What do you do with your silver mine when the price of silver is so low that it costs more to dig it out and refine it than you can sell it for on the open market?
That's the question Hank Rothwell, president, and Ed Osika, vice president, of United Park City Mines Co., had been asking themselves since 1982 when the drilling and blasting was halted in the 125-year-old Ontario mine here.The answer that they and miner Rich Martinez eventually came up with required a leap of faith considering the obstacles: They converted the mine into a kind of theme park called the Park City Silver Mine Adventure.
But this Adventure is no Disneyland, it's the real deal; created not by "imagineers" sitting at drafting tables but by thousands of hard-rock miners, laboring in the cold and the wet for more than a century with only candles and carbide lanterns to push back the blackness - conditions scarcely imaginable to today's "information age" workers.
Those are the thoughts that ran through my head during a tour of the Adventure last week prior to Saturday morning's official "cable cutting" ceremony with Gov. Mike Leavitt. The Adventure is an educational experience in the best sense of the term: It puts you smack into a world that seems as alien as the rings of Saturn.
The Ontario was a Park City bonanza as a silver mine, and United Park is betting it will be just as successful as a tourist attraction.
In 1872, the discovery of a rich vein of silver ore in the area (400 ounces to the ton) led to the opening of the Ontario mine. George Hearst, father of legendary newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, and his partners bought the mine for $27,000. Some $50 million in silver was brought up from its depths during its century of operation. Since 1981, it has been maintained by a small crew on a standby basis.
Roy Turley is general manager of the Adventure. He works for Leisure and Recreation Concepts (LARC), a Dallas-based firm headed by Michael Jenkins, one of the originators of Six Flags Over Texas. LARC is a consulting firm specializing in theme parks. It has done work for Lagoon, Hershey Park in Pennsylvania, Graceland in Memphis and other such attractions around the world. It was hired by United Park to create and manage the Adventure.
LARC originally looked at reopening the old Spiro tunnel of the Silver King mine tour that operated for a time in the 1970s. Turley recalls that Martinez told them, "Let me show you where you really want to go."
Martinez was talking about the Number 3 shaft of the Ontario mine, located a mile and a half south of Park City on route 224 near the Guardsman Pass road.
That was in 1994. A business plan was developed, and Park City historian Marianne Cone was brought on board to help with maintaining authenticity. Some $2.5 million in capital expenditures later, the Adventure took its first paying customers into the mine last December. Turley estimates that some 60,000 visitors have taken the tour over the past five months.
Other than the addition of some safety measures and exhibits such as the horse stables (horses once lived their lives underground, pulling the ore cars) the mine is little changed from the days when workmen toiled in its narrow passages. Moreover, if the price of silver were to return to its glory days of the early 1980s, Turley said mining work could begin again in areas away from the Adventure site.
But the former shop, warehouse and locker room sited above ground at the mine's entrance would be unrecognizable to the muckers, nippers and powder monkeys who once called it home. The 30,000-square-foot facility has been converted into a museum that introduces guests to Utah's mining history. It features interactive touch-screen displays, historic dioramas and a tour through an actual 1880s miner's home, where Mr. and Mrs. Joseph McKreety - actually their animatronic incarnations - tell about 19th century life in Park City.
Following an introductory film in which a friendly "miner" (actually a friendly actor) discusses safety precautions, you are outfitted in a yellow slicker (it "rains" in some areas of the mine) and hard hat. Then you join up to seven other people and climb aboard a hoist - a kind of free-swinging elevator supported by a steel cable.
With the blast of a horn, the cage begins its descent 1,500 feet into the earth, 250 feet deeper than the Empire State Building is high. About five minutes later you reach the bottom. At that point you climb aboard a small underground train that takes you on a 3,200-foot journey through a tunnel under the mountain.
A guided walking tour takes you to the air compressor room, hoist room and the miner's "dog house" (lunch room). A simulated drilling and dynamite blast demonstrates the procedure for creating the tunnels and mining the silver ore.
An hour later you return to the hoist and begin the journey back to the surface. Provided no one in the group is claustrophobic - and they shouldn't go on the tour anyway - tour coordinator Robb Ferer or one of his associates may turn off the hoist light . . . giving you a whole new definition of the word darkness.
Back on the surface you reflect on where you have just been and the incredible toughness, stamina and courage of the men who daily descended into the mine to work 12 hour shifts for a few dollars a day, under conditions that today would cause OSHA to send in the Marines.
At Disneyland, you can get some cheap thrills. At the Park City Silver Mine Adventure, you get the thrills and an education you'll never forget.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Underground adventure
The Park City Silver Mine Adventure operates daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through June 30. In July and August, it will remain open until 8 p.m. The mine tour is located 11/2 miles south of Park City on route 224, near the Guardsman's Pass turnoff.
The Adventure is wheelchair accessible. Visitors are encouraged to wear a jacket and sturdy shoes or boots. The temperature in the mine is a consistent 50-55 degrees regardless of the season, but it can feel chillier than that because it is damp in places and fresh air pumped in, combined with the open moving train, creates a slight wind chill factor.
The underground adventure is open to children 4 years and older. All inclusive ticket prices for the above ground exhibits and guided tour are $12.95 for adults and $9.95 for senior citizens and children 4-12. To view the above ground exhibit only, tickets are $6.95 for adults and $5.50 for senior citizens and children. Children under 4 may see the above ground exhibit at no charge.
Light snacks, including Cornish pastys, a traditional meal of 19th century Park City miners, are available in the Lunch Bucket Cafe. Books, gifts, toys and mining souvenirs are available in the Company Store.
Group discounts are available. Call 801-655-7444 for more information.