Lorin Farr - Washington Blvd

Lorin Farr was Ogden's first mayor, and for decades its leading citizen — a Latter-day Saint colonizer sent north in 1850 to organize the Weber settlements, where he built the area's first gristmill and sawmill and presided over the town's early growth. The marker, cast in 1937 for 21st and Washington, moved to the pioneer museum in 2013. Farr belongs to a particular type in Utah history: the all-purpose frontier leader who was at once ecclesiastical authority, civic official, and industrial pioneer — the three roles barely distinguished in a young Mormon town building everything at once.

What the plaque says

No. 45 ERECTED JUNE 25, 1937 LORIN FARR 1820 — 1909 PIONEER-RELIGIOUS AND CIVIC LEADER-STATESMAN LORIN FARR WAS A UTAH PIONEER OF 1847. HE WAS A FRIEND AND STAUNCH SUPPORTER OF JOSEPH SMITH, THE PROPHET, AND ASSISTED IN THE SETTLEMENT OF NAUVOO, ILL. WHERE HE HELPED BUILD THE TEMPLE. HE WAS THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF WEBER STAKE OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, A MEMBER OF THE FIRST TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE AND A MEMBER OF THE CONVENTION THAT FRAMED THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF UTAH. HE ASSISTED IN LAYING OUT THE ORIGINAL PLAT OF THE CITY OF OGDEN, ORGANIZED THE FIRST CITY GOVERNMENT AND BECAME ITS FIRST MAYOR. HE BUILT AND OPERATED THE FIRST GRIST MILL AND SAW MILL IN WEBER COUNTY AND, WITH OTHERS, CONSTRUCTED THE FIRST HIGHWAY THROUGH OGDEN CANYON. TULLIDGE, CONTEMPORARY UTAH HISTORIAN, PROCLAIMED HIM "OGDEN'S MOST REPRESENTATIVE CITIZEN." OGDEN STAKE MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS UTAH PIONEER TRAILS AND LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION. In 2011, the above plaque was retrieved from its original location at the corner of 21st Street and Washington Boulevard, when the structure it was mounted on was demolished. That was the location of one of Lorin Farr's early homes. The Farr descendants and the Ogden Pioneer Chapter of the Sons of Utah Pioneers remounted it here in 2013, with appreciation to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers for allowing its relocation to this site. Site # 177 2013

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ogden Union Station — 0.2 mi
  A grand 1924 train depot turned museum complex
• Hill Aerospace Museum — 4.7 mi
  Over 90 military aircraft displayed indoors and on the tarmac
• Snowbasin — 5.9 mi
  One of the country's oldest ski areas and a 2002 Olympic downhill venue — world-class terrain that somehow still skis uncrowded.
• Powder Mountain — 15 mi
  The largest ski resort in the United States by acreage — a famously uncrowded "PowMow" now remaking itself under Netflix's Reed Hastings.

More markers nearby

• Lorin Farr (2) Markers — steps away
• John Henry Weber — steps away
• Jedediah Strong Smith - Ogden — steps away
• Captain James Brown — steps away