Copperton Township & Cemetery
Bingham Canyon, Oquirrh Mountains
Saturday, October 09, 2004

My friend Jena needed to do some Cemetery research for her archeology class and asked me if I wanted to come along. We decided to try a graveyard outside of Salt Lake, and I suggested we head to Copperton, a mining town west of Sandy, UT (which is a suburb of Salt Lake City). She'd never been through the township, so I showed her the whole thing (it's pretty small).

Copperton is the last town left to the east of the Kennecott copper mine, the the largest open pit copper mine in the world. Kennecott produces about 300,000 tons of copper cathode, or about 15% of the country's copper. It also produces 389,000 ounces of gold, 3 million ounces of silver, 18 million pounds of molybdenum, and 1 million tons of sulfuric acid as a by-product of the smelting process. Several other towns have disappeared as the pit grew and "ate" them. Check out the historical photos of the mine, going back to 1863. You can watch the hill turn into the pit.

Copperton township, facing east toward the Ore House (a road house / bar). This is west of Copperton, but still part of the town.

Part of the mining operations, at the end of the road.

Worms, 50 cents.

Trash and deer carcass

Pics from the cemetery; Jena needed photos of the graves for her research project.

She was 16 and pregnant.

Unknown language.

The mine drew people from all over the world.