This area is locally known as Treasure Hill, because of the vast wealth generated by the mines which were located here. As you wander, you will often encounter traces of Park City’s mining era that are somewhat subtle. Sometimes, it’s just a depression in the hillside. Other times, like this example, the evidence is more profound.
In this case, you can see the large hole roped off and filled with trees. Ski Patrol placed the ropes, so skiers won’t inadvertently ski into the hole.
So, what is this hole? It’s referred to as a subsidence, meaning the surface soil has slid into the mine shaft. Many of the mine shafts around Park City have been backfilled with earth, which settles over time, leaving a subsidence feature over the shaft. This continued settling can eventually collapse and draw in the surface soil to form a crater. A catastrophic collapse of an old mine shaft occurred near the Montage Resort on the Deer Valley property in 2015. It led to the toppling of a large steel headframe that stood over the shaft. A headframe is a structure above a mine shaft that guides the hoist cable to an elevator cage below. It was a remnant of the Daly West Mine and had stood in that location for just over 100 years.
Further evidence of the mining activity at this location is seen just below the subsidence on the hill. It’s a substantial pile of waste rock. This rock was removed from the mine by the miners as they developed the shaft and underground workings. If you look closely as you venture around Park City, you will notice other waste rock piles, identifying old mine sites.
Which mine was at this location? Unfortunately, historical records for this mine are rather scanty. Based upon a map drawn during the 1920s to document assets of the Silver King Coalition Mine, we believe that this was the Dalman Shaft.
Was it a successful mine? The available records don’t allow us to make much of a guess. You can almost picture the miners toiling away, raising the loaded mine cars up the shaft and dumping the waste rock onto the hillside below. While there were vast ore deposits found throughout Treasure Hill, this one appears to be a location where the prospectors dug for glory but found none. You can understand why prospectors filed claims with colorful names like “Poor Man,” “Humbug” and “Lost Capital.” As you walk the trails here, you can picture that the hillside was once literally covered in wooden stakes that marked out these claims.