Treasure Mountain Home: Park City Revisited

Treasure Mountain Home: Park City Revisited Paperback Book 1993 by George A. Thompson and Fraser Buck. Silver was discovered in the canyons and ridges south of Parleys Park as early as the mid 1860s, and the mining camp that grew up around the silver strikes took the name of Parley's Park City. The ore being mined was a combination of lead, silver and gold, known as galena, and smelting was required to separate the metals from each other. The first large shipment of galena was forty tons that were shipped by wagon to the railroad at Echo in 1871, where the ore was transferred to rail cars and taken by Union Pacific to Salt Lake City for smelting. The largest mine was based on the Ontario Lode, established in July 1872. The Ontario claim was purchased in August 1872 by George Hearst and soon became the basis for his personal fortune, and the publishing empire of his son, William Randolph Hearst. Another large claim would later become the Silver King mine, owned by David Keith and Thomas Kearns. The intent of the information presented here is to put a finer point on various aspects of transporting the ore from the mines, by identifying dates and other information for items such as drain tunnels that became working and transportation tunnels, various aerial tramways, and loading stations used to load railroad cars, along with the railroad spurs themselves