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Show New Discovery Stirs Old Utah Mining District Looking northward at Mt. Superior at Alta, and mountains in foreground, where base metals are again being mined. A once active mining district may languish into a ghost town, but it never dies in the breast of man. There is always an old-timer who clings to the hope that it will relive its former days and there is always another young engineer who works out a new geological theory for the district. Alta, where thousands of skiiers go each winter to slide down its steep slopes, was Utah's first mining min-ing district and for years one of the most active. Some credit the area with a production record of' $37,000,000,virtually all of which found its ways into the early building build-ing of Utah. During the early days Alta supported sup-ported a community of 2500 persons, per-sons, and its main street supported four saloons. Alta bore all the romance ro-mance and lore of any early day mining camp. But, after the rich, near the surface deposits had been mined, Alta slipped. Its buildings disappeared and its railroad was dismantled. All that remained as a reminder of its glorious past was the scars of the mine dumps on its precipitous slopes. Then came skiing and Alta slopes and snows attracted the best in 'slick slide artists" in this rapid growing sport. It became a recreational rec-reational area of world renown and new road were built into the district. Recently renewed interest has been taken in Alta's mining possibilities. pos-sibilities. A new ore body has been discovered near the line of the famous old Cardiff and Columbus Rexall properties. From this ore body, twenty shipments of ore have already been made, ore of a grade reminicent of the boom days of Alta. The ore was found by the second generation of a Pioneer Alta mining min-ing family. Thew "knew" the ore was there and after driving about 10 feet of new tunnel, struck the pay dirt. It had been missed by just 10 feet, an ore body the type of which some work all their lives to find. Not only in Alta, but in other mining districts throughout Utah, more prospecting and development are needed. The incentive to take the risk in mining must be restored and this can be done by hanging up adequate reward for those who take this risk. |
