This 1939 O’Mahony Dining Car # 1107 has been placed on the National Registry of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior.
This classic dining car was constructed and displayed at the World’s Fair in New York in 1939, towed to Massachusetts where it stayed 14 years before being moved to Rhode Island and finally to Oakley, Utah in 2007.
(From Wikipedia) The area that is now Marion was used in the 1860s by rancher Samuel P. Hoyt, whose 600–700 head of cattle grazed over most of Marion’s land. The settlement itself was founded in the mid-1870s and was originally named “Morrell” after William Morrell, who built the first house. A large portion of the early settlers were Danish American immigrants, and the community was also often called “Denmark”.
The name Marion has been credited to two different sources: Francis Marion Lyman, who, as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, organized the first ward in the area in 1909, and Marion Myrick Sorensen, who settled here with her first husband in 1882. The Marion precinct first appeared under that name in the 1900 census.
Marion made news in 1979 when resident and polygamist homeschooler John Singer was killed while resisting arrest. The community garnered further publicity in 1988 when Singer’s son-in-law, Addam Swapp, bombed the LDS stake center in Marion and was arrested after a 13-day standoff with state and federal law enforcement.
This valley, settled by Thomas Rhoades in 1858, was a summer paradise for Indians who came to hunt, fish and gather wild fruit and sego bulbs. The Weber River Indian Trail skirted the east foothills to Oakley Canyon, crossed the river at the Old Kamas Ford, 3 1/2 miles east of here, running thence to Henry’s Fork, and to Brush Creek, in the eastern Uinta Mountains. This trail was used by Indians, Scouts and Pioneers, and is marked in part by roads today.
Oakley’s original name was “Oak Creek”, derived from the name of a creek that ran just east of the present town site and that was thickly overgrown with oak trees. The town changed its name to “Oakley” in late 1886 or early 1887; the new name was chosen from many names submitted by the settlers in a contest.
Oakley was first explored as a location for a new settlement in about 1850. The City was incorporated in 1933 and Robert V. Frazier was elected the first Mayor. We are located about 45 miles East of Salt Lake City in Eastern Summit County. We enjoy many benefits of being in a high mountain valley at 6500 feet in elevation with the beautiful Weber River flowing through our City.