Bingham Canyon History Night a unique reunion

Intermountain Catholic

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More than 40 miners and descendents of miners who worked the mines and lived in the small towns of Bingham Canyon gathered at St. Joseph the Worker Parish June 7 to reminisce about the mines and the towns that used to be thriving in Bingham Canyon, but are little more then ghost towns now. Stories were told, old photos viewed, and old friendships reunited as the parish has become the home parish of many retired miners and their descendents.

WEST JORDAN — The social hall of St. Joseph the Worker parish became the setting for a unique reunion June 7 as the parish hosted Bingham Canyon History Night with special guest speaker Ron Yengitch, criminal defense attorney.

One of the signs on the wall said many of the founders of St. Joseph the Worker Parish were displaced miners from Bingham Canyon.

The walls of the social hall were covered with photographs and newspaper articles about Bingham Canyon and its people, most of them immigrants from all over the world. In the canyon and in the mines and the small towns surrounding the mines, the immigrants found friends and fellowship. They shared feast days, international days, and supported each others’ native festivals.

Some of those attending the reunion wore T-shirts® that said: "Native of Bingham Canyon."

Father Patrick Carley said living in the small towns of Bingham Canyon must have been similar to living in the small towns and villages in his native Ireland, where the families and friends are close knit and old friends are the best friends.

"We are going to build a new church here at St. Joseph the Worker and we are finding that our history is most dear to us," Fr. Carley said. "It’s our treasure.

"You are rooted in the small towns of Bingham Canyon; you come from diverse populations, and you share your history."

Most of the evening was spent watching an excellent documentary produced by KUED and titled "Copper Canyon American Dreams." It traced the history of Bingham Canyon from the 1850s, when precious metals were first found in Bingham Canyon, to 1862, when the first mining claim was registered, through the Boomtown years of prosperous mining and to the years of hardscrabble towns, panning for gold, and the first railroad in 1873.

The Bingham Canyon Mine, the forerunner to the Kennecott mine, began as a hill in the canyon into which miners dug. Eventually, the hill became a pit as copper was no longer underground, but on the surface.

"Copper Canyon American Dreams" told of the many immigants who traveled to Utah to mine for precious metals, copper among them, and important strategic metals. Most of the immigrant miners sent money home to their families, the documentary revealed, "sending money home from the laborers to the middle classes in Europe."

As the documentary continued, names became familiar – Dahlstrom, Yengitch, Dal Paz. They came from all over Europe – from Italy, Austria, the Slavic countries. The Japanese miners and the Greek miners formed their own small towns attached to the mines. There were miners here from Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland, all working for the Utah Copper Company that would eventually become Kennecott Copper Company.

The documentary told of the great strike of 1912, when Bingham Canyon had a population of 5,000 people, 4,000 of whom were foreign born and paid less than the native Utahns. Immigrant miners supported the strike, but the unions failed when the mines brought in Mexicans as strike breakers.

Bingham Canyon, with its small town brothels, was described in the documentary as "a remnant of the old west, with rough and lawless towns."

The documentary told of one murder in the canyon, when a man named Lopez killed a man in a saloon, then killed three lawmen. Lopez was never apprehended.

Small towns surrounded the mining pit – Copperfield, Dinkeyville, Telegraph, and Highland Boy. All were affected by World War I, World War II and the Great Depression.

During World War II women went to work in the mines. They had always served as merchants.

"We always lived by the whistle," one woman said.

With churches a scarcity, the children gathered at the Methodist Community House, a place of joy, hope, and mutual respect. There was always something for the children to do there.

The documentary told of natural disasters in the canyon, fires, avalanches, and floods.

Ron Yengitch, who lived in Bingham canyon as a boy showed an old mining lamp that belonged to his grandfather and a pair of old boots his father, Nick used to wear. He compared the lamp and the boots to his own diploma and law licenses, saying he wouldn’t be the man he is today if not for the hard work of his father and grandfather. "More then half of the copper produced in the United States was produced in Bingham Canyon," Yengitch said. "When people ask me who I am, I say I’m from Bingham."