Happy Birthday Park City!
Photography: Donald Pineforest
At 125 years old, Park City isn’t about to pass up a reason to celebrate. On June 13th, the community will gather on upper Main Street for live music and revelry filled with what Craig Sanchez (who’s heading up a celebration task force) calls “locals’ flair.”
The 125th shindig is a nod to both our current community and our town’s heritage. In 1884, when close to 4,000 people lived in what was then a bustling silver mining town, after two years of negotiating incorporation, the city’s charter finally met with the legislature’s and governor’s approval. In May of that year, the men of Park City held their first election, choosing six aldermen and a mayor to lead the fledgling town. The then-4-year-old Park Record reported of the election, “Free men fought, free men won and free men lost.” It was also in 1884 that construction began on City Hall, which now houses the newly renovated Park City Museum and fittingly serves as a backdrop for the June festivities.
Since 1884, Park City has seen the rise and fall of silver commodities, the birth of ski resorts and ski jumps and an Olympic Winter Games. In recent decades, the arts have blossomed alongside recreation in a town that continues to grow and change. Keeping pace with both prosperous and lean years, Park City has weathered the blessings and curses of booms and busts, and has reinvented itself time and again over the past century and a quarter.
“Boy, we’ve had a lot of ups and downs,” says research historian Hal Compton. And at 125, this town has become well-versed in throwing an Old Town party. Let’s face it, even during Prohibition, there were 27 saloons on Main Street. Here’s to 125 more years of never-a-dull moment mountain living!
For information on the 125th Anniversary Celebration on June 13, call 435.649.6100 or visit parkcityinfo.com.
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