History of Park City
"Park City, Utah is a beautiful resort town, just thirty-two miles east of Salt Lake City.
This city was not originally the resort town that it has become. Park
City was begun as a mining town in the mid-nineteenth century.
Brigham Young was the historic president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon or LDS Church),
who led the Mormon Pioneers into the state of Utah in the 1800s. After
arriving in Utah, Brigham Young instructed church members to pursue
agriculture and warned that the lure of precious metals would cause
outside infiltration into the Utah Territory. Because of his warning,
few members of the LDS Church looked for metals such as gold, silver
and lead in the hills of Utah, even though there was a great market for
these metals, and people were becoming rich by mining the hills of
other western states.
In 1862, the US Army began bringing groups of soldiers into Utah to
protect the federal mail route. Many of these soldiers were veterans of
the Nevada and California gold fields. Because of their experience as
miners, these soldiers saw the mountains of Utah and the promise of
precious metals in the soil. They spent a good deal of their leisure
time prospecting in the hills of the Wasatch and Oquirrh Mountains.
They were successful in their search for precious metals. By 1868, many
prospectors had entered the area near what is now known as Park City.
They found rich beds of silver and lead in the land. In December of
1868, the first mining claim was filed in Park City. The area quickly
became famous for the quantity of precious metal that lay in the
ground. Many people came to the area to work the mines and many people
became tremendously wealthy from the mining. In 1872, one of Park
City's silver mines called the Ontario Mine was sold to George Hearst
for $27,000. He ran the mine well and it went on to produce fifty
million dollars in the following years.
Although Park City was a tremendously successful mining town, the
history of the city is marked with difficult times. Park City suffered
terrible fires in 1882 and then again in 1885. However, the worst
disaster came on June 19, 1898. A horrible fire raged through the Park
City commercial district. It was the greatest fire in the history of
Utah. Main Street was destroyed. Losses were estimated at over one
million dollars. Approximately 200 business houses and dwellings
perished. The city was left in ruins.
After the great fire of 1898, the people of Park City banded
together and rebuilt their town. Several fine structures, including the
Grand Opera House, City Hall, and the Park City Bank had perished in
the blaze. The concerned citizens of the town worked together to
rebuild these locations. Many structures were rebuilt quickly. Within
the year of 1898, Park City had a new City Hall. Other parts of the
city's reconstruction took longer, but all of the work was eventually
completed.
By the 1920s, Park City was rebuilt completely. Many parts of the
mining town were similar to the original construction, and many parts
of the city were vastly improved over what they had been before the
blaze of 1898. Buildings that had been wooden were rebuilt as brick or
stone structures. Although Main Street and other sections of town were
refurbished and new, the city still retained its look as a picturesque,
nineteenth century mining town. This look is part of the attraction
that draws visitors to Park City.
In time, the silver boom that made Park City such a wealthy
community drew to a close. Soon after, the residents of the mountain
town came to realize that their beautiful home was a great resource of
recreational activities such as skiing and snowmobiling. There was still a fortune to be made capitalizing on the recreational activities in the mountains around Park City.
In 1963, the people of the city began capitalizing on this resource.
They built a ski resort called Treasure Mountain Resort, which became a
great success. Today, this resort still exists but it's now called Park City Mountain Resort. Over the years, two additional resorts were added to the city - Deer Valley Resort and The Canyons Resort - making
Park City one of the few resort areas in the country that can boast
three year-round resorts within five miles of each other.
Today, the Park City resorts offer over 8,800 acres of skiable
terrain, 337 trails and 51 lifts. The convenience of so much of the
West's finest ski terrain, convenient lodging and nightlife attracted
many of the venues during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, and
transformed Park City into the Games party headquarters. It has also
helped strengthen Park City's position as one of the world's best
destinations for people interested in fine skiing and riding.
Park City offers more than fine skiing for recreation. It has become
a year-round recreational area. It is a wonderful destination for golfing, horseback riding, fly-fishing, mountain biking, hiking, and hunting. Park City is known as a perfect location for winter activities such as cross-country skiing, helicopter skiing,
and snowmobiling. There are two sides to this city that make it one of
the better places to visit in the state of Utah. Park City has the
appearance of a picturesque, nineteenth-century mining town, and it is
a modern alpine resort."
*This information courtesy of Utah.com
The Bill Kranstover Creation will Eventually be Moved to
Spot off Bonanza Drive
The giant sculpture of a torch that has stood
outside the Kimball Art Center since the 2002 Winter Olympics is being
taken down this week in anticipation of moving it to a spot outside of
Old Town.
