Show early reminiscences 0 0 of W world famous P park city ity I 1 11 BT 1 1 RLES E in S salt alt 1 lake a ke mining lilling i KM lew of janu january ary 30 3 0 1931 park city the premier mining camp of utah Is dated as beginning in the summer of 1872 that I 1 Is s about the time the ontario cut arlo mine first became known there may have been a few cabins at the site it or of park city in 1872 3 but I 1 can find no evidence of a town or even a positive name f tor 0 r one until the spring ol of 1874 at that time the place was selected as a the tha site for the mchenry mill near by it and not the mchenry boarding house which was built on the present location of the park city hotel W F E F V V q wr W r i I 1 1 I 2 I 1 I 1 ak P 1 I ai 01 N R aai awi i 7 19 1 KW I 1 il Z Y 4 6 1 il 1 11 1 I 1 irmler I 1 it T I 1 I 1 I 1 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 4 I 1 L I 1 I 1 Ci CHARLES cluries uRIES E STREET the author my father and family camped a mile below park city with a herd of beet beef cattle some cows and horses we had come there looking tor for feed tor for the stock we had driven from montana expecting to sell at salt lake but found the market fully supplied by a herd that beat us to salt lake city this personal history Is given to explain our presence in that vicinity the writer saw park city tor for the first time j uly july 10 1874 the mchenry boarding house had just been completed and the mci mc evl III gretle ws aln hed ard buil dirT material was arriving there was th ahn n to the best of rn my recollection recollection I 1 a geneal gene al store blacksmith shop livery stable saloon a meat market a lew few log 1 cabins some board huts and numerous I 1 tents A survey of lots along what was called mein me in street had been made my father bought the meat market land and hired the butcher who ran it in order to dispose of his cattle he also bought tour four lots on the east side of main street where now nov Is located the business center and moved our tents onto the lots soon after we built the fourth hewed log house of residence size thus we became early permanent residents awe were informed that the CR camp nip proper only began with the early spring or with some pre in the fall before this detail is mentioned because of the conflicting opinions as to the beginning of the town evidence that no town existed earlier Is shown by the tact fact that the mining district records were kept at a village some three or tour four miles northwest george black who was still recorder in the fall of 1874 told me that the mining records for uintah mining district had been kept at snyderville derville his place of residence from the beginning dominic dig dagnan nan succeeded black as district recorder re cordei at park city townsite te originally a grove the site of park city when I 1 first saw I 1 it was mostly a quaking asp grove of pole size trees and smaller through which an old wood road ran its winding way to the canyons above it was then used as the ontario ore road over which sacked ore was being hauled to the smelter at sandy in salt lake valley this wood road made straight became the main street of the town in n september 1874 I 1 visited lake F flat lat above the ontario mine and learned that la in 1872 3 it was believed that spot would become the location of the town as practically all the mining was done in that vicinity at that time there was a small lake lying between the 1 east end of the ontario claim and the mchenry claim at the head bead of mchenry gulch into which the lake found its outlet easterly toward the provo river town 0 lots had been staked out bordering the east cast end of the lake there were a few scattered cabins and one log house bouse of larger largen dimensions irn in which john A nelson and his bis wife ran a miners boarding house the locality had bad been covered with mining claims the mchenry claim to the east I 1 understood was one of the oldest the parleys park claim the tha switzerland and the ontario also were early locations in that immediate vicinity first offer ot of ontario at turned down doin la in 1872 alexander street an uncle of mine visited the ontario mine accompanied by his friend john kerr ken the discovery shaft ot of the prospect was then down about thirty or forty feet on a well formed vein ot of ore which was being plied piled on the dump street was looking fora lor a lead mine to purchase the ontario I 1 was offered to him lor for cash he ha took samples ot of the ore to salt lake and they tested well in silver but carried no lead street was nota mining roan man he ran freight trains from nebraska to helena montana and was visiting alta to see his son who was 9 a merchant and the postmaster at alta he had taken a nyer flyer in a prospect near alta tho the year before and made out of it that prospect had carried lead he visited the scott hill mine with a view of buying I 1 another lead prospect the day he be went to see the ontario samples showed good lead values at the scott IMI and he be I bought it tor for in preference prele rence to the 1 ontario at I 1 got this information from his letter to me written in 1879 at which time I 1 sold the scott mine for him tor for in that year the output of the ontario mine was it had paid in dividends for the year with a total it production up to the