In 1856 the people of Weber County began to use Ogden Valley or Ogden's Hole as a cattle range. It formed an excellent corrall, as towering mountains guarded it on all sides. The hills were covered with rich pasturage and the valley was one large fertile meadow. It was an ideal range except for occasional Indian raids. The cattle were later brought in via North Ogden Canyon. Nathaniel Leavitt was in charge of the herd ranged there the first year. It grazed on the present site of Liberty. In the words of Middleton: "Subsequently my father and others took a large herd of cattle into the valley, this being the first stock to enter the hitherto untrodden solitudes. I assisted my father. The stock could not be wintered there because of the heavy snows; it was brought out in the fall." Alvin West and Alfred Borum were also among the cattle herders in Ogden Valley in 1856. The livestock belonged to Captain William H. Hooper, Bishop Chauncy W. West, and others.

A year later, Erastus Bingham brought a herd of cattle into the valley. He located toward the south, making his camp in the grove near the present Hyrum Farrell ranch on the slopes below the mouth of Geertsen Canyon. Thomas Abbott took a herd of cattle to the present site of Huntsville in 1858. That year or the following, Isaac and David McKay had a herd there. In 1860 Jefferson Hunt arrived with a fine herd of livestock. For a number of years the people continued to use Ogden Valley as a summer herd ground.

Source: Beneath Ben Lomond's Peak, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Weber County Chapter, Pg. 242