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Park City is a city located in Summit County, Utah, United States. It is one of two major resort towns in Utah, the other being Moab. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back and a part of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The city is 32 miles (48 km) east of downtown Salt Lake City and 15 miles (24km) from Salt Lake City's east edge of Sugar House along Interstate 80. The population was 7,371 at the 2000 census. Its estimated population in 2004 was 7,882. On average, the tourist population greatly outnumbers full-time residents. After a population decline following the shutdown of the area's mining industry the city rebounded during the 1980s and 1990s in the tourism business. The city has three major ski resorts: Park City Mountain Resort, Deer Valley Resort, and The Canyons Resort. The Park City and Deer Valley ski resorts were the major locations for ski and snowboarding events at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Although they receive less snow and have a shorter ski season than do their counterparts in Salt Lake County, such as Snowbird resort, they are much easier to access. Additionally the city is the main location of the United States's largest independent film festival, the Sundance Film Festival, home of the United States Ski Team, the largest collection of factory outlet stores in northern Utah, the 2002 Olympic bobsled/skeleton/luge track, and golf courses. Some scenes from 1994's Dumb and Dumber were shot in the city. Outdoor-oriented businesses such as backcountry.com and Rossignol have their headquarters based in Park City. The city has many upscale luxury national retailers, clubs, bars, and restaurants, and has nearby reservoirs, hot springs, forests, and hiking and biking trails. Park City is also the original home of the Mrs. Fields Cookies chain. In the summertime many valley residents of the 2,000,000 strong Wasatch Front visit the town to escape high temperatures since Park City is usually 11°F (6°C) cooler, being that Salt Lake City sits about 4,000 feet above sea level and Park City is mostly above 7,000 feet on the back slopes of the mountain peaks that border the Salt Lake Valley. Park City is one of the wealthiest cities in the United States and is notable in Utah for having a large number of northern and central European immigrants (from countries such as Norway and Switzerland). It is the most politically liberal place in the state; over two-thirds of its residents voted against banning Same-Sex marriage. History
The city was settled as a mining town in 1870 after lead, gold, and silver were discovered in the area. The city became heavily populated to such an extent that many people thought it would replace Salt Lake City as the primary city in Utah. However, the mines penetrated the water table and were flooded, and the city nearly became a ghost town. Skiing began to come to the city in the 1950s, but the city did not recover until the 1970s, when growth finally came. Growth has accelerated in the last few decades, and it now stands as one of the most affluent and lively resort towns in the United States. Roger J. Traynor was born in Park City in 1900 and raised there; he went on to become Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. Park City would be a fairly nondescript town if it were not for its colorful and evocative Main Street, where 64 Victorian buildings are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. One of the few Utah towns established by non-Mormons, it once had 27 saloons lining the street, with an accompanying wager, apparently never won, that no one could take a drink at each one in a single night and end up standing. Getting a drink in this part of Utah was never a problem. Hence the town's slogan: "At the base of a 3100 ft vertical drop, you'll find an extraordinary place to land." Once the site of the largest silver-mining camp in the country, the town was virtually destroyed by fire in 1898. Tragedy struck again in 1902 when 34 miners were killed in an explosion in the Day West Mine. The mining community never fully recovered. A collapse in silver prices and the economic consequences of the first world war exacerbated the town's decline. Half a century ago Park City was listed as one of the ghost towns of the west. Skiing, however, helped drive the phantoms away. Particularly gung-ho is the terrain around Jupiter Peak, where, over the years, more than $400 million worth of silver ore was mined, creating the 23 millionaires, including George Hearst, founder of the news dynasty. As long ago as the 1920s, miners in Park City were using underground trains and shafts to gain access to the mountain for skiing. When the slopes opened to the public in 1963 as Treasure Mountain, skiers were transported nearly three miles into the mountain on the Spiro Tunnel mine train and then lifted 1800 ft (548 m) to the slopes on a mine hoist elevator. Aerial trams once used for hauling ore were converted into chairlifts. To this day, there are still more than 1000 miles (1609 km) of old silver-mine workings and tunnels beneath the slopes at Park City Mountain Resort and neighboring Deer Valley. Some striking relics of those days have been left near the slopes. Old mine buildings, mineshafts, and hoists, including the weathered remains of the Walker Webster Silver Mine and the water towers once used to hydrate one of the biggest mines, the Silver King, rear out of the snow to give the skiing an instant dash of history. Research Tips
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