From 1942 to 1946, a dedicated group of women ran a canteen at Ogden’s Union Station that provided “food, comfort, and a bit of home” to members of the armed forces passing through Utah. In the Winter 2016 issue of UHQ, Lorrie Rands chronicles this World War II home front effort, which not only helped service men and women but also demonstrated the remarkable executive capacity of the volunteers who operated the canteen.
Rands bases her research, in part, on daily log books kept by the canteen staff. This valuable source portrays the logistical challenges the women met (imagine serving more than 1,000 troops in one day), the place of the canteen in the community, and the voices of the volunteers themselves. Several pages from the log books are reproduced below, as is a page from a service member registry.