Donovan Symonds, a Park City Museum docent who happens to be a mining engineer from England, is ready to excavate the history of the local mining history, without digging too deep in specifics.
His free lecture, aptly titled, “Historical Park City Mining 101,” set for 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 3, at the Park City Museum’s Education and Collections Center, 2079 Sidewinder Drive, will still cover a lot of area — from 1871 to 1982 — but will feature introductory-level information about the mines, the minerals and metals and what the conditions were like in town during that time frame.
“I don’t want to get too much involved in the sorts of personnel who started the mines because this is more about the mining side — how safe these mines were, where the miners came from and what they had to watch out for in the mine,” he said. “I will also talk about how these mines started, what were people looking for and how did they do surveys.”
Symonds will also talk about what the mines really excavated.
“We always talk about mining silver, but when I dig into it, I will talk about how we actually really mined a lot of gold and certainly a lot of lead,” he said.
Lastly, the lecture will cover the main mines in the area and how important they were.
“There are many mines mentioned in our history and there is some confusion,” Symonds said. “For example, there were two Mayflower Mines, and that always confuses people.”
Symonds, who holds a B.S. in mining engineering from Newcastle University and a Ph.D. in mineral processing from Nottingham University, believes it’s important to give an overview of Park City’s mining history during this presentation.
“I got involved originally in this lecture series about 10 years ago, and what we’ve done is presented lectures on specific topics — people like Thomas Kearns and the Silver Queen, as well as the Daly West Mine Explosion — but we’ve not had something that covers the overall introduction to what (the miners) were doing,” he said. “There are a lot of new people who have moved to Park City who don’t know a lot about mining.”
Symonds will also add some of his personal experiences when giving the presentation.
“In college I studied mining engineering in England, and we were expected to work in mines during our summer vacation,” he said.
One of the jobs Symonds landed was in a mine in British Columbia.
“I applied to all kinds of jobs and got two offers — one in South Dakota and one in Vermeer, British Columbia,” he said. “I flew from London to New York, spent a night in New York and then boarded a Greyhound bus and traveled three days across North America and got to B.C.”
Upon arrival, Symonds didn’t see a mine headframe, so he asked where the mine was.
“I found out it was 40 miles in the mountains,” he said with a laugh.
Symonds lived in a bunkhouse for three months and worked in the mine that yielded silver, lead and zinc.
“It was the same as the mines in Park City,” he said. “This was in 1967, and the mine was already old, but there were a lot of similarities with Park City.”
During his time at the mine, Symonds, who was 21 at the time, got to drill and earned his blasting certificate.
“It was a real hands-on experience,” he said. “I used to work at the mine during the week, and then we’d get our paycheck and drive into town 40 miles away and go to the bars. Good thing I was of age, because the drinking age in England is 18.”
While preparing for Wednesday’s presentation, Symonds had to keep reminding himself not to get too specific.
“My wife also keeps telling me to stop going down rabbit holes, which is my problem exactly,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve got the presentation just about put together, and it’s already too big. So I’ve got to go in and chop it some because I want to make it interesting for people.”
‘Historical Park City Mining 101’ by Donovan Symonds
- When: 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 3
- Where: Park City Museum’s Education and Collections Center, 2079 Sidewinder Drive
- Cost: Free
- Web: parkcityhistory.org/history-speaks-lecture