Park City Historical Society & Museum, Ray and Lillian Wortley Collection
The Silver King whistle started to blow a warning at 8:45 p.m. on a cold night, Jan. 27, 1921. It could be heard in town and startled everyone as it continued to blow, since normally the whistle blew briefly to signify the end of a shift. Soon after this, the night sky to the west of town was lit up by flames from a serious fire. The Silver King mill was burning down.
According to The Park Record, the fire started in the boiler room and quickly spread through the mill which was built in 1898 almost entirely of wood: wooden beams and floors, and even wooden tanks and launders (pipes). Many local volunteers rushed uphill along King Road in an attempt to extinguish the fire but were stopped by mine officials as they approached the mill. They were afraid the fire could reach the mine explosives storage shed, which was located northwest of the mill.
Park City Museum researcher
Conkling Mining Co. v. Silver King Coalition Mines Co. sheet No. 3 map, circa 1916, showing workings above the tunnel level. This map was used as evidence in court.
Park City Historical Society & Museum, Paul Baker Collection
On Jan. 8, 1908, 57-year-old mining promoter Nicholas Treweek filed a lawsuit in United States Circuit Court against the Silver King Coalition Mines Company led by its president, David Keith, and general manager, Thomas Kearns. The suit alleged that the Silver King had taken more than 10,000 tons of ore worth $400,000 from ground owned by Treweek and his son-in-law J. Leonard Burch. The property in question comprised the Arthur and Conkling claims, about 24 acres, virtually surrounded by Silver King Coalition holdings
Park City Museum researcher
John Daly’s heath declined in 1917 and he moved with his wife to Los Angeles, where he lived at 310 South Gramercy Place until his death in October 1927.
Park City Historical Society & Museum, Himes-Buck Digital Collection
Many of Park City’s famous mine owners shared several similarities: a lack of extensive formal education, their consuming ambition, the rural poverty of their childhoods, and their diligent self-education. All of them acquired mentors along the way who were attracted to their eager willingness to learn. John J. Daly is exemplar of this model.
Born Oct.15, 1853, in Morris, Illinois, his father, listed in the census as a day laborer, died in 1861, and John Daly was orphaned before age 11 when his mother died in 1863. To survive, he took a job as a cabin boy on a steamship plying the upper Missouri and got as far as Ft. Benton when he left that job. He was just a kid of 14 with only two years of formal schooling.
Park City Museum researcher
This July 1905 photo shows the Denver and Rio Grande engine and tender overturned as it headed north out of town to Salt Lake City. Someone had left the switch open. The open switch was not apparent to the engineer until it was too late to stop the forward progress.
The Park City Historical Society & Museum, Thomas F. Hansen Collection
If you think 2020 is a train wreck, the nascent railroad industry was deluged with train wrecks across the nation in its first 50 years. Park City was no exception. According to Park City historians Steve Leatham and David Nicholas, railroading can be a rather dangerous business.
Park City Museum researcher
A D&RGW locomotive, with four men standing or sitting on or by the pilot (sometimes called a cow catcher).
The Park City Historical Society & Museum, Nan McPolin Collection
Welcome to our second article regarding the salvation of Park City’s railroad blues. In our first installment we discussed the railroading aptitude of Brigham Young’s third son John Willard Young (JW). By 1888 JW possessed 20 year’s experience as an iron horse entrepreneur. A new opportunity beckoned connecting Salt Lake City with Park City, Coalville and beyond.
The residents and commercial interests of these towns were desperate for a competitor to the Union Pacific Railroad (UP). By 1887, UP enjoyed a monopoly concerning the rail-related transportation needs of Park City. It achieved this by eliminating its only competitor the Utah Eastern Railroad.