ROCKIES mountain high
How the Irish carved out the mines used today to transport us skiers up the slopes in Park City
MEET Black Jack Murphy, ‘wanted for murder, dead or alive’, and Paddy Daly, who ‘took aboard more of the liquid juice than was good for him and died in jail’.
Murphy and Daly were among the many Irish men who left post-Famine Ireland to work the silver mines in Park City, Utah, now better known as the largest ski area in North America.
They joined a melting pot of nationalities – Italian, Scandinavian, east European – all fleeing poverty and political unrest in their own countries.
They worked as muckers in the mines, shovelling broken rock onto trolleys in the deep labyrinth of tunnels spread out beneath Utah. ‘New in town?’ the posters read. ‘Mines hiring. Strong backs required.’
Murphy and Daly may have worked for the Silver King mining operation, one of the most successful in the state and co-owned by fellow Irishman Thomas Kearns.
Life in the heart of the Rocky Mountains was tough and unfamiliar. The work was backbreaking and miners had a onein-eight chance of dying.
BUT while most of Utah lived according to strict Mormon traditions, Park City rejected the preaching of Mormon leader Brigham Young and embraced Catholicism, with enough Irish parishioners to merit the opening of the town’s first church, St Mary of the Assumption, in 1881.
Liberal Park City also tolerated gambling, prostitution and drinking with 22 main street saloons open 24 hours a day to cater for shift-workers from nearby mines and mills.
Today, Park City is a melting pot of international skiers, living it up on historic Main Street where the No Name Saloon of Debauchery gives a nod to the old days. With its mining museum and ‘Silver to Slopes’ ski tours, the town reminds us that very often, there is incredible history beneath our skis.
Park City Mountain Resort became the largest ski area in North America last year – with more than 300 trails and 265km of pistes – following a $50million investment by Vail Resorts which joined the town with The Canyons, a nearby family-friendly ski base.
Home to the annual Sundance Film Festival and host of the 2002 Winter Olympics, PC is a ski resort right in the centre of town. You can glide down to a healthy salmon and avocado lunch at Harvest Café or in keeping with tradition, straight-line it to the High West Saloon, one of only a few distilleries in the world that you can ski to.
Back in the late 1800s, miners fashioned ski gear from mining equipment – brooms as ski poles and leather straps or rubber tubes as ski bindings. The town’s transition from silver mining hub to ski destination was even craftier.
As the mining industry declined, Park City’s demise was widely forecast but in 1963, the United Park City Mines Company converted an old mine drain tunnel into an underground ski-lift, using an electric mine train to carry skiers three miles into the mountain before hoisting them 1,800 feet to the surface.
Just as miners had once made that journey to dig the mines, skiers now took it to ski on the white gold of Utah. It was the world’s first underground ski lift and a ride that would now terrify most skiers. Today, a mining crew still maintains the drain tunnels which provide drinking water for Park City residents.
Modern-day Park City is an endearing mix of fine dining, art galleries, the odd bit of debauchery and great skiing on what they say is the ‘greatest snow on earth’.
Olympic ski racer Ted Ligety can verify that – Park City is his home town.
Last winter, the resort enjoyed above average snowfall and was already at the 380-inch mark when we visited in February.
We skied from PC over to the Canyons, an unpretentious base with a handful of bars and restaurants, including The Farm, one of Utah’s top 25 eateries. Just a short hop from Park City and 5km from outlet shopping at Kimball Junction, the Canyons is a good choice for families.
Of course you can’t mention Park City without also mentioning nearby Deer Valley, the epitome of five-star service in North American ski tourism. One of just three American resorts which doesn’t allow snowboarding, Deer Valley is a good example of why European holidaymakers choose to ski in the States.
IT’S famous for having perfectly groomed ‘corduroy’ slopes and has a ski concierge text service which tells guests when are where snow has been groomed.
Most importantly, it limits the number of skiers on the mountain to seven or 8,000 each day which means little or no queuing for lifts and plenty of space on the slopes. Skiing in North America is not cheap but you could say you get what you pay for.
Deer Valley is home to private mountain communities like Deer Crest, only visible to most skiers via private property notices, and to top hotels like the four-star Montage and five-star Stein Erikson lodge.
Set across six peaks, its slopes cater well for all levels of skiers with the Empire Canyon chutes offering up tough terrain and the Ontario Bowl giving experts the opportunity to hike for powder.
Deer Valley was bought by a conglomerate in 2017 and fans hope it will retain its old-school style where lift attendants greet you, locals chat to you on the way up the mountain and chair lifts are still named after the 19th-century mines worked by Irish men.