Layton's Gentile Street is not Unique -- There's a Gentile Valley Road in Southeast Idaho

 

                                                     Gentile Street sign in Layton, Utah.

For those familiar with Layton, Utah, the City’s most unusual road name is Gentile Street. Like most people -- even most historians-- they believe it was so named because some non-Mormons (“Gentiles”) lived on that street when it was only a west Layton road. 

However, I’ve come to believe it was the waystation for travelers on the connecting Bluff Road emigration trail, where its name came from, because that is where the only non-Mormons in the early community were, as they operated the station. (The early residents who lived on west Gentile Street were actually LDS Church members, but simply inactive, or called “Jack Mormons” back in the day.)

                         Gentile Valley Road sign in Thatcher, Idaho, near the Bear River.

Notwithstanding the name’s origin, it is not a unique feature, as over the weekend I found another “Gentile” street, this one in southeast Idaho. This road is near the Bear River, in Thatcher, Idaho (west of Niter and southwest of Grace.) Where did this “Gentile Valley” road name come from? Grace, Idaho, and today’s Gem Valley, was settled by non-Mormons in 1865 and after Brigham Young sent church members to settle there in the 1870s, tensions grew. The Bear River became a boundary of sorts then. If you were Mormon, you were supposed to live on the east side of the Bear River; and non-Mormons the west side. In those days, the Grace valley was called the "Gentile Valley." It was not renamed Gem Valley until the early 20^th Century, when religious tensions finally eased.

And, then there’s nearby Soda Springs, about 11 miles away and northeast of Grace. But, where is the actual Soda Spring? I mean, the Soda water springs? There's a Hooper Springs, north of town, but no Soda. Is it the geyser in town? No. Soda Springs, a spring, is now located under Alexander reservoir, which backs up the Bear River. Also, "Soda Springs" was not that water source's original name either. "Beer Springs" was what trappers first called it. Mormon settlers obviously changed the name later.

 

 

1999: When hunting in Layton pretty much stopped

 "Not much of Layton left for hunting" was a February 25, 1999 headline in the Davis County Clipper newspaper.

At that time, the City Council limited hunting to 600 feet or more away from any houses, other structures or streets. As such, that meant that less than 700 acres in Layton's boundaries where hunting could still legally take place.

Even shooting clay pigeons on town is also illegal, unless you have the 600-foot buffer.

(Given a passage now of more than 2 decades since then, the amount of ground left for hunting in Layton is obviously a lot less now ...)

A lack of hunting opportunities can all be blamed on growth in Layton City.

Back before the 1990s, west Layton -- particularly just west of the Union Pacific railroad tracks -- was a popular place for peasant hunting each fall.

And, even in the late 1970s, hunting in Layton had caused some costly problems. For example, according to the Davis News Journal of Oct. 4, 1979, two cows had accidentally been killed by hunters in west Layton.

                 Some of the rare open farm field left in Layton is west of the rail trail.

Thurston Peak -- Highest Point above Layton City

                                        Thurston Peak, center.



FRANCIS PEAK and its lofty radar domes attract the most attention on the mountain skyline visible from the majority of Layton City. However, it is actually Thurston Peak which is
the highest point in the Layton area.
Rising almost a full vertical mile above Layton City Hall, the peak, 9,706 feet above sea level, is the tallest in Davis and Morgan counties, straddling the county line.
Thurston Peak is about four miles to the north of Francis Peak and directly east of Cherry Lane (about 1200 North), Thurston Peak is almost 200 feet higher than Francis Peak.
Thurston has a little knob poking out of its left-hand (north) slope. To its south, the mountain skyline dips sharply to its lowest point between Weber and Farmington canyons.

