Kimberly (Utah)
| Upper Kimberly | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Location in Utah
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| Basic data | |||
| Foundation : | 1890s | ||
| State : | United States | ||
| State : | Utah | ||
| County : | Piute County | ||
| Coordinates : | 38 ° 29 ′ N , 112 ° 24 ′ W | ||
| Time zone : | Mountain ( UTC − 7 / −6 ) | ||
| Residents : | 0 (status:) | ||
| Height : | 2734 m | ||
| FIPS : | 49-78605 | ||
| GNIS ID : | 1446867 | ||
Kimberly is a ghost town in the northwest corner of Piute County in Utah , United States . The place is high in Mill Canyon on the flank of Gold Mountain in the Tushar Mountains , in the Fishlake National Forest , south of Interstate 70 . Kimberly emerged as a gold rush town in the 1890s and initially existed until 1910. The town was briefly revived in the 1930s, but it has been uninhabited since around 1938. Kimberly was best known for the birthplace of Ivy Baker Priest .
history
founding
Prospectors began finding gold in the Gold Mountain area as early as 1888. Newton Hill built the Annie Laurie Mines here in 1891, and Willard Snyder started the Bald Mountain Mine . Snyder laid out the area in Mill Canyon for a town he named Snyder City . A few businesses settled in, but the town really began to grow in 1899 when the Pennsylvania investor Peter Kimberly bought the Annie Laurie mine and other mines. Kimberly transferred his holdings to the Annie Laurie Consolidated Gold Mining Company, which set up a cyanide leach facility here.
growth
The city, now renamed Kimberly, began to boom. Kimberly divided the natural terrain in Mill Canyon into two parts: Upper Kimberly, the residential area further up the Canyon, and Lower Kimberly, the business district that was originally Snyder City. Lower Kimberly's main road was shaped like a horseshoe around a bend in the canyon. Kimberly quickly became the premier gold rush camp in Utah with two hotels, two shops, three saloons ; in addition, two newspapers were published. The county established the Gold Mountain School District in 1900 and built a block school. The highest number of students was recorded in 1903 with 89. However, the school year ran contrary to the usual times in North America from April to November, in order to save the school children the arduous journey through deep snow.
The boom period from 1901 to 1908 is considered to be the city's heyday; Annie Laurie Company took several other mining companies and paid during this period almost 500,000 US dollars in dividends from. In 1902 the company employed 300 miners and the town's population reached 500 people. The steep road in the canyon was continuously filled with carts carrying ore , precious metals, and supplies to and from the Sevier railroad station . This heavy traffic made the road passable even in winter. In 1905, Ivy Baker Priest was born in a house on the north end of Lower Kimberly. She held the office of Treasurer of the United States under President Dwight D. Eisenhower .
Like many other mining towns in the west, Kimberly was known as a wild and sinful place. The brothels were famous and drunkenness was common. The city had problems with violence, even murder. It was said that the prison with the two cells was the most stable within a hundred miles .
Decline
Kimberly was at a turning point in 1905 with the death of Peter Kimberly. The Annie Laurie Company was sold to a British company that lacked the experience of running a mining company. The new owners tried to cut labor costs by introducing a trucking system that gave workers vouchers that could only be redeemed at the store owned by the mining company. Numerous miners left because of anger. In addition, the company had borrowed large amounts of money to build a new processing plant and was in a vulnerable position when the panic of 1907 broke out. The Annie Laurie Consolidated Gold Mining Company finally declared bankruptcy in 1910 and the mines and facilities in the city were closed. The company's assets, for which Peter Kimberly turned down an offer for $ 5 million in 1902 , were auctioned for $ 31,000 . The 1910 United States Census found Kimberly had a population of 8.
Few of the men stayed in Kimberly in the years that followed; they mainly did minor maintenance work. In 1931 a new ore vein was found and a smaller mill was built. The company hired around 50 miners to operate the mine, so there were new residents in Kimberly. These new deposits of gold and silver ore were depleted in 1938 and Kimberly was abandoned. Most of the usable buildings were dismantled and taken away in 1942. Both Piute County and the Gold Hill Mining Company claimed ownership of the old prison building; after many years in Kimberly, it was finally moved to Lagoon Amusement Park in Pioneer Village in the north of the state.
Kimberly's high altitude position makes it inaccessible for much of the year. However, many remnants of the city are still recognizable. The upper end of the canyon was filled with overburden. Ruins of numerous log houses and timber frame buildings can be found in the lower section of the valley. The Annie Laurie Mill skeleton is still standing, and a few mining facilities are intact.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Linda King Newell : A History of Piute County (= Utah Centennial County History Series). Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City , Utah January 1999, ISBN 0-913738-39-5 , pp. 179-185.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Stephen L. Carr [June 1972]: The Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns , 3rd Edition, Western Epics, Salt Lake City 1986, ISBN 0-914740-30-X , pp. 114– 115.
- ↑ Upper Kimberly ( English ) In: Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved June 27, 2011.
- ^ Lower Kimberly ( English ) In: Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved June 27, 2011.
- ^ A b c George A. Thompson: Some Dreams Die: Utah's Ghost Towns and Lost Treasures . Dream Garden Press, Salt Lake City November 1982, ISBN 0-942688-01-5 , pp. 186-187.
literature
- Josephine Pace: Kimberly as I Remember her . In: Utah Historical Quarterly . 35, No. 2, Spring 1967, ISSN 0042-143X , pp. 112-120.
Web links
- Kimberly @ GhostTowns.com