Bingham Canyon, Utah - A Town No Longer [Removed] - Utah Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

The Town of Bingham Canyon
The history of the town began in August 1848 when two young Mormon pioneers, Sanford and Thomas Bingham, settled in this narrow wilderness canyon to herd cattle. Within a few years the area became a supplier of timber for local saw mills. Much of the timber used in the construction of the Salt Lake Tabernacle came from this canyon.

In 1850 the Bingham brothers took samples of assayed ore to Brigham Young who advised them not to engage in mining at that time. Following the discovery of silver and gold containing ore in the fall of 1863, the west mountain mining district, embracing the entire Oquirrh range, was organized.

In 1868 fewer than one hundred people lived in Bingham Canyon; by 1880 the town had grown to a population of 1,022. About 1893 Col. Enos A. Wall located ground containing millions of pounds of copper. The Utah Copper Company began large scale mining operations in 1904. The town was incorporated as a city on February 29, 1904. Involved in its history were people of many nations, Greeks, Italians, Mexicans, Japanese, Chinese, British and Australians.

The prosperous Bingham Mine led the nation in the production of copper but the prosperity which built the town also hastened its death. The land where the town was located is now a part of the Kennecott Copper Open Pit Mine. The 1970 census indicated that the population of Bingham Canyon, once a roaring mining town of 15,000, had dwindled to thirty-one people. On November 22, 1971, a special proposition to disincorporate the town was passed. After 123 years, Bingham Canyon was dead.

It is believed that this marker was originally located just to the west of a souvenir shop called the House of Copper that was at the end of Utah Highway 48 on the west side of Copperton (a brown state Historical Marker sign still exists just east of that location). The House of Copper is now the Ore House, a bar at the very end of the highway and just below a huge mound of waste rock that towers above it.

Until 1992 Utah Highway 48 was the access to Bingham Canyon and the Visitor Center at the top of the canyon on the west side of the mine pit. When that access was closed in 1992 this marker was probably moved to the new location of the Visitor Center at the upper northeast corner of the pit. It then moved to its current location when the Visitors Center was moved once again in 2005, to its current location near the northwest corner of the pit at about the halfway vertical level of the pit.

Marker Name: The Town of Bingham Canyon Marker Type: City County: Salt Lake City: Bingham Canyon Group Responsible for Placement: Jack Tallis, Bingham businessman Addtional Information: Not listed Date Dedicated: Not listed Marker Number: Not listed Web link(s) for additional information: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   07/13/2011 Mooroid visited it 07/13/2011 The_Simpsons visited it 05/11/2011 Mom the Cook & cashnhubby visited it 04/05/2011 brwhiz visited it

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