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Hal Compton Spent Decades Researching Park City History

Hal Compton

Longtime Research Historian for the Park City Museum Hal Compton died Monday morning. His legacy in Park City is reflected in the extensive volunteer work for the Museum and his dedication to preserving the history of the area.

According to Park City Museum Director Sandra Morrison, Hal Compton served as the Park City Historian Laureate and is the namesake of the Museum’s Research Library. He was a dedicated volunteer researcher for the museum for nearly 3 decades.

Compton was born in Brigham City in 1929, attended the University of Utah and then spent most of his career in Southern California in the public relations field. After he retired, Compton moved to Park City in 1987, where he began exploring the city’s history by walking the local trails.

“So, he started work offering visitor Information services and got very interested in Park City's history and spent, he was retired at the time, so you know spent a lot of time researching and became Park City’s foremost historian.”

In a few years, he was leading historic walking tours of Main Street when he would sometimes dress as Judge Jim Don, a Scottish immigrant who worked as a miner, postmaster and county treasurer.

He served as president of the Glenwood Cemetery Association for a period and was the force behind creating the popular “Halloween at the Glenwood.” Compton also designed hikes throughout the summer months to introduce and inform participants about Park City’s history. With the Museum’s photo library, he was able to combine an outdoor experience with the historical perspective of the area.

“He combined his love of getting outdoors to actually going and finding all the different historic mining sites and locations. He was out there every weekend looking for another historic site and combining the two together, the experience of physically being outside along with understanding history of what happened there.

Compton could be seen most mornings early walking from the China Bridge parking garage to the museum where he would spend the day researching Park City’s history.

Compton moved to a senior care center about a year ago when he turned 90. Up until then, he stayed active with the History Museum.

“He needed more care. Prior to that he had been living at the assisted living out in Highland Estates and of course riding the Park City mobility bus to the museum every day. He stayed active in Park City's history until he was 90.”

Morrison says when they opened the new museum building in 2009, Compton worked to build community support for the expansion. They named the library after him.

“Hal was a tremendous supporter. You know not only himself but as being an ambassador to the community and just explaining and encouraging everybody to support the expansion and so we've actually named the library the Compton History Library when we opened in 2009.”

Compton wrote countless Way We Were articles that were published in the Park Record.

Morrison says Compton never married and wanted to be interred in Brigham City in the family plot. A memorial service will be held Monday, the 22nd at Park City’s historic Glenwood Cemetery. If interested in attending, RSVP to Sandra Morrison at 435-649-7457.

 

KPCW reporter Carolyn Murray covers Summit and Wasatch County School Districts. She also reports on wildlife and environmental stories, along with breaking news. Carolyn has been in town since the mid ‘80s and raised two daughters in Park City.
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