Fort Buenaventura State Park

Fort Buenaventura

Fort Buenaventura was the first Anglo settlement in Utah's Great Basin. It was built by fur trapper Miles Goodyear in 1846 as a trading post on the newly established wagon trail short cut to California called the Hasting's Cut-Off. Buenaventura is a Spanish word for good road or good trip and the Rio Buenaventura was a mythical river believed to connect the Great Salt Lake to the Pacific Ocean. However, Goodyear's plans for a successful trading post was destroyed when one of the wagon trains using the route met disaster in the Sierra-Nevada Mountains. The wagon train was known as the Donner Party and the route never became popular.

In 1847, the Mormons settled in the Great Salt Lake Valley just 35 miles to the south. To encourage their isolation, the Mormons purchased the fort and renamed it Brown's Fort after James Brown who handled the sale. While Goodyear eventually ended up at the California gold fields, the settlement around Fort Buenaventura grew to be called Ogden City. This name was borrowed from Peter Skein Ogden who was another early explorer of the Weber River area.

Fort Buenaventura State Park is located on 32 acres of secluded, wooded land along the Weber River which is the original site of the fort. The fort was recreated in 1980 and includes the fort, cabins, trading post and a visitor center. The size of the fort walls and buildings are all based on historical and archeological records. Like the original stockade, no nails were used in the construction. Instead wooden pegs, with mortise and tenon joints hold the walls in place. One of the original cabins was moved from the fort in the 1850's by James Brown and currently resides behind the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum in Ogden.

Yearly mountain men rendezvous are held in the grounds surrounding the park and include period costumes, teepees, and native American dancing.

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