Crowds lined Main Street Monday, Sept. 7, for the longest-running event in Park City. While the rest of the country celebrates Labor Day, Parkites have been celebrating Miners Day for 130 years to honor the town’s mining legacy.
The day started in City Park with a breakfast and 5k run. Festivities then moved to Main Street, starting with the Park City Rotary Club’s annual Running of the Balls fundraiser.
Rotary member Michelle Rankin said the longstanding tradition features the release of 15,000 golf balls down the street — each purchased to raise money for local nonprofits.
“Different nonprofits in the community can come out and they can apply for grants or let us know about their needs,” she said. “And then in the late winter, early spring, we’ll do a ceremony of the individuals and the nonprofits in town that will be awarded a grant.”
She says the group aimed to exceed last year’s fundraising, which was a little over $100,000.
Once the balls had raced down Main Street, the street was cleared for a parade featuring local businesses, nonprofits, first responders and political candidates.
Egyptian Theatre manager Randy Barton rode through Old Town on Cosmo the camel.
"It's the Egyptian’s 100th anniversary, and 100 years ago, you know, they were riding camels still," he said. "So, we thought, for our big parade entry to kick off our 100-year celebration, why not?"
Barton kept the origins of the camel to himself.
"Well, you know we have connections because of our Egyptian roots," he said. "We have hundreds of them."
Barton completed his look with a pharaoh’s headdress, robe and staff.
“For comfort, because it's going to be a long ride from the Egyptian Theatre to City Park,” he said. “And, you know, I want to ride in comfort and ride first class.”
The cast and crew of the TV show “Marshals,” which is filming its second season in Utah, rolled down Main Street on a hayride.
Location manager Yvette Yurcisin said the show is filming some scenes at Park City’s historic Ontario Mine, plus a host of other spots across the Wasatch Back.
“We're excited to be here and to represent the show,” she said. “We're grateful for being here. Filming here, just on location, has been a dream.”
Longtime Parkite Betsy Devaney attended the parade to see her grandson, who was playing the trumpet in the Wasatch Back Marching Band. She attends the Running of the Balls and the parade every year.
“It's so local. That's what I like about it,” Devaney said. “It is unique to celebrate the community and all of the nonprofits.”
The day ended with a display of Park City’s mining heritage. Contestants demonstrated the demanding work done in the town’s silver mines during the mucking and drilling competition in City Park.
The drilling contest involves boring deep holes into a slab of rock. For mucking, competitors operate heavy equipment to load “muck” — broken-up ore from drilling and blasting — into a cart as quickly as possible.
