Bingham Canyon

When the pioneers came, Bingham was a heavily forested wilderness. It was a major source of the timber used in the building of Salt Lake City. I remember playing on the 4-6 foot diameter stumps of these huge now extinct Red Pines.

When the Bingham brothers found the first ore samples, Brigham Young swore them to secrecy and sent them elsewhere. In 1863 Colonel Patrick E. Connor and a few apostate Mormons laid claim to its vast wealth. But it wasn’t profitable to mine until 1873 when the railroad came to Bingham. Mining was done on a small scale, cheaply and primitively.

Bingham was described in the Finish book “Kippiga Bergen” as a, “Long winding road with sharply sloping canyon walls. A 10 Kilometer drainage ditch that made the houses look like they were stacked one on top of the other.” Bingham Creek was the sewer until the late 1930’s. It was a combination of copper, arsenic, sulfur and sewage. I remember the outhouses located over the creek. Snow was removed by pushing it into the creek. At one time 20,000 lived there with 30 nationalities represented. People were separated by nationality into different parts of the town, Jap Camp, Frog Town, Finn Town, Greek Camp, etc. We could only buy from the company store.

When dad got sick from silicosis he was fired and ejected from the company house. We had terrible floods and fires. I have stories of the terrible oppressive measures the companies used to control their workers. When I was small, I watched the violence during the strikes, and later was a participant. About 2 years were subtracted from my meager pension because of strikes.

By 1895 most of the ore bodies were bought by big eastern and foreign companies in a dog eat dog fashion; Utah Consolidated, Boston Consolidated, United States Mining, Apex, and Ohio Copper to name a few of the many. In 1902 Utah Copper began to buy out many of the others and developed open pit mining. Steam shovels from the Panama Canal were now in Bingham. Fifty years later Utah Copper was bought by Kennecott Copper and even they were bought out by other English owners. Many changes followed over the years and today it is the most modern mine in the world.

Mining will cease in about 10 years but it could last for another 50 if it were mined properly. As the mine expanded the town of Bingham was force to evacuate. I left in 1948 as one of the first. Bingham is now a Ghost town, my home is part of the hole while the lower part of town is completely covered over with dirt. Our house was high on the mountain in the pines and aspens. I loved the town and the people of every nationality. But I have no love of the companies. We have a reunion on every 4th of July but we are becoming fewer every year.

The Mine can be viewed from Kennecott’s overlook near Lark or from Sunshine Peak at the head of Butterfield and Middle Canyons.

Eugene H. Halverson

See also Copperfield History, Copperfield Photos, Bingham Canyon,