Park City holds an important place in Utah’s precious and base metal mining history with significance for its productivity, endurance, role in technological development and association with people important to the state’s history. From 1875 to 1982, the Park City mines reportedly produced 16.7 million tons of ore recovering 1.45 million ounces of gold, 253 million ounces of silver, 2.7 billion pounds of lead, 1.5 billion pounds of zinc, and 129 million pounds of copper.
Yet none of the industrial historic properties associated with Park City’s mining industry are currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). While the Victorian architecture of this booming nineteenth-century mining town inspired interest in restoring the community, the industrial sites where the actual mining occurred have been left abandoned. Since reopening these mines is not profitable and with little potential for adaptive reuse of the remaining structures, many of the mine complexes, mills, aerial tramways and other associated mining resources have succumbed to scavenging, vandalism and natural decay, leaving these resources in various states of repair. The Historic Mining Resources of Park City, Utah Multiple Property Documentation Form (MPDF) will provide the basis for evaluating and nominating properties to the NRHP in the future and encourage local efforts to preserve mining resources based on their continuing contribution to a community’s identity.
The Park City Mining MPS provides an overview of the events and physical development of mining in Park City from the discovery of silver in the late 1860s until the closure of Park City’s last operating mine in 1982. Although not intended to be a comprehensive history, the MPDF explores the broad patterns of local history, organized into the three periods defined in Park City Municipal Corporation’s Historic District Design Guidelines:
• Discovery & Mining Boom Era (1868-1893)
• Mature Mining Era (1894-1930)
• Mining Decline, Consolidation & Diversification (1931-1982)