The nonprofit Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History have already preserved several local historic structures, including the Daly West Headframe, near the Montage hotel and Empire chairlift at Deer Valley Resort.
They’ve now turned their focus to two highly-visible sites that were damaged by the monumental snow loads during the winter of 2022-2023. Those include the Silver King Coalition Mine, which rests near the base of Park City Mountain’s Bonanza chairlift, and the Thaynes Mine by the Thaynes lift at the resort.
The Thaynes headframe once housed a skier subway in the 1960s. Subway-style cars, which can be seen in the Park City Museum, transported skiers nearly three miles underground from what today is Silver Star Plaza to the Thaynes hoist building.
Brian Buck, a project manager with Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History, said it was the only underground ski lift ever operated in the world. Buck led a tour of the historic structure Monday.
“This yellow cage is the cage that they used to lift the skiers,” Buck said. “You can see the inside of that is not very big, so you can imagine how many skiers and skis would fit on that — not very many.”
Skiers waiting to take the cage up to the slopes had to wait underground 1,700 feet below the surface. The subway was discontinued in 1969.
The nonprofit is spending over $1 million to repair the Thaynes mine, which involves cleaning over 400 broken windows, installing a new steel roof and building a new front enclosure on the shaft tower, among other tasks.
When the work is finished next year, skiers at Park City Mountain and summer hikers and bikers will be able to see the shaft with the cages and the skier subway exit.
At the Silver King Coalition Mine by the Bonanza lift, crews were actively working on the site Monday.
The goal this summer is to replace the damaged roof, clean over 1,000 window panes, and remove nearly 4,000 square-feet of rotten wood floor, along with repairing exterior walls and stabilizing ancillary structures. Over $1.5 million has been raised to restore the Silver King mine.
After the work is complete, the exterior of the structure will be largely restored to look as it did a century ago.
“There would not be Park City without its early mining history,” Buck said. “Our goal is to try to help the community understand the mining history and really appreciate the mining history.”
The nonprofit plans to install new security systems at both the Silver King and Thaynes mines, in an effort to deter vandalism.
Next year the group plans to begin guided tours of the two historic structures.
By Miners Day 2026, the nonprofit will unveil a new hiking trail, around 8 miles, that will traverse past several historic sites on Treasure Hill and in Empire Canyon. The group is working with a free mobile app called TravelStorys, which will provide hikers with audio narratives on the area’s history based on their GPS location.
The long-term goal is to repair the seven-story Silver King Mill in Woodside Gulch. Along with the Silver King Coalition Mine, the Silver King Mill sits in a 31-acre district that is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