The mountain is also the highest area peak in the Wasatch Range, between Ben Lomond Peak, near the Box Elder-Weber County line - on the north - and Big Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake County - to the south.
The peak was unnamed until 1993 when a five-month effort by the Morgan Historical Society paid off. Namesake of the peak is a Mormon Pioneer, Thomas Jefferson Thurston, who had lived in both Weber and Morgan counties.
Prior to its naming, the peak was listed as “North Francis,” an unheralded benchmark on government maps.
A brass plaque, encased on a concrete stand, atop Thurston peak and placed there in 1993 reads:
"Named in honor of Thomas Jefferson Thurston, a Centerville resident who viewed the virgin valley of Morgan from the summit of the mountain in 1852 and recognized its potential for colonization. Realizing its disadvantage was its inaccessibility, in 1855 Thurston influenced others to assist him to carve a passible wagon road through Weber Canyon. He was among the first to settle in Morgan Valley and is acknowledged for bringing about its colonization."
Since “highpointing” (climbing the tallest county or state peaks) took off in the late 1990s, Thurston Peak has become a destination for many hikers annually.
The easiest hike to Thurston Peak is to drive the Farmington Canyon “Scenic Backway” to Francis Peak and then hike north four miles to the high point. (However, this dirt road is rugged and not for the faint of heart.)
A portion of the path to Thurston also follows a segment of the Great Western Trail.
Otherwise, it is an all-day hike -- with twice the mileage and more than 10 times the elevation climb from starting points on the east bench of Layton -– like the Fernwood Picnic area, from the north slope of Adams Canyon, or from a trail just south of Hobbs Canyon.

                                 Thurston Peak, center.


-The naming of the highest peak in Davis County meant that there were technically no longer two peaks named Francis in Davis County. On United States Geographical maps, the radio station was on Francis Peak and the former Thurston Peak was listed as "VABM Francis." This second title referred to a vertical bench mark.
-However, there was already another "Thurston Peak" in Davis County. According to the Salt Lake Telegram of Nov. 15, 1940, a United airliner had crashed on a peak east of Centerville on Nov. 4 of that year, that was also identified as "Thurston Peak," more than 50 years before the tallest peak in Davis County was also titled Thurston Peak. It appears that this earlier Thurston Peak name fell into obscurity after the plane crash and it can no longer be found on modern maps or even in any references on the Web, outside of that 1940 plane crash.

How to order a new Layton, Utah history book

This free blog has historical information available about Layton, Utah's history.

AND, there is an accompanying book that will complement this blog, as well as your bookshelf.

With more than 170 photographs and published in October of 2020, this book makes a great gift for any new or long-time Layton resident, or someone who grew up in Layton City.

  (NOTE that the book was delayed 5 months, from May to October 2020, because of the Coroniavirus.)

-IF you would like a copy of the new history book on Layton, Utah, you can order it from a variety of sources for $21.99:

--on Amazon


https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9781467104968&i=stripbooks&linkCode=qs


--Or from Barnes and Noble at:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/layton-lynn-arave/1135498880;jsessionid=BBCAF0636AA08D36361AFE15AF583EBC.prodny_store01-atgap01?ean=9781467104968


--Or from the publisher, Arcadia at:

https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467104968

IF you can't decide if you'd like to purchase a copy of the book, a free 31 page preview of the 127-page book is available from Google at:

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Layton/m0PZDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22lynn+Arave%22&printsec=frontcover

Layton City's colorful street names abound

LAYTON CITY boasts intriguing street titles, some unique to the area and others grounded in mystery or history.
Various long-time city street names have an important story to tell.
Here are some such tales:

There’s a romantic legend surrounding the Angel Street name.
This tale involves an early settler who was in love with two women
residing on the same road. Not being able to decide between the two, he referred to them as his "angels." Hence the street's eventual name, though it is also identified today as 1200 West in Layton. 
However, another variation of the story is that there were two young girls who lived along the street, favored by two young men. Andrew Egbert, father of the girls, disapproved of the relationships with the King boys, though the young men kept referring to their "angels" who lived along that street.
Yet, by another less likely tale, the City's namesake, Christopher Layton, had several other polygamous wives living along the street and that he referred to them as his angels and hence the street name.
(Angel Street also continues south into Kaysville).

