historic HARRISVILLE
Once prime farmland, this area became the Defense Depot in the 1940s and Weber County Fairgrounds in the 1990s.
Click to watch video of “Big Boy” as it rolls through Harrisville. Credit: Lorin Kartchner
If you’ve ever opened your windows and heard a train blare its horn or counted cars for 15 mins or more while sitting in a backed-up traffic jam at this train crossing, you already know the presence of the railroad in Harrisville. But before the train was mainly an excuse for being late to an appointment, the tracks were a pivotal section of the infamous Transcontinental Railroad which spanned the United States and opened the doors to mass settling in the West.
Transcontinental Railroad
The Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869. Officials considered several places, including Harrisville, as the junction where a north-south line would meet up with the east-west transcontinental line. Ogden and Corinne were the top contenders, and of course, Ogden won and become “The Junction.” Brigham Young (Governor of Utah Territory, and more prominently, prophet/leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) secured Ogden as the Junction by acquiring property in west Ogden and then deeding 131 acres over to the Union Pacific and Central Pacific companies for the railroad depot and shops.
Utah Central
Ogden was a Mormon settlement, but it wasn’t Church headquarters (it also quickly picked up some railroad rogue), and Brigham Young wanted to keep Salt Lake City on the map. He immediately made plans to run a branch line from Ogden to Salt Lake which became known as Utah Central.
Utah Northern
The Church also had settlements clear north into Idaho, and the Transcontinental completely missed them, too. David Eccles (a big name in Ogden and the Church) fixed this by financing a railroad called the Utah Northern which ran parallel to the Transcontinental several miles before it took its own course.
Click photo to watch video. Special thanks to Weber County Heritage Foundation and Union Pacific!
Lucin Cutoff
In 1904, Southern Pacific Railroad Company completed the Lucin Cutoff across the Great Salt Lake (replacing the route around the north end of the lake and south to Ogden). This move completely transformed the Transcontinental route. The tracks hung around for awhile, but in the 1940s railroad officials removed them for the war effort in other places.
The parallel route, the Utah Northern, remained and this is what you see today.
Click to watch video of Lucin Cutoff produced by Weber County Heritage Foundation.
Utah State Historical Society
In the early days, there was actually a railway and service from Harrisville-Farr West to Plain City. Everyone just called it “The Dummy.”
A “dummy” was a small steam locomotive used by streetcar companies in the days before they were electrified. They also had enclosed wooden bodies that made them look like regular streetcars, which explains why they were usually known as “steam dummies.” (Steam Dummies)
The railroad was used for produce, beet hauling, lumber, coal and transportation.