Issac Goeckeritz

Just weeks after the joining of the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory, the transfer point between the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads was moved to Ogden, Utah. Overnight, the small farming community became the two companies’ official Junction City, and no traveling passenger would cross the country by rail without stopping in Ogden. Produced by documentary filmmaker Issac Goeckeritz and narrated by Phil Riesen, Ogden: Junction City of the West tells the story of the remarkable influence the railroad and its millions of traveling passengers would have on the culture and commerce of the American West. Ogden: Junction City of the West aired on PBS Station KUED7 from 2007-2010. The film was produced in cooperation with the Union Station Foundation and is currently shown at the Union Station Museum and sold to support the ongoing operations of the museum.

Enjoy a historical road trip to movie theaters large and small across the state. The film shares the history of the “golden age” of Hollywood when studios and entrepreneurs raced to construct extravagant theaters in which to showcase their craft, and outdo each other along the way.

Western views and the legal system tend to view nature as property, and as a resource from which wealth is extracted, a commodity whose only value is to provide for human needs. But for millennia indigenous communities have viewed themselves as part of nature.

In the very core of Salt Lake City, two special downtown blocks serve as a mirror. Just a handful of acres of land hold more than 150 years of the Utah story. On planners' maps, they're known as Salt Lake City Blocks 75 and 76. But to generations who have worked, lived, and played along their streets, Blocks 75 and 76 are a world unto themselves.