Rockport, Summit County

At the mouth of Three Mile Canyon is a lovely reservoir called Rockport Reservoir. I wonder how many people who fish here know there used to be a town here. There are no signs acknowledging the town's demise, but you can see the old main road going into the water.
This town changed its name a few times in the beginning. First settled in 1860, it was called Crandall, the next year it was renamed Enoch City. In 1866 the whole town left for Wanship, a few miles north when the Black Hawk War started. The next year they moved back and built a wall around the whole town and renamed it Rock Fort. When indian problems went away they used the wall to build other things and renamed the town one last time to Rockport.
In 1872 the town gets its first concrete building taking materials from the wall that had surrounded the town. They built a general store and a post office. From what I can find, the population never went over 200. The quarry is still there and working, but the school and post office were taken down in the 1940's.
In the 50's the whole area was bought by the state to make Wanship Dam. I can't find records for hearings or anything related to the decision to move the families and build Wanship Dam, but there must have been something for those families, who must've been there since the beginning, to voice their anger. The church was moved north of the dam, and is still used for services and weddings. It's lovely! A few houses can also be found at Lagoon's Pioneer Village! I must go to Lagoon this summer for and take some pictures.
When the reservoir is low you can see the old main street. We tried fishing, but we didn't catch anything, though everyone who was out on a boat caught fish.
There is a little cemetery on a hill by the main road, but with the exception of these few families, Rockport families used the Wanship cemetery.
And now, for pictures! :)

Remnants of the old general store/post office? The wall?

The mine still in operation

This is from the little cemetery on the west side of the main road, looking at Rockport's disappearing main street

outside

inside

Corner of... something

The old mainstreet. Rockport Reservoir is low

Salt Lake Temple Quarry

I was sick over the weekend, so visiting the Temple Quarry was frankly, a cop-out. I was going to post pictures of the awesome old chisel holes in granite, and say 'see you next week'. When I got there this sign greeted me before I got to the historical marker:

In case you don't click on it to read it... During the turn of the 20th century thousands lived in the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. The towns were Graniteville (yes, that's how they spelled it), Wasatch (which I had always thought was the name of the neighborhood that still stands there), Hogum, Tannersville, Central City, Alta (as in the ski resort. It's on my list to visit one of these weekends, so I won't add it below) and Emmaville (can you get a more Mormon sounding name?). I wandered digitalnewspapers.org again and found old newspaper stories of these towns! Yes! They existed and there's proof! So fun to find these! (Warning, I may split this post apart if I get to visit something for each of these towns.)

So a quick little bit of stories before I post a bunch of awesome pictures of granite.I apologize for the serious lack of information. I honestly was not looking for a ghost town on this visit (thus, I didn't look anything up). I was going to look at a granite quarry.

Emmaville: Maybe I spoke too soon. First story I found was (dated 1871) a letter to the editor of the Salt Lake Herald that Emma is popular with Mormon and Gentiles. He then talks about the furnaces in Emmaville and Granite[ville]. Here's a story that gives a glimpse into the life of one man and mentions a mine in Emmaville.
Emmaville was a good stopping point between Alta and Salt Lake City. "Emma Mine" is near Alta. I'll have to go find that.  This town had stores, hotels, boarding houses, blackmith, livery and two saloons (definitely going to try to find it by Alta). Emmaville was a ghost before 1900.

Graniteville: I can't find anything yet. My searching keeps taking me to either the ghost town of Gransville in Tooele County or the ghost town of Graniteville in Montana.

Wasatch: I'm going to have to do more research on this one too.

Hogum: (No, google, I'm not misspelling Hyrum.) Well, apparently there's great skiing at Hogum's Fork in Little Cottonwood Canyon... give me some time. I'll find out about this one too.

Tannersville: So, apparently around 1851 John Tanner and his sons built a sawmill and boarding house for the mine and timber workers. The settlement was abandoned after the hotel burned down in 1872. I'm still looking to see if there are markers of any kind for this town.

Central City: I'm going to have to do more research on this one too.

And now for a bunch 'o' pictures!

Several of the signs could use a little maintenance. :(

There's an old dam... and yes... I strayed off the path, but in my defense, the dried river looks like a trail

There was broken concrete here and this random hollow post with wiring. What is this? Looks cool, tho.

Practice??

There's an old pump in here. So much to see at the Quarry! Go check it out!!

Bibliography:
Carr, Stephen L. The Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns. Salt Lake City: Western Epics, 1972.

http://miningutah.com/id253.html

Park City, Summit County

Ok. I know Park City is not a ghost town right now. Over seven thousand people live there. However, were it not for skiing  and "the greatest snow on earth", this city would have died. Before skiing, before the Sundance Festival, Park City was a silver mining town.  (FYI... lots of pictures below)
Similar to the mining towns in Bingham Canyon, silver was found by the U.S. Army in the 1860's. Arguably, Colonel Patrick E. Conner of Fort Douglas, was trying to bring prospectors to the Utah Territory so non-Mormons coming to the prospector towns would outnumber the Mormons. The first claim of the Park City Mining District was made December 1869. The vein of silver became the Ontario Mine, which would be the largest silver producer in the United States by 1928 and become known as the greatest silver mine in the world. 
Park City was named by George Snyder in 1872 "for it is a veritable park." Hundreds of prospectors came and set up camp along the hillsides, including many Chinese who had worked on the transcontinental railroad. From 1870 to 1900, Park City had boarding houses, schools, mills, stores, saloons, prostitute "cribs," theatres, and of course, the mining buildings.
If you go to Park City today, there are many buildings on Main Street with plaques sharing part of their history. Many will mention a fire in 1898. The wooden town was almost completely destroyed by fire that June. $1,000,000 damage in 1898 is an incredible fire. The story is told in snippets on Main Street.
After World War I, strikes, the Great Depression, then oddly, the high demand for metal during World War II resulted in an exodus. By the 1950's Park City had a population of about 200 people. It was a ghost town.
Then... the Park City Ski Area was opened, the mines gave tours and the town came alive again, thriving on recreation.

A peek inside the Claimjumper

The original City Hall now houses the Park City Museum

Details from the fire!!

At the top of Main Street before it becomes a dirt road

 AND NOW- for the abandoned ghosts I search for! These can be seen up Guardsman Pass

You could feel the cold air coming from this abandoned mine.

Railroad ties can still be seen on the remnant of this wall

Abandoned rails next to the main road. This vanishes under the street

The view behind the above Ontario Mill sign

Sources: David Hampshire, Martha Sontag Bradley and Allen Roberts, The History of Summit County