The sculpture, a creation of Park City-based artist Bill
Kranstover, stood at the high-traffic Main Street-Heber Avenue
intersection as a well-recognized reminder of the Games. The sculpture
was seen as a temporary installation for the Olympic, but it became a
popular addition to the street and the Kimball agreed to keep it at the
location. General Motors Corp. commissioned the piece as part of its
Olympic presence.
Robin Marrouche, the executive director of the
Kimball, anticipated the sculpture will be removed by the end of the
week. The Kimball wants to make the space the sculpture occupies
available for events. She said the space, essentially a patio, will be
used during the upcoming Sundance Film Festival and then into the
summer. The Kimball will also hold classes on the patio.
There is
the potential that the Kimball someday could develop the space in some
fashion as well. Those decisions have not been made, she said.
"It's
definitely a landmark, and we loved having it," Marrouche said.
City
Hall staffers in October issued a permit allowing the sculpture to be
moved to a grassy spot at 1635 Bonanza Drive, outside the Maverick gas
station. The sculpture will be put onto a base.
The top of the
sculpture will not be more than 30 feet off the ground at the new
location and the bottom of the sculpture will be 9 feet
above the ground, according to Jacquelyn Mauer, the City Hall planner
who handled the application for the Bonanza Drive location.
Mauer said
City Hall did not receive input from regular Parkites prior to
approving the permit.
Kranstover said the sculpture will fit well
at the new location and is happy that it will remain on public display.
He said it will be a "nice entryway" to the up-and-coming Bonanza Park
district.
"It's a real nice compliment that people still
appreciate the piece," Kranstover said.
The main part of the
sculpture is made of aluminum and the sphere at the bottom of the piece
is made from steel. Kranstover said the piece weighs between 2,000
pounds and 2,500 pounds. The sculpture took approximately six months to
build, he said.
Mark J. Fischer, who controls the land where the
sculpture will be situated once it is moved, said it will be installed
at the new location by May 15. It will be put into storage in the
meantime. He expects the sculpture will remain popular in the new
location.
"A lot of people will get to enjoy it," he said.
by Jay Hamburger OF THE RECORD STAFF : The Park Record
For More Information on Park City and Deer Valley Contact:
Michael Lapay
Prudential Utah Real Estate
Mobile: 435-640-5700
Toll Free: 888-410-7653
mlapay@pureparkcityrealestate.com
http://www.pureparkcityrealestate.com/00B58D
Posted on January 06, 2011 14:07:15 by Michael Lapay
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Standing Since 1880s, It had been Altered so Many Times Over the Years, it was No Longer Deemed Historic
Crews using heavy machinery demolished a
historic building in Old Town on Monday, taking down a structure that
had stood since before the terrible 1898 fire that destroyed much of
what was Park City of that era.
The structure was at 657 Park
Ave., next to High West Distillery, and had fallen into disrepair. City
Hall staffers earlier approved the demolition, saying that the building
had lost much of its historic authenticity over the decades.
The
owners of the land where the felled building stood plan to put another
one up designed to appear like the one that was originally there.
"In
order for it to survive another 100 years, this was the most
appropriate one," said Francisco Astorga, the City Hall planner assigned
to the project,
said about the option to demolish the building.
He
said the building's wooden foundation was rotting.
late in the
morning on Monday, the building had been reduced to a heap of splintered
wooden boards as the heavy machinery continued to work. There did not
appear to be much interest in the demolition from passers-by and
drivers.
Astorga said the building was put up in the mid-1880s,
just more than a decade before the fire. It survived the blaze, Astorga
said, and had been used as a house. But he said the building in recent
years had been altered from its historic state, including adding
material that was not part of the original house and putting on
different types of siding.
City Hall tightly regulates historic
houses and rarely
issues a permit allowing someone to demolish one.
Officials instead oftentimes request that a historic building be
carefully dismantled and the walls then incorporated into a redone
building with a new foundation and frame, a process people in the
preservation field call panelization.
Astorga said City Hall
determined there was not enough historic material in the building that
could be salvaged and then used in a panelization project. He said the
lack of the historic material kept the building
from being eligible for listing on the National
Register of Historic Places, an index kept by the National Park Service.
The
building had been approximately 1,300 square feet. The owners of the
property want to put up a new building measuring approximately 4,000
square feet, Astorga said. He said City Hall holds a $154,450 lien
against the property meant to guarantee a redone building meets some of
the specifications of the one that was demolished.
