogden. He later developed numerous firearms and invented technology that changed the industry.

Ogden is the closest sizable city to the Golden Spike location at Promontory Summit, Utah, where the First Transcontinental Railroad was joined in 1869.

With the completion of the transcontinental railroad, Ogden welcomed the world via the Union Station Depot, the junction for railroad travel in the Intermountain West for several decades.

On March 8, 1869, the first locomotive steamed into Ogden following right behind the Union Pacific track layers. The citizens of Ogden came out to welcome the train with banners that read, “Hail to the Highway of the Nations! Utah bids you Welcome.”

Ogden was known as a major passenger railroad junction owing to its location along major east–west and north–south routes, prompting the local chamber of commerce to adopt the motto, “You can’t get anywhere without coming to Ogden.”

Tullidge’s Quarterly magazine reported, “Three cheers for the great highway were then proposed and given, when the wildest enthusiasm and demonstrations of joy prevailed, and the shouts rent the air. Amid the alternate pealings of the artillery’s thunder, the music of the band, and the long continued shrill whistling of the three engines, the waving of hats, kerchiefs, and other demonstrations of pleasure, rendered the occasion such as will not soon be forgotten by those present.”

With the connection of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, along with other rail lines that went north and south of Ogden in the following years, Ogden was designated in 1874 as the junction location of the two companies, earning it the nickname “Junction City.”

November 12th, 1874 WEBER LODGE № 6 F. & A. M. of Utah was chartered, and constituted. Weber Lodge served as the primary Lodge for freemasons of Weber, Davis, and Morgan County for the next several decades.

All sorts of visitors – some legitimate and some not so much – poured into town, strolling up and down Historic 25th Street to prospect for business, dine, gossip, and enjoy upscale shopping.The city quickly became known for its rough and tumble character, a place where one could witness people committing the worst vices in open view.

An article in the Western Galaxy dated June of 1888 stated, “Indeed, the ‘Junction City’ has a future almost certain to put in the shade any of her sister cities; she is likely to become the Chicago en miniature of the Intermountain region.”

February 17th, 1912 UNITY LODGE № 18 F. & A. M. of Utah was chartered, and constituted. Ogden welcomed its second Lodge.

In the 1920’s – Brooklyn born, Alphonse Gabriel Capone, himself was a local patron of the notorious “Two-bit” Street.  Known as being a nefarious character of ill-repute, Even Capone was heard to comment that Ogden ‘was too wild a town even for [him]’.

January 22nd, 1921 GEORGE WASHINGTON LODGE № 24 F. & A. M. of Utah was constituted. Ogden welcomed its Third Lodge.

In 1954, the city effected a clean up of both the streets and the local government. Lorin Farr was mayor of Ogden at the time. He advised his police force in the following way: “Use kindness, be ready for emergencies, and see that guns and pistols are always loaded and powder dry.”

Such tough love cleaned up the streets of Ogden.

Byron Anton Scott was born March 28, 1961 in Ogden Utah. He later became a professional basketball player and  former head coach. He last coached the Los Angeles Lakers. As a basketball player he earned three championships.

On March 29, 1966, Grand Lodge approved the plans  for the New Ogden Masonic Temple.

October 23, 1966, Grand Lodge opened on the Entered Apprentice Degree at 2:11 p.m. The procession then proceeded to the site, the northeast corner of the building under construction, where the cornerstone was laid with ceremony at 2:30p.m. Most Worshipful Brother Howard E. Dorst, the Grand Master of Masons in Utah, presided.

December 18th, 2004 GOLDEN SPIKE LODGE № 6 F. & A. M. of Utah successfully merged. Golden Spike Lodge № 6 fully assimilated Weber and George Washington Lodge, infused with the spirit of those courageous pioneers who brave untold futures in new frontiers. On this day, Golden Spike Lodge № 6 was reborn and constituted as Ogden‘s hardest working and most diverse Lodge.