Since the earlier threads ran out of gas some time ago, IMO, perhaps I can suggest this to the folks.
Take time to look at the pictures linked to the right of the article. The architecture is amazing.
• Ogden High, MasterpieceKSL did this story on our home town school. For those of us who've been in and around this school, we always knew what a stunning work of art it is.
It's worth remembering that some things - many things - about Ogden are as good as you can find anywhere if indeed, you can find them anywhere else.
Ogden's a great place, in spite of what people like David Phipps, Matt Godfrey, and the Geigers say about her.
I like it here and I always have, very much.
Update 9/19/09 7;20 a.m. : The Standard-Examiner jumps aboard the bandwagon with this morning's story, which reports on Friday's OHS Restoration ceremony, and offers a pair of photo slideshows.
And it isn't merely the OHS building which is being restored this year. With last night's 63-42 victory over Logan High, OHS's reputation as a northern Utah high school football power takes another step forward in the process of getting a serious rehabititation too. OHS's 2009 squad now has a perfect 5-0 record under its belt, the best start since its state championship season in 1966. Your blogmeister wandered over and watched last night's game. The team is definitely talented and poised. Lots of entertainment bang for the buck on the OHS home gridiron on Friday nights, folks.
20 comments:
Famtastic Post, Danny. Thanks.
I love Ogden. Two-Bit Street Cafe, Capone room, magic tricks, fresh home made food daily, Karen's Cafe and Jim the cook's special breakfast burrito, smothered in Picante sauce, made with O'Brien potatoes of course, not the shredded kind.
In fact, if I completely avoid the eyesore called "The Junk-tion" of Godfrey's making and all things Godfrey, I feel very comfortable just about anywhere I go in Ogden.
Sure, the traffic lights could be coordinated a little better and all the law enforcement could be consolidated into a single force to save big bucks. And the strong mayor form of city government might need to be changed so they work together and for the people versus against the best interests of the citizens and for the special interests like the Realtor Association and FOM.
But if left to its own to evolve and develop naturally through normal and creative business interests based upon absolute fairness and equality, I feel Ogden will both survive Godfrey and his rotten administration and prosper.
And the thing is...I don't even live in Ogden. Never have. Just enjoy shopping and eating and visiting the place. Ogden High is a personal favorite building which never fails to get my attention and admiration as I drive by.
Weber County Building on the other hand...makes me projectile vomit knowing as I do that all our property taxes go to pay the lease and salaries for all who work inside, including the thieves who "assess" and computer mass "reassess the fair market values" of our properties.
Just say'in...
Ahem.
Let me quietly remind folks that Ogden High was built with federal economic stimulus money provided by FDR's PWA [denounced by the Republican Party of the time of course]. Just more of that wasteful government spending at work, like the Great Depression stimulus funds that helped create Pineview Reservoir. What a boondoggle and massive waste of federal funds that was. I mean, it's not like it improved property values in the valley in any significant way, or provided boating, fishing and swimming recreation for millions of visitors over the years or helped control flooding on the Ogden River, or would still, three quarters of a century later, be providing water to the the farmers of the northern Wasatch front, who like to go to rallies demanding that the Federal Government stay out of their lives....
Well... Curm, exqueeze me!
Pineview was actually it seems a private and State enterprise which I have been told, did indeed have CCC work camps huddled in the Park inside Huntsville. They terrorized the locals from what I gather. And the CCC public works crews hand built the once beautiful road side rock barriers between the roadway and the Ogden River.
In 1954ish the Gov'ment decided to raise the level of the Pineview earthen dam. This increased the size of the lazy little artesian spring fed pond from about fifteen thousand acre feet of water storage to one hundred ten thousand acre feet of irrigation water storage.
The two major players were and are the Weber Water Basin and Pineview Water Corp. which each own all the water and sell it except for fifteen thousand acre feet of water (about what it was before the dam was raised in the mid fifties by them...not the WPA or FDR, or CCC or YGBSM). Nope - built by greed mongering Captalists to make some mula.
These folks are still today selling feathers and collecting taxes to support these feather merchants. Go to Karen's any day of the week at between 0730 and 0900 AM and you will see about eight of these hard working young men sitting around reading the paper and eating breakfast together on Company time. Their Pineview Water trucks parking immediately outside. Been that way for at least the last ten years and probably more. They sell water given by God (or RA for you, an an atheist) and as a taxing entity, they collect hundreds of thousands more each year to pay themselves raises and breakfast money... Go figure!? Now that's a great "FDR New Deal" alright!
Oh, and personally, to make all this wonderful playground for trash fish (read Carp, Crappie, and tiny Yellow Perch) and water skiing in a blender possible...the local Gov'ment stole 135 acres of my own property to make room for the water storage reservoir complete with blue algae lake turnover stench annually. Pineview has nothing to do with increased property values in Ogden Valley. Snow skiing availability does and scenic mountain vistas do too. Park City does not have an irrigation up-down mud front property situation to deal with. If anything Pineview is a negative factor in property valuations.