Also, not legend is that a portion of the street became “sweeter” in about 1915, when a sugar beet factory opened along the road, just west of where the Smith’s offices/plant are located today. Soon, a small segment of Angel Street, just north of Gentile Street, became officially known as “Sugar Street.” The sugar factory was torn down in 1972 and an adjacent warehouse – its last solid memory – was demolished in 2001.
Antelope Drive used to be called “Straw Street,” because it was a
clay-based road in the 19th Century and had to have a lot of straw
thrown on top of it to even make it passable. In the 20th Century,
Antelope Drive (2000 North in Layton) became known as Syracuse
Road. The Antelope title took hold in the late 1960s, when the state
of Utah purchased Antelope Island and the highway was a straight shot to the causeway that was built to travel across the Great Salt Lake to that island.
Hill Field Road, passing by the popular Layton Hills Mall, was
referred to as “Easy Street” in pioneer times. 
Why was road called "Easy Street" at first? The story goes that a noisy steam engine used to operate at the Layton Mill, which would have been closer to Layton's downtown area. Thus, "Easy Street" was coined, since heading to the northeast along this road, it became so much more quiet, serene and "easy going," without the loud sound of the mill. (-According to the Davis News Journal of July 14, 1977.)

The road was also proposed to be renamed Freedom Boulevard in
1991. UDOT even created new signs and installed a few prematurely in the summer, before the Layton City Council ended up voting 4-1 not to rename the busy highway after all.

Mutton Hollow Road, near the Kaysville-Layton border is
named after a former sheepherder who lived in that part of the city.

-Layton also has a series of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John streets in its northwest area. Located just west of Main Street and south of Antelope Drive, these came about in the early 1960s when a subdivision was built there. Harris Adams, a veteran Layton resident and a historian was a member of the Layton City Council at the time and doesn't recall if they were ever said to hold any Biblical significance. However, he said federal housing officials didn’t care for the grid street layout that was first proposed for the area. So, the subdivision was changed so that the area streets curved to resemble a "bull's-eye" shape, much to the delight of the housing leaders (and the confusion of newcomers to that area).
Cross Street was so titled in 1903 because it was a shortcut to the
Layton Canning Company from Main Street. This company had
recently merged with the Woods Cross Canning Company when the
name took hold.
Rosewood Lane was originally called Fiddlers Creek Lane. It
was named after some musicians who lived on the street. Later, some confusion led to the Rosewood designation. Some subdivision developers have revived the Fiddlers Creek name in recent years.

-And, Gentile Street, was so named because in the 19th Century there was a group on non-Mormons who lived west of Main Street and so unusual were non-Mormons in Layton back then, that the street became known as Gentile Street. Gentile sometimes refers to non-Mormons in early Mormon Church history. 
(AND, the idea of naming a place after non-Mormons with the "Gentile" term is NOT unique to Layton. The Gem Valley (Grace, Idaho and surrounding area) was originally named "Gentile Valley," in 1870 -- likely before Layton's Gentile Street was named -- after the non-Mormons who first lived in that S.W. Idaho valley.)

-Here are some other unusual street titles in Layton City: Aircraft
Avenue; Artists Way; Camelot Drive; Chapel Street;
Constitution Way; Hunter’s Glenn; Jack D Drive; Icabod
Lane; Merlin Drive; Morning Star; Poets Rest; Snoqualmie
Drive and Vird Ann Street.

-Also, of note: Gordon Avenue has been a confusing road ever
since the mid-1960s, when I-15 disconnected the through road and
created an eastern section and a western section. Since then, they do not connect except through traveling a section of Hill Field Road and then Main Street. A proposal in the late 1990s would have renamed the western section of Gordon Avenue, from Main Street, west to the Syracuse border, “Allen Avenue,” to honor a long-time family who lived along the road. However, that proposal was soon dropped by a consensus of the City Council.

-Layton also had some short-lived street names that did not survive
into modern times.
For example:
“Pioneer Road” was what a portion of today's Sunset Drive was
named. This route traveled though Dawson Hollow and was of the
city's main link to reach Mountain Road, Highway 89. (The city
does have an unrelated Pioneer Drive road today.)
"Call Street": The south end of today's 2200 West, south of
Gentile Street. It was named after a family who resides in the area.
"Hill Street": The north end of 2200 West, north of Gentile
Street, and named for the Hill family.
Bone Street: A short segment of today's 3200 West that went
south from Gentile Street and ran parallel to Call Street. This road
was originally named after the Bone family.
“Canyon Road” was the original title of Church Street. This
was a road that went north over a sandridge hill and dropped down
into South Weber in pre-Hill Air Force Base days (before 1940). It
was a major route to Weber Canyon. (Layton City does have
unrelated Canyon View Drive and Canyon Rim Drive streets
today.)

