Supply Hub of the West: DEFENSE DEPOT OGDEN, 1941-1964 BY L E O N A R D J . A R R I N G T O N A N D T H O M A S G. A L E X A N D E R
It is difficult to overestimate the importance to the Utah economy of the federal defense installations constructed in the Beehive State during World War II. In the Ogden area alone the Army, Navy, and Air Force poured almost $100 million into permanent facilities, and the number of employees at these installations during the war was almost 52,000 persons — easily as many as in all of Utah's agriculture — 50 per cent more than in all of Utah's manufacturing at the time. The investment in such facilities in the Ogden area was more than twice the assessed valuation of Ogden for 1942 and more than one-half times the assessed valuation of Weber County. P E A K W A R T I M E E M P L O Y M E N T IN FEDERAL I N S T A L L A T I O N S I N T H E O G D E N A R E A ( S O U R C E : Historical records at each of the four installations.) Installation O g d e n Arsenal
Number _
_.
Employed 6,000
Defense D e p o t O g d e n ( U t a h G e n e r a l D e p o t )
12,000
Hill Air Force Base
21,780
Clearfield N a v a l Supply D e p o t
12,000
Total
51,780
Dr. Arrington is directing a project for U t a h State University involving the writing of the histories a n d economics of the federal defense installations in U t a h . Articles in this series are A°, T P r e v i o u s l s s u e s o f t h e Utah Historical Quarterly. An associate in the project, Thomas Alexander, is a candidate for the doctorate in history at the University of California, Berkeley All photographs in the article are courtesy Defense Depot Ogden, United States Army.