Alan Agle, the
owner of the property, said the demolished building "had been so
bastardized over the years" as the many changes to the appearance were
made. He said the new building will be positioned slightly closer to the
curb than the original one in order to put an addition on the back.
Agle said he envisions some sort of commercial
enterprise on the ground floor, with ideas including a wine bar, an art
gallery or a yoga studio. There could be residential square footage
within the building as well, he said.
Over the years, a dental
office and a massage spa had operated in the building, Agle said. It has
been vacant, though, since 2006. He said he was "heartbroken" it could
not be preserved and incorporated into the project.
Agle said he
wants to complete the new building as early as next summer, depending on
financing and buyer interest.
by Jay Hamburger OF THE RECORD STAFF : The Park Record
For More Information on Park City and Deer Valley Homes Contact:
Michael Lapay
Prudential Utah Real Estate
Mobile: 435-640-5700
Toll Free: 888-410-7653
mlapay@pureparkcityrealestate.com
http://www.pureparkcityrealestate.com/00B392
Posted on November 11, 2010 15:27:06 by Michael Lapay
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Magazine Piece Provides 'Valuable' Publicity
as the Ski Season Approaches
There are more than 700,000 people out there
who might be more inclined to book a vacation to Park City this winter
than they were a few weeks ago.
National Geographic Traveler, a
top-shelf travel magazine with a circulation of 727,277, has published a
full-page feature about Main Street in its November-December edition.
The piece, mentioned on the front cover of the magazine alongside those
about places like Los Angeles, New Zealand and Spain, comes as people
are still considering their vacation options for the upcoming ski
season.
Under the headline "Warm Welcome in Park City," the
one-page piece describes some of the destinations on Main Street,
including the Egyptian Theatre and the Park City Museum. The piece
focuses on Main
Street rather than the Park City area's three
mountain resorts.
"At first I wasn't looking for it. Then I looked
at it and it said 'Park City' on the front page," said Bill Malone, the
president and CEO of the Park City Chamber/Bureau, describing the
magazine's readers as a "well-traveled audience."
The piece
includes a small map of the Main Street area pointing out the locations
of the nine places -- a mix of stores, restaurants, nightclubs and
cultural institutions -- that the writer describes in blurbs. It also
prominently features a picture of a midwinter scene on Main Street. The
caption below the Main Street photograph says the street "boasts many
buildings rebuilt following a fire in 1898," a reference to the terrible
blaze that
destroyed much of what was Park City at that time.
"With
the recent repeal of Utah's arcane liquor laws, nightlife is thriving
like never before. Well, almost. The bordellos of its silver mining
heyday are gone, replaced by art galleries and shopping boutiques, but
the clapboard storefronts still look like the Wild West," the writer,
Charles Kulander, penned in the piece, adding that people may "watch for
paparazzi shoot-outs during January's Sundance Film Festival."
Magazines
that publish
features about Park City more typically cater to the
skiing and snowboarding crowds. Ski magazine occasionally writes about
Park City, as an example, and the three local mountain resorts usually
place well in Ski's closely watched annual rankings.
The National
Geographic Traveler piece will likely be received well in Park City, and
its exploration of the off-the-slopes attractions will probably be
appreciated by both tourism officials and businesspeople. There are
ongoing attempts to build tourism that does not exclusively rely on
skiing, and the mentions of the not-for-profits are of particular note.
"It's
very valuable for us to be in publications like that, especially to be
mentioned on the front page, the front cover," Malone said.
The
Kimball Art Center is one of the places that
warranted a blurb, with the writer describing the Kimball as a
"community arts center with engaging workshops and MoMA-caliber
exhibits," a reference to the renowned Museum of Modern Art in New York
City.
Robin Marrouche, the executive director of the Kimball, said
the art center is "thrilled, obviously" with the mention. The piece
includes a photo taken inside the Kimball. People with the magazine
contacted the Kimball a few months ago seeking photographs and
information, she said. Marrouche said she anticipates additional people
stopping into the Kimball over the holidays based on the piece, which
notes there is a special exhibit of Ansel Adams works at the art center.
"We
can't buy this
kind of publicity," Marrouche said. "We just can't."
by Jay Hamburger OF THE RECORD STAFF : The Park Record
For More Information on Park City and Deer Valley Contact:
Michael Lapay
Prudential Utah Real Estate
Mobile: 435-640-5700
Toll Free: 888-410-7653
mlapay@pureparkcityrealestate.com
http://www.pureparkcityrealestate.com/00B37C
Posted on November 10, 2010 14:44:54 by Michael Lapay
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