A little bit of History

To promote this industry and the city’s growing stature in that field with the completion of the stockyards, the Ogden Livestock Show was organized in 1918 as a new auctioning center for the region’s ranchers, growers, and livestock brokers. A specialized auction facility, known as the Golden Spike Coliseum, was completed in 1923, and the Ogden Livestock Show was re-named the Golden Spike National Livestock Show. An office building located at the stockyards, known as the Exchange Building, was completed in 1930 as a central location for transacting livestock business. (Information from "Remember When" Ogden Standard Examiner, September 10, 1980. The Exchange Building at Ogden Union Stockyards was begun in September 1930. The contractor was George Whitmeyer & Sons. Cost was $100,000.)

Throughout their entire history, livestock sales at Ogden Union Stock Yards were conducted both by public auction and by what was called "private treaty," or closed-commission sales. Changes affecting the meat-packing industry nationwide also affected Ogden. The auction activity slowly declined in the decade prior to the late 1960s, and closed-commission sales ended at Ogden in December 1967. The stockyards closed on January 31, 1971. Within a year, the stockyards and all adjacent property, including the Coliseum and Exchange buildings, were sold to Weber County by the parent company, Denver Union Stock Yards. On January 4, 1972, a new company, the Weber Livestock Auction Co., began auction sales on a much smaller scale at the Ogden stockyards, leasing the facilities from Weber County. The sale of sheep remained for another couple years, with Southern Pacific moving its last carloads of sheep in April 1973. (Information from Roberts, Ogden, pp. 140, 141, 143).

Notes:  I've talked to several farmers and ranchers from this time and they said the dates from Roberts book are not correct, but are close. According to the people that experienced the transition between The Union Stock Yard and Weber County. The sale did take place around December 1967. The stockyard did stop sales, but only for 6 months. Weber Livestock Auctions ran the stockyards until 1971 when it was taken over by the family of the present auction company owners. Weber County sold the Exchange Building in December 1997.

It is true that trains no longer bring the animals to the stockyard, but the stock yard is not closed. It runs every Tuesday, starting at 9am.

Update: 08/08/06 turns out the sale was in 1956, but Weber County leased the property to the auction company and livestock show. Many farmers may not have realized this transaction took place without reading the Standard Examiner articles from Jan 8, 1956 (p A11). Since Weber Livestock Auctions was still listed as the land owner of the yards in 1992, I will have to take into account that Dick Wilcox and Keith Anderson leased the yard property from them. Dick had mention to me that he and Keith ran the auctions in the 70's and 80's. I met Dick at one of the auction sales at the yard in 2005 and he had many stories to tell about the stock yards and Exchange Building. He passed away in July 2006. - LeAnna

Last updated: 08/09/2006