Park City's Rich Mining History

Park City is well known for its world-class skiing, the Sundance Film Festival, premier dining, the 2002 Winter Olympics, and of course, its beauty.

But did you know that this "small" ski town was once a vast mining destination? In 1868, Park City was discovered by soldiers who crossed into Cottonwood Canyon searching for silver. Upon finding out that silver filled the surrounding mountains, the pendulum swung. With the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad two years later, people from across the Nation flocked West to test their luck in the quest to make it big. I would say "strike gold," but we're talking about silver here! Park City, UT, was officially on the map and in a big way.

Over the coming 19 years, our little town grew to 5,000 people.

Electricity and running water made it one of the most sought-after towns in the West. To put that into perspective, a few years later, the population grew to just shy of 8,000, which is close to our population today.

Imagine - a large pile of mining waste, otherwise known as a "mine dump," piled up on the ground, winter comes, the snow is falling, and the idea of skiing is now catching on.

At the time (1930, give or take), skiing was a spectator sport, and there weren't many people out there ripping down mountains on a couple of twigs (joking, but you get the idea). As the next couple of decades passed, most mining projects shut down. Unemployment by the masses became a huge issue, and Park City was facing a disaster. The hustle and bustle of the booming mining town was coming to an end, and the population decreased by nearly 70%+. A saving grace (or "hail Mary," if you'd prefer) was sparking at the same time of what many thought to be the town's demise. Interest in skiing and Winter sports began to peak. As miners were on their way out, skiers were on their way in. In 1946 the first ski lift was installed at Snow Park, which is now known as Deer Valley.

Approximately 20 years later, the Treasure Mountain Resort (now Park City Resort) opened with a chairlift, a gondola, and 2 J-bars. If you wonder what a J-bar is, I am sure you have seen it many times but never knew its name. It took a couple of years for the word to spread that there was a newly opened ski resort in the West, but upon the news and the naming of PayDay as one of the best ski runs in the Nation, people began to move to Park City to experience it for themselves.

Our little town became a hub for many things, including arts festivals, film festivals, top dining destinations, shopping, and more.

The Sundance Film Festival (previously known as the United States Film and Video Festival) began featuring independent films in January 1981. It is now the largest film festival in the U.S. With tourism and reasons for people to visit multiplying; Winter recreation was at its all-time high. In the '90s, Park City had three ski resorts (now two since the merge of PCMR and Canyons into the largest ski resort in North America).

Officially surpassing the goal of being “on the map,” Salt Lake City was granted the 2002 Winter Olympics. Worldwide stardom continued to strike our tiny town, and as they say, the rest was history.