With the formation of large mining companies around the turn of the century, the day of the solitary prospector and his mule was over. Mining became a big business which required huge amounts of capital and a large supply of labor. The undertakings of these large Utah mining companies have since helped to make the Oquirrh Mountains world famous for their mineral production. In fact, so much wealth has been taken from the Oquirrhs that it has been estimated that the value of minerals taken from Bingham Canyon alone exceeds by eight times all of the finds of the California and Klondike gold rushes plus the yields of Nevada's Comstock Lode.
See: Vern Abreu, Bingham to Highland Boy (1986); Leonard J. Arrington and Gary B. Hansen, "The Richest Hole on Earth--A History of the Bingham Copper Mine," Utah State University Monograph Series II (1963); Lynn R. Bailey, Old Reliable--A History of Bingham Canyon, Utah (1988); Violet Boyce and Mabel Harmer, Upstairs to a Mine (1976); Scott Crump, Copperton (1978); Marion Dunn, Bingham Canyon (1973).
Scott Crump