SOURCES: “Layton” history book (1985), by the Kaysville-Layton
Historical Society; Deseret News Archives; Harris Adams, Layton
historian.

Layton’s first deep artesian well sunk in 1887

                                A modern Layton City watertank below Highway 89 today.

THE first successful deep artesian well was dug in Layton in 1887.

According to the Deseret News of May 4, 1887, Philo Dibble of Layton spent $200 in labor and materials sinking a 383-foot well that he believes is one of the deepest in the nation.

Dibble reported having to go through a layer of sand, some 300 feet thick, in order to eventually access an underground stream of water that delivers a flow of 30 gallons per minute.

The newspaper account states that the well was 3 ½ miles from the Great Salt Lake, so it was in today’s western section of Layton.

The milestone well was reported to be free from any Sulphur taste, common in most Davis County wells.

Dibble displayed “indomitable grit” in working to create the well.

The Deseret News story also reported that the new Davis and Weber Canal is now spreading over the area, with new irrigation options for what was once called “the range.”
(How deep are Layton's more modern wells? The Greenleaf well, located just north of the Union Pacific railroad tracks on Gordon Avenue, is about 550 feet deep. It was drilled in about 1990.)

-Since 19^th Century Layton residents struggled to keep food cold in the summer, a company out of Evanston, Wyoming – Walsh & Talbott Company, preserved ice in the winter of 1878-1879 to sell in Layton and throughout Northern Utah.

This ice, according to the Salt Lake Tribune of Feb. 9, 1879, was transported by the Union and Central Pacific railroads to the Wasatch Front.

           Eventually Layton Cold Storage opened on West Gentile Street, giving residents cold storage.

Layton business history highlights

Layton business history highlights:

Besides retail stores and restaurants, here’s a timeline of some of the other major businesses and features that opened and/or closed over the years in Layton City:

1905: First National Bank of Layton, 12 South Main Street. (Sold and name changed in 2019.)
1915: Layton Sugar Plant, Sugar Street. (Closed in 1959.)
1916: Tanner Clinic opens on Gentile Street.
1922: Wimmer Sewing begins.
1925: Young Chevrolet, 645 North Main Street.
1930s: Hines and Company, 1140 West Gentile Street.1941: Ritz Movie Theater, 96 North Main. (Closed in 1968.)
1945: Davis Drive-Inn, Angel and Main Street. (Closed in 1991. Demolished in 1992.)
1946: Davis County Glass, 123 Cross Street.
1947: Bill’s Comfort Systems, 159 South Main Street.
1947: Tom Randall Distributing, 137 South Main Street.
1948: Stockman's Bar.
1949: Simmons Auto Repair, 687 North Main.
1954: Sill's Cafe.
1964: Commons Park's first beginnings, Wasatch Drive.
1976: Davis Hospital, Antelope Drive.
1981: Ed Kenley Ford, 1888 N. Main Street.

1985: Smith’s Food Production and Distribution Center, 500 N. Sugar Street.
1986: Layton’s Surf N’ Swim, 465 N. Wasatch Drive.
1990: Smith’s Ice Cream Plant,  500 N. Sugar Street.
1995: Ed Kenley Amphitheater, 465 North Wasatch Drive.
1999: Classic Skating, 867 North Angel Street.
2003:  Weber State University Davis Campus, 2750 University Park Boulevard.
2004:  Davis Conference Center, 1651 North 700 West.

2017: VASA Fitness opens in the old Albertson's/Fresh Values building at 2076 Antelope Drive.
2018: Intermountain Hospital premieres.

1952: Layton's First Significant Traffic Jam?

                                                   The Hill Villa Subdivision in 2018.

In the summer of 1952, Layton City experienced one of its first residential traffic jams, caused by the many commuters leaving Hill Air Force Base.

