Silver King Mine Headframe Restoration Earns Statewide Preservation Honor

The Silver King Coalition Mine Headframe Building in Woodside Gulch was a serious candidate for demolition just six years ago. A collapsed mine shaft underneath the 12,400-square-foot structure had pushed it toward structural failure; the building partially collapsed in 2019, and record snowfall in winter 2022-23 finished off its roof and windows. Preservation Utah placed it on its 2024 Most Endangered Sites list. Now, after a four-year rehabilitation led by a volunteer committee, the same organization has named it among 10 honorees in its 2026 Community Stewardship Awards, rehabilitation and restoration category.

The award goes to the Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History (FOSMMH), a committee of the Park City Museum, for stabilizing and restoring the 1926 structure. The building encloses the original headframe, hoisting works, and the heavy engines once used to lift mining cages in and out of the shaft below, equipment that sat idle since 1953 when falling metal prices ended operations permanently.

The stakes behind the restoration went beyond symbolism. The headframe sits at the base of Park City Mountain Resort's Bonanza chairlift. FOSMMH member Alicia O'Meara has described Park City as "the only place in North America that has mining structures you can ski by." Without intervention, a structural failure above active ski terrain would have carried substantial liability exposure and likely generated demolition pressure on the Vail Resorts-operated corridor surrounding the site.

Funding came from multiple sources. The Promontory Foundation contributed $10,000; Park City's Historic Preservation Board awarded $18,500 through its Historic District Grant program; an additional $18,000 grant followed in August 2024. The Summit County Restaurant Tax and the Silver Star Owners Association also contributed, alongside private donors. Technical work was led by volunteer mining structures project manager Brian Buck, who brings 45 years of Western mining industry experience, and structural engineer Jonathan "J.R." Richards, founding partner of Calder Richards Consulting Engineers, who has more than 40 years of experience rehabilitating Utah's historic structures. Co-chair Donald Roll has directed the campaign.

The rehabilitation also advanced a larger recognition effort. In late 2024 and early 2025, the National Register of Historic Places formally designated the Silver King Coalition Mine District, a 31-acre site encompassing five buildings and 21 structures, as worthy of preservation. Local historian Sandra Morrison helped shepherd the application through the Utah State Historic Preservation Office, which began with a unanimous recommendation from Park City's Historic Preservation Board.

The historical weight behind the project is considerable. Between 1872 and 1982, Park City mining operations extracted an estimated 16.7 million tons of ore, recovering 1.45 million ounces of gold, 253 million ounces of silver, and 2.7 billion pounds of lead. The original Silver King headframe dates to 1891.

FOSMMH will collect the award at Preservation Utah's Community Stewardship Awards ceremony April 28 at Memorial House, from 10 a.m. to noon, an event that doubles as Preservation Utah's 60th anniversary celebration.

The next project is already in motion. FOSMMH has set an $800,000 fundraising goal to restore the adjacent Thaynes Mine headframe, hoist house, and surrounding buildings, with construction on the hoist house targeted for 2026. If that timeline holds, both the Silver King and Thaynes sites could open for public tours by 2027, converting structures that once defined Utah's mineral economy into a ski-adjacent heritage destination above one of the country's busiest mountain resorts.