Truth be known Curm, the FDR college kids dynamited the beaver dams thinking they were going to better control flooding downstream. It caused havoc by upsetting a delicate balance of nature. Any flooding control afforded by Pineview is a myth as are the liberal asses who tinkered with nature who caused the problems. Pineview did not and has never served as a flood control.
Oz and Rudi and maybe a few others can remember how nice the Sunday drive was up the canyon when the old CCC rock walls decorated the roadside and a giant arch announced Ogden Valley. The standards are still visable today. And the Clinton era 'grant money" (for gang control etc. stimulus money) teardown of the rock walls replaced with Jersey Barriers is awful.
Sorry, old chum Curm. But your liberal claims are off somewhat.
A-hummm
I attended the OHS restoration kick-off event this morning, it was wonderful. Excuse the hyperbole, but OHS is a masterpiece of architecture in Utah. Leslie Hodgson's execution of this Art Deco style building is second to none. Although I didn't attend OHS, I can certainly understand the community's connection to the building. I hope everyone attends the Weber County Heritage Foundation's home tour tomorrow (the school will be part of the tour). I'm fortunate enough to be working the event at the OHS rotunda. I hope to see a lot of people there. I think a big shout-out is due to all of those who have donated thus far to the building's restoration fund (almost 7 million dollars of donations have already been received).
Ogden High was used in two "major" motion pictures. "Drive Me Crazy" (1990) and "Three O'Clock High" (1987).
Three O Clock High is an excellent movie; under-rated.
Machster:
Relying for information on "what you've heard" is an iffy business. The following is from the Bureau of Reclamation website on the history of the Ogden River Project, regarding Pineview Dam:
The project was approved by the President [i.e. FDR] on November 16, 1935, under terms of Section 4 of the Act of June 25, 1910 (36 Stat. 835) and Subsection B, Section 4, Act of December 5, 1924 (43 Stat. 701). An allotment of funds for construction was made on August 24, 1933, under the National Industrial Recovery Act of June 16, 1933, Section 203 (Public Law 57, 73rd Congress).
Construction
Construction by contract was started on September 29, 1934. Construction of the Pineview Dam and Ogden-Brigham Canal were completed in June 1937.
Sorry, old chum Machster. But your conservative attempts to convince folks the Pineview Dam was not a New Deal project, built with economic stimulus funds, are off somewhat.
Website Link:
http://www.usbr.gov/projects/Project.jsp?proj_Name=Ogden%20River%20Project
I admitted the WPA/ "New Deal" began the dam. And the result was a tiny mud puddle by comparison to the expansion which occured after the mid 1950's.
Read the previous comments again and you might get it this time.
It used (at its hieght of useage in the 50's) to irrigate 25,000 acres on the West side (or your neck-of-the-woods) but today it irrigates subdivisions and lawns and a "horse property".
The problem with Pineview and the foul economic mess which lingers still today is the heritage of that New Deal. It was and remains crap. With "feather merchants" using it as an excuse to tax us to death and sell something given to us by the Almighty as free.
I am an independent not a conservative nor liberal by the way which interpreted means I think for myself and take a skeptical view of what the latest liberal reinterpretation of the historical facts are...
grins...
Ah, Machster. As for your being an independent, I didn't call you a Republican. I wouldn't call anyone a Republican without hard evidence that they were in fact so registered, since falsely calling someone a Republican is actionable slander. Or should be.
I suggested your views are conservative, and given your general take on the role of government in American society, I think the description fits fairly well. You are a conservative on such matters. It's real conservatism, not what passes for it in Utah in these parlous times --- e.g. Glen Beck they-blew the-levees-in-Katrina-deliberately-to-make-sure-evidence-of-ACORN-skullduggery-was-destroyed-by-the-flood" paranoia, or Sarah Palin "Obama wants to kill my son and your grandma!" demagoguery.
And nice try, but you're not going to get away with claiming "thinking for yourself" means you're neither conservative nor liberal. There are many people who are liberals, and many who are [sane] conservatives, who think for themselves. Nice try.
Glad you agree now that the Pineview Dam and Reservoir were originally FDR New Deal depression-era stimulus fund projects. It's always good to get the facts straight... especially for independent thinkers.
So Curm--regarding OHS, as you seem to be using Pine View Dam's (Lake) funding/inception/resulting effect on the surrounding community as a comparison, are you being "straight" or "sarcastic" in your above post?
Just wonderin'
BC:
Dead straight. The point was, OHS and Pineview Reservoir were both originally built with FDR New Deal depression "stimulus" funds [as we call them now] --- and such spending was at the time denounced by Republicans as wasteful government socialist spending sure to bankrupt the nation and destroy American liberty.
And here we are, still enjoying the benefits today. Imagine that.
Sarcasm? Not a bit....
Ogden High School architecture is the proud legacy of one visionary architect. One who admittedly caught a break by the timing of the FDR New Deal (which incidentally prolonged the Great Depression by at least seven (7) years).
As for the beauty and benefits from the fifteen (15) acre feet pond which like most Gov'ment programs grew to what it is today and its ill effects on our community and the environment...not so much in the way of "benefits".
