Park City United States

Legendary

Photo by ian

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For six years in the 1960s, the ski lift in Park City was a mine train. Skiers climbed into ore cars at the base, rode two and a half miles into the mountain through a dark tunnel, then took a mine elevator straight up to the slopes.

It made sense at the time. The mining company had run out of silver and was trying to figure out what to do with a mountain full of tunnels.

The story starts in 1868, when three soldiers stationed near Salt Lake City climbed over a mountain pass and found silver. They sold their claim for $5,000 the next year.

Word spread. Prospectors flooded in, and by 1872 a trio of miners had struck an enormously rich vein in Ontario Canyon.

The Ontario Mine alone produced about $50 million in silver. Over the next fifty years, the mountains around Park City gave up around $400 million worth.

The town filled with miners from Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Scandinavia, and China. By the 1890s it had thousands of residents, dozens of saloons, and a reputation for being loud.

Then on June 19, 1898, a fire tore through downtown and burned most of it to the ground. The town rebuilt within 18 months.

Silver prices crashed in the 1930s, and the mines began to close. By the 1950s, Park City was nearly a ghost town.

The mining company saw one thing it still had: mountains and snow. With a federal loan, it cleared ski runs and opened Treasure Mountains on December 21, 1963, with a gondola, a chairlift, and that mine train.

That resort is now Park City Mountain, the largest ski area in the United States. Deer Valley followed in 1981, and the Sundance Film Festival moved here the same year.

In 2002, Park City hosted more than 40 percent of the events in the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. It will host again in 2034.

Walk Main Street and look for the plaques on the buildings that survived the 1898 fire. Visit the Park City Museum to see the old territorial jail in the basement. Ride the bobsled at Utah Olympic Park, where visitors can go down the real Olympic track.