Joining Star

When I was a girl my dad told me about the mining town of Bingham Canyon (about twenty miles south of his home town of Magna) that the copper pit had swallowed up. At the time I’d pictured a cluster of 1800’s frame boarding houses, an assayer’s office and maybe a saloon or two; something out of a John Ford movie. But a few weeks ago I stumbled upon a YouTube video – I think it was originally a 1940’s newsreel – that challenged my preconceptions. It showed a bustling and modern metropolis with a steep, narrow Main Street much like Park City. There were brick buildings: bars (of course), but also restaurants, shops, banks, schools and churches. There were power lines, paved roads lined with sidewalks, and so many cars! I guess I’d imagined a makeshift little village because it’s much harder to picture an open pit mine devouring a city that was once home to 15,000 people.