You are standing in the middle of Park City’s most successful mine, the Silver King Coalition Mine. It’s the largest surviving group of mining-era structures in town. The sign in front of you shows the many buildings that once filled this site—imagine them surrounding you.
High on the hill to your left above the Bonanza Express are the round Silver Queen Water Tanks, which supplied water to the miners’ lodges. Just above the Bonanza Chairlift is a small concrete vault from the largest boarding house, later moved uphill and preserved as today’s Mid Mountain Lodge.
Another surviving structure is the former change house, which you can’t see from here because it’s behind the mine building. Miners changed into work clothes, then walked on to the hoist house, where they collected lamps and tools, and were lowered underground to work. Ore was brought back up by the same hoist and sent by covered tramway to the mill.
This area once functioned like a small industrial village where miners lived, ate, and worked. The complex even had a hog shed, where organic materials were “recycled.” Imagine how noisy it was with squealing pigs, loud banging noises from the mill below and the squeaky whir of the hoists going up and down the mine shaft. Look past the sign down the gulch to see the seven-story mill below. It crushed ore on the top floor, then used gravity to separate valuable minerals on the floors beneath.
From the bottom of the mill, mineral concentrate crossed a tramway to the ore sampler, where its value was checked and recorded before shipment to Salt Lake City smelters. If you look down to the left, you will see the foundation of the building where they sampled the ore.
When you’re ready, head behind you toward the Bonanza chairlift and the next story site in front of the large mine building.