According to the Davis County Clipper of July 25, 1952, commuters leaving Hill AFB would travel south down Hill Field Road and then to avoid the traffic jam would short cut through the Hill Villa Subdivision at about 700 North to access Main Street.

“First it was a human chain of women stretched across the street who wouldn’t let workers through,” the Clipper reported. “Now a State Highway Patrolman parks nightly at the junction where Air Base employees frequently swing off Hill Field Road to let themselves out of the long line of traffic that gushes forth about 4 p.m.”

Weeks later, a new traffic signal was installed to help workers leave Hill Field Road without short cutting through Hill Villa.

Note that when I-15 was constructed in the mid-1960s, access to Hill Villa Subdivision became restricted, with only a Main Street access. Hill Field Road, or Gordon Avenue access was blocked. Gordon Avenue was split by the freeway and Hill Field Road's connection was curved and moved further north, where it dumped directly into Main Street.

                Hill Villa Subdivision is very quiet and out-of-the-way today.

Layton City's retail history

HIGHLIGHTS in Layton City’s retail history over the decades:

Layton City has a long retail history of stores and shops. Some stores have come and gone; many others continue business.

Here are some highlights (not all-inclusive) from the past:
1939: Bessie’s (Staley’s) convenience store opens at 1378 West Gentile Street. (It closed in the early 2000s.)
1963: The Fort Lane Shopping Center opens, at Gentile Street and Fort Lane, anchored by Safeway, Kings and Layton Drug. (Safeway left in the 1970s and was replaced by Food for Less and Grocery Outlet in later years – until they too closed; Layton Drug closed in the 1990s and Kings had closed by 2009.)

                        The former Stimpson's Market building.

1965: Stimson’s Market. (It had new owners in 2004 and closed for good in 2006. Today, apartments sit on the same land.)
1970: J&J Nursery and Garden Center begins.

1980: The Layton Hills Mall opens for business with four anchor stores: ZCMI, Mervyn’s, Casteltons and Auerbach’s. (Auerbach’s closed in 1981 and became the Bon Marche; Castleton’s shut its doors in 1987, replaced by Herman’s World of Sporting Goods, then it became Gart Sports and The Sports Authority; the Bon Marche closed in 1993 and became J.C. Penney; ZCMI shut down in 2001 and Meier & Frank took its space and then Macy’s did in 2006 (Macy's closed in 2016); and Mervyn’s closed in 2008 and was replaced in 2011 by Dick’s Sporting Goods.

1981: Kmart, Layton’s first modern “big box” store, opens at Antelope and Main Street. (It closed in 2017.)

                          The Layton K-Mart, as it appeared when it closed in 2017.


1981: Albertson’s Grocery Store opens next to K-Mart. (It closed in 2009.) A Skaggs store was originally sought to develop there.

1981: Ernst Home Center begins, just north of the Layton Hills Mall. (It closed in 1996.)
1986: Ream’s Grocery Store opens on Main Street. (It closed in 2011.)
1988: Shopko makes its premiere. (It closed in 2019.) 
1988: Smiths Food and Drug opens at Fairfield Road and Gentile Street.
1991: Layton’s first Wal-Mart opens on West Hill Field Road.(A new building just to south opened as a 24-hour Supercenter in 2003.)
1991: Albertson's opens its second store in Layton on Fairfield Road. (It became Fresh Market in 2009.)
1992: Payless Drug comes to Layton.
1992: Granite Furniture begins. (It closed in 2005.)
1992: PetsMart opens near Wal-Mart. (The store moved to Main Street in 2012.)