Curm, you mentioned "fishing" as a benefit for example. Do you know that the original "pond" was a "cold water fishery" (mean temps. about 40 degrees or less) since it was fed year-round by artesian springs (water temp 38 degress). Trout loved it.
But since more Gov'ment involvement, aka raising the level of the dam in the mid fifties, Pineview is now a warm water fishery. Actually it tetters on the line between a cold water and warm water fishery. The result is some very confused fish and some very poor fish and fishing.
And this is primarily due to, you guessed it! Drawing down the reservoir in the fall continuing to sell off the water so you west Weberites can water your lawns. One Irrigation Compay owns sixty-thousand acre feet and the other owns forty-thousand which they sell.
Pineview is like a toilet bowl in which 250,000 acre feet of water passes through each year. The tank only holds 110,000 acre feet when full, but the mixing action reeks havoc on the fish, environment, and surrounding areas.
Solution! Buy out half the water rights and let Pineview be what it wants to be...a cold water fishery. Trout will return and be healthy. The nitrogen and phospherous content would moderate to normal levels. And the algae turn over and stench would be eliminated.
But do you think either of these two "feather merchants" (water corporations) will agree to give up their great deal. NO! Because then they could not eat breakfast at Karen's Cafe on Company time. And Jim's breakfast burritos are so good they are addictive. This whole mess is because of Jim's famous breakfast burritos.
So there you have it. Mis-spent "stimulous" money with good intentions... and captalistic greed heads taking advantage of the situation to grossly profiteer off it. The good of the residents, land owners, citizens, be damned.
Only question is now; will the Senate put a stop to the grossly over blown Obama Stimulus spending before there are needless and counter productive "little Pineviews" dotting the land at the long term expense of the people?
Now how bout them apples? Is that conservative or liberal? Oh, and I very much appreciate you not labeling me as either a Democrat or a Republican. I like to think I am an American.
Machster:
That was Howard Roark, right?
Machster:
FDR and the New Deal prolonged the depression for seven years? Man, is that old chestnut still being peddled by the bitter enders? Well, nothing like counter-factual history I guess to keep the disappointed busy on cold winter nights, passing down the legends of the Good Old Days under Hoover and Harding and the boys....
Really sorry, Machster, though to read this: Oh, and I very much appreciate you not labeling me as either a Democrat or a Republican. I like to think I am an American.
Those are not mutually exclusive categories, Machster. This card- carrying liberal Democrat is as American as you are. And so is the staunchest conservative Republican in the State of Utah. So, by the way, is Glen Beck. He's bonkers bat-shit insane, but American none the less.
Never been able to bring myself to imply that people who disagree with me about American history or politics are somehow not American.
Machster-
I would like to know the references of Hodgson "catching a break" from the New Deal program (seriously). Did he also catch breaks on all of the other impressive commissions he undertook prior to the Great Depression? Also, the New Deal program did not extend the depression by 7 years. Just because some conservative history revisionists say so, it does not necessarily make it so.
After reading the comments by Machster I now fully understand what is meant by revisionst history.
The best explanation and understanding of what FDR meant to working people in the 1930s is in the book "Hard Times" by the late Studs Terkel. He talks to people about their lives during the depression and how it changed their lives. One of the main changes was that he gave them hope for the future. The people talk about having jobs gave them purpose and a sense of worth. I am surprised that someone hasn't accused FDR of being a "traitor to his class"
'
Until last year I had no idea how many "cut and paste experts" on economic theory there were.
Watching people desperately spin the wholesale looting of the US Treasury by the outgoing administration, blaming the recession on a lack of tax breaks for businesses and over-regulation of securities and godlessness and socialism, reminds me of the old saw: you can lay an infinite number of economists end to end and still not reach a conclusion.
Machster. For the sake of brevity, I've now deleted your NINE previous comments posted under the name of "Powell." In doing this, It is not my intention to suppress your message, but rather to condense it a little bit.
Here's link to the Jim Powell essay that you've cut and pasted:
How FDR Prolonged the Great Depression
Anyone who'd like to read it should surely do so. In essense, it's your rebuttql to Curnudgeon's earlier "argument," so I do believe it's appropriate that you would post it here on this thread
In the interest of promoting relatively lively and free discussion on this blog however, it's impossible to let nine consecutive lengthy comments, which are mainly turgid argumentative prose to stand.
See how much more simple it is when you merely merely post the original link?
Without meaning to offend you, I do hope you'll agree with me on this.
And in the interest of faithfully delivering your full mesage, I'll also incorporate your summary comment here:
"So...there you have it. Do you believe Curm a retired and part time liberal history professor at WSU. Or a Senior Fellow at the CATO Institute backed up by Pulitzer Prize winning economists, Stanford Fellows, Economic historian Lester V. Chandler of Princeton University, etc. etc.
I report...but you the reader now that you have been exposed to real research and economic analysis by the Nations top economic historians. No disrespect meant to Curm, but I think he is a fish out of water on the truth about the FDR New Deal and needs to reign it in a bit with the gushing claims.
Machman"
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