Mining Town Artifacts Discovered in Utah

ALTA, UTAH—According to a report in The Salt Lake Tribune, construction work at the Alta Ski Area in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains has uncovered 150-year-old artifacts left behind by late nineteenth-century residents of the booming mining town. Archaeologist Jeremy Moor of the U.S. Forest Service and volunteers from the Utah State Historic Preservation Office recovered thousands of objects, including a full bottle of alcohol, a leather hat with small holes for an iron spike to hold a candle headlamp, boot soles, fine china, inkwells, medicine bottles, an intact perfume bottle, pistols, a button from a Union Army uniform, and a 16-pound dumbbell. The many items were probably left behind after an avalanche followed by a fire destroyed the Water Street area of Alta, killing 13 people. Cold temperatures also likely helped to preserve the artifacts, said state historic preservation officer Chris Merritt. Objects dated to about 100 years ago were unearthed nearby at Little Cottonwood Creek in Little Cottonwood Canyon, where a vein of silver had been discovered. “This was a truly rough-and-tumble mining town that had a lot of character that we just don’t equate with a lot of the other parts of Utah history at this point,” Merritt said. “We found bullets everywhere.” To read about archaeology in the American West, go to "America's Chinatowns."