25th Street Confidential: Ogdens Rowdiest Road

25th Street Confidential traces Ogden’s transformation from quiet hamlet to chaotic transcontinental railroad junction as waves of non-Mormon fortune seekers swelled the city’s population. 

This first full-length treatment of Ogden’s rowdiest road, by Val Holley, spotlights larger-than-life figures whose careers were entwined with the street: Mayor Harman Ward Peery, who unabashedly filled the city treasury with fees and fines from vicious establishments; Belle London, the most successful madam in Utah history; and Rosetta Ducinnie Davie, the heiress to London’s legacy who became a celebrity on the street, in the courts, and in the press.

Material from previously unexploited archives and more than one hundred historic photos enrich this narrative of a turbulent but unforgettable street.