The few structures remaining from Park City’s heyday of mining — part of the Silver King Mine — are some of the most visible left in town.
The deteriorating Silver King shaft house at the base of the Bonanza chairlift at Park City Mountain is one of the Friends’ priorities to repair.
Heavy snow caved in a portion of the headframe building in 2023.
The historic building still contains the headframe and hoisting works which include the engines used to lift and lower the cages into the mine shaft below.
The Friends group just received a $10,000 grant from the Promontory Foundation for Silver King repairs.
Friends member Alicia O’Meara says Tuesday’s fundraiser will add to that.
“We're the only place in North America that has mining structures you can ski by,” O’Meara said. “So, we feel like it's really important, because you go to other places to get mining tours, like Alta, and they show you pictures of what used to be there. So, we'd like to continue to preserve and restore our mining structures.”
Friends co-founder Don Roll says the work will do more than just fix the collapsed roof. It has entailed the closure and capping of the mine shaft, removal of the asbestos materials on site and rebuilding the roof that will be much stronger than it was before.
“We've replaced all the steel purlins and support structure that was bent from the last two heavy winters of snow,” Roll said on the Local News Hour Aug. 29.
“One of the conflicts that many of us have is we're all keen skiers, but all that snow has a detrimental effect on the mining structures. So, we've been able to repair the steel. We're then going to put on what's known as steel decking, which will be 10 times stronger than the previous roof,” Roll added.
Eventually Roll says they hope to be able to offer guided tours of the building. But that’s going to take a lot more money.
“We've just completed a set of sneak peeks for our many donors that helped fund this very expensive, $500,000 roof replacement project,” he said. “And we've taken them inside and showed them all the equipment and gave them the history of how the mine worked. And I must say, universally, they were all fascinated by the interior of the building. So, if someone wants to step up and spend $10 million to make it usable, that would be great, but I don't think that will happen in the near future.”
He says Vail Resorts and the Epic Promise Foundation are footing the bill for the fundraiser, so the ticket price of $200 will go directly to the rehabilitation work.
Tickets include a ride up the Orange Bubble Express to the Lookout Cabin for cocktails and appetizers and to enjoy the view before riding down at sunset.
Check-in begins Tuesday at 4:45 p.m. at the base of Canyons Village.
