Pub. 6 2016 Issue 2

23 MINING FOCUS TREASURE continued on page 26 small blast furnace only operated during 1852-53, it did produce the first pig iron west of the Mississippi. In 1863, soldiers stationed at Fort Douglas under the command of Colonel Patrick E. Connor were sent into the Oquirrh Mountains to explore for minerals. Their discoveries led to the development of mines producing gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc, and earned Colonel Connor the title, “Father of Utah Mining.” Over the next 30 years, immigrants from Northern and Western Europe poured into the mining camps in and around Bingham Canyon to seek their fortunes. The abundant low-grade copper ore was largely ignored in those early days, and it wasn’t until the turn of the century when Daniel C. Jackling, a young metallurgical engineer, developed a mass production methodof profitablyminingandprocessing the ore that commercial copper mining began. To mine from the surface on a large, industrial scale required labor, and thousands of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia, and Mexico came to the area. The rest is history. Today, Rio Tinto Kennecott’s Bingham Canyon Mine is one of the largest and richest man-made excavations on earth. In 1864, shortly after the Bingham discoveries, explorers found rich silver, zinc, and lead deposits in the Big-and- Little Cottonwood Canyon areas on the East Side of the Salt Lake Valley. Silver- bearing ore was found near Alta in Little Cottonwood Canyon, and the famous Emma Mine was born. The Mountain Lake Mining District was organized in Big Cottonwood Canyon. The most famous operation was the Prince of Wales group of mines that primarily produced lead and zinc. Tooele County has 22 metal mining districts in our Treasure House . . . more than any other county in the state. The first districts organized were the Rush Valley in 1864 and the Ophir in 1870. Both became big producers of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc. The Camp Floyd District was also discovered in 1870 with a rich surface deposit of silver ore. But when the ore ran out, the district was practically abandoned in 1874. In 1879, a Bavarian immigrant discovered gold ore on the western slopes of the Oquirrhs near the town of Mercur, and another boom was underway. Mercur’s population reached 4,000 to 6,000 during four different “boom and bust” periods. Mercur’s prosperity was revived in 1985 by American Barrick Resources Corp., which mined and also reprocessed tailings from previous operations. By 1998, the ore had been exhausted and Mercur is now reclaimed. About 1869, the Park City District was established and soon became one of the most outstanding gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc producers in Utah. Mines in Summit County also were major nonmetallic producers, with suchminerals as oil, coal, clays, shale, sand, gravel, and stone. The Park City mines generated fabulous wealth for many people who used their fortunes to help develop the growing and thriving Salt Lake City area. The American Fork District in Utah County was organized in 1870, and the Miller Mine began operations that same