Summit County’s restaurant tax grant committee has awarded the Park City Museum’s Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History committee $200,000 for Thaynes hoist house restoration.
The Friends group jointly applied for the 2025 grant with Park City Municipal, and city councilmembers authorized spending the money Oct. 16.
“We are grateful for the city collaborating with us on this grant,” Friends’ project manager Brian Buck said at the council meeting, reading a message from the group’s co-chair Don Roll. “It will have a huge impact on our ability to complete the Thaynes mine restoration project in 2026.”
Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History says it needs another $600,000 to complete all the repairs on its to-do list.
A Park City staff report says the $200,000 will go toward repairing the Thaynes mine complex hoist house, garage door, ore shed, shaft tower and watchman shed.
The museum’s Friends group is spending more than $1 million total on the project, which includes restoring almost 500 broken windows, among other tasks.
Thaynes-area mining structures were already on the Friends’ repair list before its hoist house roof collapsed under historic snowfall during the 2022-2023 winter.
That season’s runoff also delayed a project to plug the Thaynes mine shaft, which began this year.
Buck touted the success of a previous $1.6 million restoration on the Silver King mine complex near Park City Mountain’s Bonanza Express.
“Everyone who skis Park City this winter will see how this structure has been revived to look much like it did 70 years ago,” he said.
Last year Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History and Park City also received a $200,000 Summit County grant for Silver King mine repairs.
The Thaynes and Silver King mine complexes reopened for tours this year after initial restoration work was complete.
Park City Municipal and Summit County are financial supporters of KPCW.
