Ben Lomond Peak is not only the wettest mountain in Utah - it may also be the most famous summit in the Beehive State. There is strong evidence it is the peak that inspired the famous mountain logo used by Paramount Pictures.
William Wadsworth Hodkinson, an Ogdenite, founded Paramount Pictures in 1914. Although the two main history books on Paramount, "Paramount Pictures and the People Who Made Them" and "Mountain of Dreams," fail to specifically identify the inspirational peak, there is little doubt it is Ben Lomond.The latter of the two books by Leslie Halliwell states, "The mountain he (Hodkinson) doodled on the back of an envelope was a memory of childhood in his home state of Utah."
Cecil B. DeMille is reputed to have once said the inspirational mountain was really Mount Olympus near Salt Lake City. But Hodkinson grew up in Ogden, not Salt Lake City.
Ben Lomond, named for a mountain of the same name in Scotland by Scottish Pioneer settlers in North Ogden, towers over downtown Ogden by almost a full mile.
Anyone who catches a glimpse of the dominant "Big Ben" will usually agree it was likely the inspiration for Paramount's "Mountain of Dreams" logo, surrounded by 22 stars. Although its slope is certainly exaggerated in the Paramount logo, Ben Lomond ranks as one of the state's most majestic mountains.