THE WORLD'S LARGEST OPEN-CUT

COPPER MINE AT BINGHAM, UTAH

    While agriculture and the raising of livestock are important industries in Utah, more people perhaps know about its mineral wealth.  Many interesting mines can be visited near Salt Lake City, some of them world-famous.  One of the most amazing sights of its kind is this mine at Bingham, the world's largest surface copper mine.  It is situated about twenty-eight miles from Salt Lake City.

   

    The engineering feats accomplished here are only comparable with those of the Panama Canal.  This immense mountain, terraced by lines of railroad tracks, with train of cars, laden and empty, speeding back and forth from the mine workings is a spectacular sight.  Here more tonnage is moved every day than was removed from the bed of the Panama Canal even during the most extensive operations.  As much as 65,000 tons of copper ore and an equal amound of waste or "capping" passes daily through the giant electric shovels.  If you will compare the size of the freight trains at the various levels with the surroundings it will help yousome to grasp the immensity of the work that is going on here.

   

    Fully as interesting  as this terraced mountain is the mining camp or town of Bingham you see at the bottom of the canyon.  It is approximately one hundred feet wide and five miles long, the largest one-street town in the world.  In places this street is so narrow that there is room for a sidewalk on one side only.

    In one year recently, Utah produced $205,770,000 worth of copper.  But copper is not its only resource, for gold, lead, zinc, coal, and semi-precious stones are also mined.  There are 210 known minerals in Utah, metallic and non-metallic.

Copyright by Keystone View Company

To see an anaglyphic map of the Butcher Ranch, click here.

To see an early 3D view of Bingham converted to anaglyph, click here.

To visit Bingham City in 1924, click here.

To visit Bingham City in the early 1950s, click here.

To view Mark Evans' collection of Bingham pictures, click here.

To return to the Bingham Canyon Photographs page, click here.

To return to the Hickman Museum Index page, click here.

This hyperstereo anaglyph was made from a stereo card manufactured by the Keystone View Company  about 1940.  To be viewed in 3D you will need a pair of anaglyph glasses like those pictured above.  The text that appeared on the back of the card is given below.

33981  Largest Open-Cut Copper Mine in World at

           Bingham, Utah, Longest City of One Street.