"Inside Out: The Story of the Towns of Bingham Canyon," a new video, contains lots of fascinating historical information. Here are some highlights:
- Bingham Canyon was originally established in 1863 by Col. Patrick E. Connor of the U.S. Army, who wanted to dilute the Mormon influence in Utah by encouraging a nonmember migration through mining interest.- All mining done in Bingham before 1900 was underground, producing little change to the surrounding terrain.
- The arrival of the railroad in Utah in 1869 helped Bingham and by 1873, it had its own spur line.
- In 1871, the town had 276 residents, and its first business was the Griffin Boarding House.
- By 1871, $1 million in gold had been taken from Bingham Canyon. When the gold soon ran out, silver and lead were mined. Copper mining really never took off until the late 1890s. The Utah Copper Co. formed in 1906 and did the first open-pit mining with steam shovels.
- Two fires in 1895 nearly leveled the town. Hundreds were homeless, but no one was killed.
- Rafeal Lopez killed three deputies in Bingham and started one of Utah's biggest and bloodiest manhunts in 1913. He hid out in some of the mines and was never found. An unrelated bank robbery occurred one year later.
- Despite this desperado, Bingham had little crime, and many residents never had to lock their doors at night.
- Train trestles were built high above the town. One derailment in 1908 crashed into the town with no loss of life. However, a 1912 derailment included the engine and hit two buildings. Two residents and two railroad employees were killed. Mules had to haul the wreckage out of the center of town.
- The smelter for the mine was originally located in Midvale, but its smoke supposedly killed animals and crops and so it was moved to Garfield.
- A rock slide in February 1926 killed 39 Bingham residents.
- Lawns were a rare fixture among the yards in Bingham. Most homes in Bingham used empty dynamite boxes for furniture.
- World War I raised copper rises and production, but following the war, 40 percent of the mining work force was laid off.
- The most common Halloween pranks in Bingham were cutting people's clothes lines.
- The Depression in 1929 put copper prices in a tailspin, and things didn't improve until 1933.
- A fire in 1930 left 300 people homeless.
- World War II raised copper prices, and Bingham mined half of all copper used in the war.
- Following World War II, labor unions were formed. Soldiers returning to Utah after the war and who worked in Bingham started commuting there from other communities.