Rocky Mountain Power awards grant to Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History

(left) Rocky Mountain Power Foundation Community Business Manager Lisa Romney and (right) Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History Co-Chair Sally Elliott. Photo: Park City Museum and Historical Society

PARK CITY, Utah — Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History was recently awarded a $5,000 check from Rocky Mountain Power to go towards the evaluation of stabilization strategies for the Thaynes and Silver King shafts and headframes.

“Rocky Mountain Power Foundation has been a solid supporter of our efforts since our founding in 2015, granting thousands of dollars to our efforts to stabilize and preserve our historic mining structures,” the nonprofit said in a press release. The group is a volunteer committee of the Park City Museum and Historical Society, dedicated to the stabilization of Park City’s old mining era structures.

More from Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History:

In 2015, Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History organized around a priority list of 10 threatened structures. Representatives from Park City Municipal, Deer Valley Resort, Park City Mountain/Vail, Park City Museum, Summit County and other passionate preservationists worked to raise money and devise strategies for preserving these magnificent old buildings for future generations. Since we do not have a dedicated source of funding, we must all work together to accomplish this enormous task.

Our last two remaining priority projects are the Thaynes and Silver King headframe buildings. These massive structures are about 80 feet tall and sit atop crumbling, caving mine shafts that are 1750’ and 1300’ deep.

Before we can work on the large buildings that surround these headframes, we must cap and close the shafts to keep the tall towers from collapsing, as happened at the Daly West Mine above the Montage Hotel.

Historically, mine shafts were secured by large timbers, square set and stacked from top to bottom. If these shafts are not constantly maintained, the wood rots, gravity and water cause the sides to cave and eventually the shafts cave. Preservation strategies for safely closing the shafts and preserving the headframes and their surrounding buildings are expensive and numerous.

This grant will enable us to use ground penetrating radar, remote guided specialty cameras and hydrogeological specialists to help us evaluate the best methods available.

For more information on our work, see https://parkcityhistory.org/mining/