1994: Sam’s Club opens on West Hill Field Road as the nation’s first converted Pace’s Warehouse store, after Wal-Mart bought the chain.
1995: Future Stop electronics store begins near Main Street and Hill Field Road. (It closed in late 1998.)
1995: Ultimate Electronics starts up, near Wal-Mart. (Ultimate closed in 2005.)
1995: Eagle Hardware opens on Antelope Drive. (It later becomes Lowe’s Home Improvement Store.)
1995: Tom Winegars Market opens its new store at Fairfield and Gentile Streets, replacing the former Fort Lane and Gentile location. (The store would become Dan’s Market later, before that closed too.)
1997: Target begins business, premiering with a fireworks show.
1997: Toys R Us, Barnes & Noble Bookstore and Old Navy store all open their doors near the Target store.
1998: Original Deseret Industries store in Layton begins operations. (Relocates to a new facility in 2008.)
2000: Stein Mart, north of Layton Hills Mall. (It closed in 2003.)
2001: Lowe’s Home Improvement starts up, taking over the Eagle Hardware building.
2001: Savers Thrift Store.
2002: Bed Bath and Beyond premieres on Main Street. (It moved to the north end of Layton in 2011.)
2003: Big Lots opens north of the Layton Hills Mall. (About a decade later it moved to Main Street.)
2004: Home Depot.
2004: Neighborhood Wal-Mart on Highway 193.
2004: Kohl’s .
2006: Hobby Lobby.
2007: Ashley Furniture.
2010: C-A-L Ranch Stores.
2010: Dick’s Sporting Goods.
2012: PetsMart moves to Main Street.

2020: NPS opens

2020: RC Willey moves to Layton, from Syracuse.

2013: Red Dot Firearms.
2013: Sears Home Appliance.
2013: Utah Mattress Outlet.
2013: Franz Family Bakeries.
2013: Mattress Firm.
2015: West Gordon Pharmacy.
2017: WinCo

NOTE: Some stores/businesses were expected to close in 2020, as a result of a loss of business from the Coronavirus.

1886: The first-ever reference to a community called 'Layton'?

LAYTON, Utah is Davis County’s premier city. It is common history that Layton is an outgrowth of Kaysville City. Layton separated from Kaysville in 1902-1907 and became its own official town in 1920.

But when was the “Layton” name first used?

-It is very likely that name came along in the mid-1880s. In fact, the very first newspaper reference to Layton being its own community, separate from mother Kaysville City, was published on May 7, 1886 in the Ogden Herald newspaper.

“The town of Layton is building up rapidly,” the Herald stated. “There is good demand for everything a farmer raises.”

-Another key reference to Layton, perhaps the first occasion in the Deseret News was on May 4, 1887, where a report on an artesian well was sent “from Layton, Davis County.”

(This water report was also significant, because it noted the very first time that Weber River water was used in Kaysville and Layton.)

-A third, separate reference to Layton was on June 10, 1887, in the Salt Lake Herald newspaper, where people from both Kaysville and Layton boarded a special train to take residents age 70 and over, to an Old Folks’ Day in Ogden.

-A fourth reference to Layton as a distinct area was published in the Ogden Daily Standard of July 26, 1890.

“A wreck on the Utah Central” was the headline and the story stated: “The passenger train which left here (Ogden) at 6 o’clock last evening, ran into a freight at Layton, one mile north of Kaysville.”

-How did the Layton name come about?

It was very likely because Christopher Layton, an early area pioneer, was also the first Bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in what was becoming its own, separate area. Since Kaysville was named after William Kay, an early settler and church leader there, hence the Layton name.

Yet newspaper references or not, the actual Layton took longer to fully create.

The Deseret News on Sept. 29, 1890 still referred to the Kaysville First Ward and the Kaysville Second Ward as the only two ecclesiastic districts in the area.

According to the Davis County Clipper newspaper of May 6, 1892,

members of the Kaysville Second Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter-day Saints actually resided in what most recognized as Layton

territory and not Kaysville. Hence, some church members circulated a

petition in 1892, asking church leaders to rename the ward to what it really

was – the Layton Ward.

This was one of the first signs that Layton residents wanted their own

community, separate from Kaysville.

"We do not live in Kaysville City, nor

Kaysville precinct, and why it is called the 2nd Ward of Kaysville we cannot

understand," the newspaper report stated.

Just less than 4 months later, the Ward name change did take place.

“The members of second ward of Kaysville last Sunday decided to change the name to Layton Ward so as to conform

with the precinct and post office and hereafter it will be known by that name.” (-Davis County Clipper, Aug. 31, 1892.)

