Do you know what special role certain immigrants from Michigan played in Park City’s history?
This is Mark Eaton with your Park City History Bit.
In 1873, four entrepreneurs from Grand Haven, Michigan – Edward Ferry, David McLaughlin, J. W. Mason and Frederick Nims – arrived in Park City and incorporated the Marsac Silver Mining Company. Edward Ferry purchased the Flagstaff Mine for $50,000, and it became their first holding.
In 1874, the Marsac Silver Mining Company built the Marsac Mill on the east bank of Silver Creek, next to the present-day KPCW Studios. The same year, members of the so-called “Michigan Bunch” also filed a patent with the U.S. Land Office for 120 acres of “un-appropriated and unoccupied” land surrounding their Marsac Mill. That patent describes most of what we know today as Old Town Park City.
The Marsac Mill was torn down in 1904, but the name “Marsac”, chosen by those Michigan natives, survived as the name of a nearby street and an elementary school built in the late 1930s. In the early 1980s, the city acquired the old Marsac School, remodeled it and renamed it the Marsac Municipal Building.
This Park City History Bit is brought to you by the Park City Museum, and their newest exhibit, “Miners to Moguls: 50 Years of Park City Skiing”, and is sponsored by Julie Hopkins of Keller Williams Real Estate.