end of 1879 exceeding chaiben Cham ben tells of romantic entry into camp according to my best information the discovery shaft of the ontario mine in 1872 was going down in good ore and a widening vein this brings to mind a story that I 1 heard R C chambers tell many years later it occurred at the old 1 ip F za 1 ar WM q 1 I M PE 10 I 1 I 1 M 1 I 1 I 1 it 1 ik 0 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 if ar 1 F f FF 4 N w T 4 11 I 1 6 f P I 1 I 1 t I 1 I 1 I 1 r A k I 1 R RC C CHAMBERS general superintendent ontario marsac office then used as the daly mine falce and the express office at park city at al emery was in charge of both ot of flees he and chambers were a happy pair of pals and story tellers when together chambers being in a reminiscent mood related the following I 1 think he said the year was 1872 1 I was in salt lake city had been looking lor for a mine in utah and had heard talk about a prospect called the ontario above parleys parr park things had been going against me I 1 looked at my last twenty dollar bill spit on it for luck hired a mule and made toe the trip well that hole looked good to me I 1 tied it up tor for for thirty days that was the best I 1 could do I 1 went back to salt let and got busy VV with th the fellows in n tr I 1 1 franis for once they took ny word r d for it the time was short and th tb y sent a man out with the money he looked at the assays essays and then at th 2 nine mine I 1 we shaded the price a little for cash I 1 well you know the rest my luck had turned but I 1 stuck to the big bg gray mule for several years for it had carried me to success the writer knew that big gray mul an n th tb early days very well we called it tile the chambers express it was very deliberate yet a fast walker when urged the story as told revealed to me abat touch of nature under the crust that matches up with the old donkey and his rabbits toot foot the history and progress of park city cit Y for its first fifteen years Is practically the history and progress of the ontario silver it mining company park city was unfortunate in being a one mine camp yet fortunate to have so reliable a bif bone as the ontario and daly mines both under the sam earn control the mchenry mill I 1 think was completed in 1874 and ran a very short time on mchenry mine ore the values failed and the mill closed rich values had been painted on by nature and scattered through a big outcrop thi her hen broken down in wholesale quantity did not average pay ore the little camp would have been in a bad way at that time it if the ontario had not leased the mchenry mill of twenty stamps and run it successfully at capacity there was some lead ore chipped from pinyon ridge walker and buckeye and the green monster claims in the summer time also there was considerable sid erable prospecting but these things provided little use ure tor for a town and none tor for a mill in the early days davs the mchenry the parleys park the flagstaff ff and the old pioneer claims each had a small email number of men who boarded at the mines right bight here in the interest of veracity allow me to observe that none of these properties produced the romantic values spoken of in terms of hundreds of thousands or any amount worth mentioning the pinyon ridge mines and also the sampson mine near there did produce considerable ore that was sent direct to the smelter at sandy I 1 am re relying ay ing not alone on my memory of that pert period od but also on information secured when I 1 was appointed state statistician tor for suria summit county at the time utah became a state I 1 made it a point to gather a record of the total production of the metals reaching to the beginning of t the he district tor for my own use as I 1 was fig fighting for the cause of sliver silver with bry bryan at that time a fair estimate of the total m cost coat of 0 mining the silver produced V was per ounce early day ana conditions I 1 shall return to the early days and to 0 matters perhaps too personal however this story Is as much one of experience as it is one on of 0 history when the ontario began to operate the mchenry mill trilla my father having teams took cordwood cord wood contracts from the ontario he secured his timber from a fine ane anre killed stand on the eastern elope ot of woodside wood sloe gulch the mill fuel was all wood as was the fuel used for power at the mine my father also took a contract to deliver cordwood cord wood from the mill yard ricks into the mill boiler room including the haulage of bullion to the assay office and on to the express office I 1 assisted the man hired for this purpose and it was usually my job to handle the bullion the bars of each day were left at the assay office and the bars of the day before were taken on to the express office which was in the general store of 0 W J montgomery then located at the corner formed led lb by the west angle of main street and park avenue facing west tills store business was later moved up main street to the spot later known as the M S aschiem is company store who were successors here at this old corner comer store it was the custom tor for the miners to congregate in the evenings the store was also the post office and kept late hours I 1 remember that the bars of bullion were usually piled two or three deep on the platform scales