It is also possible that the Layton name, for the northern portion of the then Kaysville community, was first used in 1882.
Also, Mr. Layton might have put a sign out, with his name on it, on the railroad, so they knew where to deliver goods for the Farmers Union store. Or, another legend is that survey of Layton in the 1880s found one more person with the last name of Layton in town than Adams.

Prior to that, Layton was also sometimes referred to as "Kays Crossing."

Before Layton had fully gained its independence from Kaysville, or had become an incorporated community, its identity was obscure.

“There are some people in the large surrounding cities that do not know there is a place as Layton, formerly known as Kays Creek, in Utah,” a story in the January 23, 1892 Ogden Standard newspaper reported.

“They do not know what a fine country we have here for agriculture and stock raising. The town is situated about fifteen miles south of Ogden, with seven hundred inhabitants, also three mercantile stores, a post office, two blacksmith shops, one meat market, a large steam roller mill, a saloon and two railroads running through the center,” the story stated.

Layton's Population soared after WW2

                             (Photo from Heritage Museum of Layton's Collection.)

LAYTON City hasn’t always been Davis County’s largest population center. Before World War II, it was just a sleepy, small farming community
of 646 residents.
Now, it exceeds 72,000 in total population and could overtake Ogden, in the decades ahead, as the largest city north of Salt Lake City.
Layton City has now reached about 70 percent of “buildout" (its maximum estimated population).

Layton’s population history:
1850: 61*
1860: 155*
1870: 313*
1900: 500*
1930: 597
1940: 646
1950: 3,456
1960: 9,027
1970: 13,603
1980: 22,862
1985: 36,000*
1990: 41,784
2000: 58,474
2010: 67,371
2012: 70,000*
2013: 72,515*
2016: 74,660* *Estimated

SOURCES: Deseret News Archives, U.S. Census, 2013 and 2016 Annual Report for Layton City.

What was Layton City like before Hill AFB came along?

HILL Air Force Base is the dominant employer in Layton City and
Davis County. However, what was Layton City like before Hill came along in 1940?
Here’s a brief look at that pre-situation:
In 1940, Layton was a small, sleepy farming town with a population of just 646 people.
“It was kind of a closed group,” Jay Dansie, a lifelong Layton
resident recalled during a 2014 interview about life in Layton before Hill came along. “It was still a settlement of families,” he noted, explaining that there just were not many outsiders.
That all changed, Dansie said, when Verdeland Park, a massive
World War II military housing development, opened where Layton
High School, the Layton City Offices and Commons Park are today, in 1943. It boasted some 1,500 residents – half the city’s population – in its heyday.
“The whole city changed when Verdeland Park went in,” Dansie
said. “It changed the city forever.”
Outsiders and many out-of-state residents moved in.
Indeed, Main Street was widened. The city’s first traffic signal went in during 1943 at Main Street and Gentile as Layton’s population had multiplied. Some of Layton’s “cow trails” became roads and
agriculture started being pushed out. Many new businesses came to
the city too.
Some of this was unexpected. The Ogden Chamber of Commerce
had led the charge to establish Hill Air Force Base and just assumed the main gate to the base would be located on the north, the Ogden side.
“Ogden wanted it all their way,” Dansie said.
However, the main gate – the south gate – faced Layton and spurred a lot of this explosive growth.

By 1950, Layton City’s population was 3,456 people, a 435 percent
increase from 1940.
After the war, many newly married couples in Davis County made
their homes there. (Verdeland Park closed in 1962.)
Before Hill Air Force Base came along, there was no “Hill Field Road.”
That road was “Easy Street.” Also, there was no Highway 193 and the main road to Weber Canyon continued along today’s 1800 North in Sunset and went straight east to the mouth of Weber Canyon.
Dansie said before Hill AFB came along, that area where it is now
was called “the Sandridge” and he recalls it being a great, sandy place to hunt for Indian arrows as he grew up in the late 1930s.
Layton’s growth, with Hill as the catalyst, continued in the next
decade, as Layton’s population soared to 9,027 in 1960, an increase of 161 percent over 1950.
Note: The ground-breaking to establish Hill Air Force Bases was on Jan. 12, 1940.
In the 1920s, more that 90 percent of Layton's population was involved in agriculture. By the 1940s, that had decreased somewhat, but the addition of Hill and the Freeport Center really downsized farming in town.

