Look beyond this sign, up the canyon, where you see a stand of pine trees on the left. To the right, in the distance, is a peak. Where the peak and the pines intersect shows where the canyon continues. This was the original location of The Daly West Mine, the second mine founded by John Daly. Looking along the left side of the canyon, in the old days when there were no trees, you could have seen his first mine, The Daly Mine. There are several story sites close to each other here. We recommend you stop for a bit to hear each story.
Many current-day Parkites (Park City residents) refer to this area as “Daly Canyon.” It’s likely because the parking area just above Old Town is called the Daly Trailhead. And the street that comes up from Old Town is called Daly Avenue. But who was Daly?
John Daly founded three major mines in Empire Canyon: The Daly Mine in 1885, The Daly West Mine in 1893 and the Daly-Judge Mine in 1901. The photo on the sign will give you a better sense of where these mines were.
It all started when John Daly began buying claims in Empire Canyon back in 1879 or 1880. Legend suggests that he walked up the canyon with a roll of five-dollar bills and kept counting them out until the claimholder would sell. Prospectors who held the claims were generally very interested in selling for cash. They weren’t in it to raise the capital to sink a shaft and build a mine. They just wanted enough cash to buy some beans, whiskey, a new shovel, some fresh drills, and move on to their next “big discovery.”
How John Daly came by this roll of five-dollar bills is the subject of some debate. One school of thought holds that he made a small fortune working in silver mines of Nevada’s White Pine District and that he doubled down on that bet at the mining “craps table” here in Park City. A more recent theory points to R.C. Chambers, founder of the Ontario Mine and business associate of George Hearst, as the source of Daly’s cash. This idea has some weight, since Hearst often used Chambers as a “front” to secure better prices for mining claims. Could Daly have served as a front for Chambers in buying the Empire Canyon claims? It’s possible—the Ontario Mine lies just over the ridge from the Daly Mine, and Chambers’ goal was to capture as much of Park City’s mining wealth as possible. We’ll let you be the judge on which story is true.
Today, Skiers at Deer Valley can ski The Daly Chutes, and mountain bikers ride a trail called The Daly Grind, both in Empire Canyon.