Fort Buenaventura Park — Attraction in Ogden

We held our first annual Utah Pirate Invasion at Fort Buenaventura in Ogden, UT on August 3-5, 2018. We will not be using the Fort again for the Invasion or any other event we do in the future. The Fort itself is a beautiful park and truly a great place for events such as the Invasion in itself. However the management and organization of the venue is the worst I have ever dealt with in trying to put on an event. We ended the event feeling that we were not welcome there at the Fort at all. Changes made after the application is approved and contract signed. About one month before the event we had someone walk the Fort to map our layout, she was informed by the camp hosts that the disc golf course that was put in could not be shut down for our event, this was an issue since it was not there or even mentioned when we signed out contract, telling us we had to let the public in to use the course would have had a significant impact on our event as we wouldn’t be able to control access to the event, it eliminated the areas we were planning on using for our vendor camping that were pointed out as areas we had control of by Kevin in our walk through the previous summer, it would have added to our liability as the golfers could damage our vendor camps or cause physical injury to our patrons or volunteers not to mention the added security risk. While the Fort conceded that since the course was not in our contract that we could close it down for the event, Kevin made it seem like he was doing us a favor and this was a bother for him. The two women who were there as the camp hosts were the least hospitable people I have ever dealt with. From the moment we arrived these hosts were a nightmare to deal with. They managed to anger every single one of our vendors, they treated us as if we were a bunch of idiots who had no idea what we were doing, their interference made our setup and prep for the event an absolute miserable experience as well as added hours to our setup time in just having to deal with them and their poor attitudes, by the end of day one they had managed to irritate every single person there setting up our event including contractors. Day two was even worse, I asked them not to drive their ATV’s on the main road next to the Fort after the bridge, this was for a few reasons: 1, they drive those things like maniacs, during setup a few of our people had to jump out of the way as Darlene wasn’t slowing down and seemed like she would just plow right through them, since our event had features on both sides of the road I really didn’t want them plowing through our guests and potentially running over a meandering child, they kick up a lot of dust, since it is already hot and buggy why add a bunch of dust to the mix? It’s a period event, bright orange motorized ATV’s simply break that illusion. First Darlene ripped into me about how I couldn’t block them from accessing the event (I never told them they couldn’t come into the Fort, I just asked them not to drive their ATV’s on that road, that they could drive them around the back and sides of the Fort all they wanted but not on that main road, that they could walk through the Fort area all they wanted, it’s not that far of a walk after all according to them) Darlene really got in my face about this, as we didn’t have a after hours phone number to managers of the Fort we couldn’t really call anyone to get this cleared up. Later that day the bathrooms next to the bridge ran out of soap, I informed the hosts and was told since I blocked their access we would just have to be out of soap, apparently the bathroom was too far for either of them to walk to refill the soap. When one of our guests arrived to camp at the Bowey, we approached the trailer to ask for them to unlock the gate and also the guest wanted to pay for power, our greeting upon approaching was “what do you want” in a very snooty tone, needless to say our guest was not impressed and mentioned he wouldn’t never again consider camping there at the Fort. These women made our...

I’m sure Buenaventura is a lovely DAY park. We visited site unseen from Colorado, and decided to camp at the park at 7pm with little options. DO NOT CAMP at this park. Between the planes, trains and transients... its a memorable place. The noise level alone is a place where sleep doesn’t happen. It’s sad the city of Ogden has surrounded this historical park with so much commotion. I highly suggest that the city cancels the camping at this park. It’s pointless other than a safer place for the homeless. We were warned by the toothless homeless woman about the skunks and raccoons keeping us awake. But the “wildlife” was NOT a concern...the train 50 feet from our camp site that rushed by tooting his horn at 10:30pm, 1:30am, and finally at 4:30am sealed the deal as the WORST PLACE to camp in...

For years, the Fort was a wonderful place for so many reasons. Unfortunately, the entire area (except the dog park and baseball field) is now a great big frisbee course. No more taking students down for outdoor learning activities. You can't even fish or go for a walk when games are being played. Sadly, the historical value is quite diminished as a result including the first store I've ever seen there- a sports shop inside the old house. The course literally crosses the entire fort-not just one of the many open areas we used to enjoy. All of them. The worst part is that most of the people that go there now to play frisbee aren't even from Weber county - they come up from...