Ogden, Utah, on the World War II Home Front

A supply hub

• The depot: the Utah General Depot, in northwest Ogden and neighboring Marriott, opened in 1941 and became one of the largest military supply depots in the country — a main source of supplies for military and incarceration sites across the U.S. and overseas.
• The jobs: it was one of the Ogden area's biggest employers, with more than 7,500 civilians at its peak.
• The prisoners: in 1942 it also opened a prisoner-of-war camp for German and Italian prisoners, one of the first ten in the country.

Housing the workers

The flood of jobs brought a need for homes. Expecting a housing shortage, the federal government built the Grandview Acres neighborhood for defense workers. And in 1942, Ogden was named one of 58 over-crowded war production areas in the U.S., which let the government lease privately owned homes and buildings as defense-worker housing.

A crossroads

With its central location, Ogden's Union Station was a major rail hub for goods and people. More than 1 million service members passed through it during the war, and its Red Cross canteen was among the busiest in the entire Pacific Area.

Students do their part

• Every junior and senior girl at Ogden High School was Red Cross certified.
• Members of the school's Pep Girls Club were inducted into the civilian defense organization as messengers.
• The Child Culture Club raised $500 to start a blood bank at the local hospital.

Remembering

Today Ogden commemorates its part in the war and on the home front with oral history projects, exhibits, publications, public outreach, remembrance ceremonies and its World War II Memorial.

Sources

Based on "Ogden City, Utah," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. A wartime photograph of sailors at the Union Station canteen, from the Utah State Archives, is not reproduced.