they each weighed over pounds and were nearly pure silver running 88 18 and 99 per cent fine silver was then worth from to per ounce this gleaming wealth gave a sense of camp security and it was an inspiration to the rough miners who gathered there here they would unwind wonderful yams bams every prospector believed that he had claims that held just such potential wealth the upper levels of the ontario carried mostly tree free milling ore of good average value some of it was exceptional I 1 have selected native silver wi per cent pure formed in thin white leaves in the folds of tale talc also darker massive sul chides that tested to ounces sliver silver per ton carrying some gold Ont arios costly period of LJ litigation Ont arios litigation began a few years after the mine was acquired by the san francisco owners hearst haggin tevis and chambers there was a fatal error in the location of the ontario claim it was located with an angle purposely made to cover the western halt half of the vein and angled north of west when it should have gone south of west claims in that day were limited to feet in width the discovery was made on the northerly side of the gulch the vein on its westerly course cut across the gulch but not at right angles the opposite side was deeply burled buried in alluvial the vein dip was northerly the rising top I 1 to the west carried the apex tar far to the south even as the rising country to the east carried the apex into the switzerland claim on the west the banner claim was located next the ontario on the south side and next south of the banner was the henrietta claim owned by jake smith the henrietta showed nothing on the surface and appeared a poor prospect but in fact it held the apex of the ontario on its westerly course the ontario sunk a shaft in the gulch on the dip side of 0 the vein and cut it feet deep crosscuts Cross cuts were made at each foot level to the vein and drifts extended on the vein east and west this work would be i tar far beneath the surface the object of this description Is to show the location of the jake smith interest jake smith taps ontario and gets killed smith sunk a shaft 60 feet and cut the ontario vein of course apex bad to be proven but chambers knew what the facts were he could have bought the henrietta claim for at first and later tor for so jake himself said chambers chose to fight it out with an old claim that he bought up called the great eastern smith said this claim had bene abandoned but chambers claimed work for it was done underground from the ontario wor workings kingl the great eastern versus the henrietta riet tall and the light was on the former claim location ballel tor for a course northwest and southeast but the stakes were found to differ 90 degrees or to be southwest by northeast james moray was a surface man employed by chambers chamber jake smith cla claimed im that moray swung the stakes of the great eastern onto the henrietta claim and jake promptly removed them morays ays occupation was to put those stakes back at night and jakes day work was taking them off finally they met in jack saloon in park city moray was armed smith was not nob smith was setting up the drinks and trying to induce moray to a dmit admit moving stakes in the altercation that followed smith was fatally shot by moray jack pape delivered Moray to the 0 officers iu jf I 1 moray was bound over and ordered to be taken to the county jail at Co coalville alville on the way moray was forcefully released by colonel nelson and set fret armed with a shot gun nelson may have felt that his friend moray was in danger of violence at the hands of the public when he released and armed him open threats by morays friends were made against any one attempting to follow him the town officers made no attempt to recapture moray I 1 was employed to go to Co coalville alvIlle tor for sheriff allison there was some danger in this undertaking reaching I 1 found the sheriff bedridden and his deputies on a man hunt in wyoming moray was finally surrendered by nelson when the united states stated marshal threatened him moray w was a a lou found n d in the flagstaff mine shaft feet deep he was tried and convicted he got a new trial and was cleared after being in the penitentiary in all tor for a period of fifteen months chambers supplied the attorneys and the money needed tor for his defense jake smith was highly regarded among those who knew him he was a big rough honest miner always ready to risk his life for his rights his murder was generally general regarded as a cowardly act instigated sti ati gated by others the killing of jake smith did not end the contention however U S marshal arshal michael brakes the big play the henrietta and other ground around the orient shaft came into possession of IT S marshal michael gh nessy and he with others planted thirteen suits against chambers and hearst there was a fierce underground fight between these interests in 1880 also an altercation occurred between and chambers this happened in chambers salt lake office august 17 1880 sought to force chambers to move some mine stakes the verbal row waxed abusive and struck chambers with a pistol and threw the pistol on the floor where chambers could pick it up and challenging a pistol fight said he be would not shoot an unarmed man chambers refused to |