You’re approaching the wooden Alliance Watchman’s Cabin, built in 1895 as both an office and home. Part of the Alliance Mine complex, it stands near the steel building across the way and the concrete pump house below along the trail.
This cabin also helped launch Park City’s ski history. Jack Gallivan spent his early childhood here while his father worked as the watchman.
Larry Warren, a family friend and Park City historian, explains how Gallivan later helped shape the town’s future.
Jack was orphaned at the age of 5 and was adopted by his aunt, Jennie Judge Kearns, the widow of Silver King Coalition founder Thomas Kearns, and the niece of John Judge. During the arc of his career, Kearns bought a newspaper, The Salt Lake Tribune. After his death, Jennie turned to Jack, feeling that he had the aptitude to become the business manager of The Tribune.
She sent him to Notre Dame to study journalism and business, and when he graduated, she used her influence to put him on a management track at The Salt Lake Tribune. In the late 1950’s, Massachusetts Senator John F Kennedy was considering a run for president and began calling on major newspaper executives to gauge support. On a stop in Utah, he met Jack Gallivan. Both were the same age and Irish Catholic. They hit it off, and a friendship was born that would pay off during the Kennedy presidency. By 1962, two years into Kennedy’s term, Park City had almost become a ghost town as the mining era was ending.
Gallivan, now publisher of the Salt Lake Tribune, got behind an effort mounted by United Park City Mines, an entity resulting from the merger of Thomas Kearn’s mine with many Park City mines. Mine owners decided their future prosperity could come from a business they called Treasure Mountains Resort.
Jack Gallivan was invited to a publisher’s lunch with Kennedy at the White House. JFK asked Gallivan if there was anything he could do for Utah. Gallivan responded that Park City had applied for a federal redevelopment loan meant to stimulate economic development in depressed areas, but the loan application appeared to be gummed up in the bureaucracy. JFK turned to Pierre Salinger and said, “Pierre, take care of that.” The loan came through, and United Park City Mines used that $1.2 million loan to form the Treasure Mountain Ski Area at what is now Park City Mountain.
The building is also being restored by The Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History, with support from the Gallivan family.
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