Spiro Mine Tunnel Restoration ceremony to be held October 5

The Spiro Tunnel operated as a skier subway in the 1960s. Photo: Park City Museum

PARK CITY, Utah — On Tuesday, October 5, there will be a ribbon-cutting and celebration of the restoration of the Spiro Mine Tunnel.

The ceremony is a collaboration between Mayor Andy Beerman, Park City Council, and the Park City Museum’s Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History.

The celebration will be held at Silver Star Plaza at 5 pm on October 5.

The tunnel is named after Solon Spiro, who came from Germany to Park City in 1881.

After working at several mines, in 1916 he ‘launched construction of an ambitious tunnel designed to drain the major portion of the company’s property and, it was hoped, provide access to new ore bodies.”

While the tunnel didn’t produce any ore, it allowed underground access to the mining potentials of the surrounding claims.

Despite Spiro’s relative success, he was forced to sell the Silver King Coalition in 1924.

The Spiro Tunnel would remain relevant decades later when the “skier subway” opened in 1965. Through the Spiro, skiers could board re-purposed mine cars and journey three miles underground to the Thaynes shaft, and then ride the mine elevator to the surface. The ride took roughly 45 minutes, and it was largely a novelty.