7 Ways to Explore Park City's Mining History

Located on Historic Main Street, the Park City Museum offers a deep look into the area’s silver mining days.  With quite a few permanent exhibits highlighting the Great Fire of 1898, pre-prohibition days, and what daily life was like during the silver mining boom, you’ll leave the museum a Park City history expert. The museum sits in a historic jail and the original holding cells in the basement are preserved. Other highlights include a multi-story scale model of the mining tunnels beneath town complete with lights, sounds, and mining equipment. The Park City Museum is a coveted treasure in our town shouldn't be missed on your next trip!

Park City’s history is anything but spotless. Once a gritty mining town, it was home to gamblers, brothels, outlaws, and adventure seekers. Though the edges have been smoothed out since the 18th and 19th centuries, the spirit of danger, thrills, and wildness still lingers in the mountain air. And amidst the gourmet restaurants, shopping, and art scene, lies an older story—spookier, mysterious, and a little sketchy—that not everyone hears about. Park City Ghost Tours offers a unique take on Park City’s history. The tour, which takes place every night throughout the year at 8:00 PM (7:00 PM in the winter months), consists of area ghost stories that have been collected and researched for more than a decade. You can't miss this unique window into Park City's darker past!

Fox School of Wine’s Mine and Wines Tour is a fun and unique way to learn about Park City’s mining history while enjoying delicious, carefully-chosen wines at stops along the way. The tour includes six stops at various historic mining relics throughout town and offers an in-depth look into the town’s past, as well as incorporates a little wine knowledge.

For those eager to delve deeper into Park City’s history, the TravelStorys app offers an immersive audio tour experience, bringing the stories of this iconic destination to life. Developed in partnership with TravelStorys, the tour is presented by the Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau and is designed to provide a helpful resource for visitors and residents who are looking to learn more about the history of the town. There are a total of 13 stops, and each stops takes an average 3-5 minutes to complete. This is a great option to take in the details in Historic Old Town, exploring mining history and the evolving culture of Park City.

During the winter months, Park City Mountain offers complimentary Historic Mountain Tours. Guides take intermediate skiers (and above) on a tour past silver mining relics and historic buildings around the resort and provide fascinating facts about the area’s past. These tours are great because Park City Mountain is dotted with historic mining structures that are very visible from the ski runs. But a guide provides the best route and fascinating information that you may miss while skiing by. Tours depart daily from Park City Mountain Village at 10:00 AM near the Eagle Statue, and then from the top of Bonanza Lift near the big trail map at 1:00 PM. 

Deer Valley Resort offers half day historical hikes throughout the summer to highlight the area’s mining history. These moderate effort tours are usually around six miles long start at the Silver Lake Lodge area near Sterling Express Chairlift. As you wind through alpine meadows and groves of aspen and conifer trees you're treated to many preserved historic mining structures. The highlight is the headframe of the Daly West Mine near the Montage Hotel. In 2015 the mine shaft below it caved and the headframe fell above it. It was moved in 2022, resurrected on a new concrete pad near it's original site—a true testament to Park City's silver mining legacy.

As you hit the trails this summer and winter – skiing, snowboarding, hiking, biking, or otherwise – keep your eyes open and you’ll see remnants of Park City’s silver mining history everywhere you look. Statues, mining relics, and historic buildings are scattered around town, and some are accompanied with placards that better outline their stories.  It’s fun to imagine the way things were!