-There was also a lot of dust on the "sandridge" where Hill AFB now is. For example, after Brigham Young and his touring group visited that sandridge, the writer of the group stated, "If any of your readers desire a more ample supply of dust than they have at home, advise them to come north where it is plentiful and gratuitously dispensed to all visitors," (-From the Deseret News, Oct. 22, 1862).

Layton City's Namesake: Christopher Layton

LAYTON City was not incorporated until 1920. However, the community was called "Layton" as early as 1886 – when it received its own U.S. Post Office – named for Christopher Layton, a well –
known "Pioneer, colonizer, settler, statesman, farmer, industrialist, church leader" in the area.
Mr. Layton actually helped establish Kaysville (called "Kays Creek" at first) and may have never himself ever lived
in Layton's future borders, but Layton City grew out of Kaysville and fully separated as its own community in 1907.
He pioneered dry farming and planted alfalfa in the Kaysville-Layton area. He also served as a bishop and a counselor
in the Kaysville Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He was born in Bedfordshire, England on March 8, 1821. He was baptized into the Mormon Church in 1842 and emigrated to America with his wife a year later, settling in Nauvoo, Ill.
Before coming to Utah, he was a private in the Mormon Battalion, where he developed a reputation of being practical and plain spoken.
For example, according to one story of the Mormon Battalion: "Colonel Philip St. George Cooke ordered him (Layton) to cross a swollen river to take a message to Captain Jefferson Hunt on the other side. Layton tried to get his mule to swim the raging stream but it refused. The colonel yelled for him to cross over. Layton readily sensed that to cross the river would cost him his and the mule's life so he turned his mule and rode off, saying as he went, 'Colonel, I'll see you in hell before I drown myself and mule in that river.' The colonel stared at him for a moment and muttered, 'What is that man's name?' An attendant replied, 'Christopher Layton,
sir.' 'Well, he is a saucy fellow."'

                                               Christopher Layton

Layton earned money as a ranch foreman after his military service. He then returned to England and brought some of his family and friends to the United States. Later, he led a company of Church members across the plains to Utah.
For some years, Layton had a large cattle ranch in Carson Valley, Nevada. Church President Brigham Young said of Layton's large cattle herd: "Brother Layton, you have more stock than the whole Church." Layton's reply to that was: "Brother Young, they are all at your disposal."
Soon after Layton returned to Utah and settled in Davis County during the Johnston's Army era. In 1872, Layton was also awarded a five-year contract to manage the Church's sheep herd on Antelope Island.

            Sheep were a common fixture in both Layton and on Antelope Island in the past.

Church leaders eventually called Layton to Southern Arizona, to preside over the Saint Joseph Stake, which he did for 15
years. He was then called as a patriarch. He also managed to return periodically to visit Davis County.
In June of 1898 Layton became seriously ill and was transported to Utah in a special railway car. He underwent an operation which proved unsuccessful. He died August 7, 1898 at age 77.
Layton was simply said to be one of the greatest men of the Mormon Pioneer era. Andrew Jenson, LDS Church Historian, stated that “Christopher Layton was one of the most remarkable men that ever figured in the history of the Mormon Church."
A family man, Layton had 10 wives and 60 children, during
the era when some LDS Church members practiced polygamy.
A bust of Christopher Layton is on display at the Heritage Museum of Layton. It was erected there in 1999. LDS President Thomas Monson, then first counselor in the First Presidency, dedicated the monument.
"Christopher Layton was a pioneer in performance of duty," President Monson said at the dedicatory ceremony. "He had grit. He had true grit."
-It is believed that the Layton name, for the northern portion of the then Kaysville community, was first used in 1882.
Also, Mr. Layton might have put a sign out, with his name on it, on the railroad, so they knew where to deliver goods for the Farmers Union store. Or, another legend is that survey of Layton in the 1880s found one more person with the last name of Layton in town than Adams.
Prior to that, Layton was also sometimes referred to as "Kays Crossing."


SOURCES: www.FamilySearch.org, Utah State History and
Deseret News Archives.