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September 11, 2019 @ 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Park City Museum and the Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History are hosting a lecture called Overhead Tramways in Park City presented by Steve Leatham from 5-6 p.m. on Wednesday, September 11, 2019 at the Education and Collections Center located at 2079 Sidewinder Drive.
The Doppelmayr-Garaventa Group is the world’s leading manufacturer of ski lifts. Today it is the leader in uphill transportation at ski resorts worldwide. Nearly two-thirds of the 3,500 chairlifts in North America are of the Doppelmeyr brand. In Utah, the company has “essentially 100 percent” of the market. Doppelmayr USA, is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a subsidiary of the worldwide Doppelmayr-Garaventa Group. What is the connection between today’s Doppelmayr ski lifts and the historic Silver King Coalition, Silver King Consolidated, and Park Utah Consolidated aerial tramways?
The Park Record reported that Park City’s aerial tramways were “of the latest design and modern in every particular. In every detail the tramways were as modern as money and engineering talent could make them.”
Aerial tramways were built to haul large amounts of materials to and from mines economically. They provided a cost-effective alternative to building roads or railroads. An aerial tramway worked under all weather conditions even with great depths of snow on the ground. Learn which mine superintendent had his own special tramway car to transport him to the mine when he visited.
Join us as former educator and gondola operator Steve Leatham presents a closer look at these fantastic wire rope machines of the past.