Deaths in the Park City Shafts lecture given by Brian Buck

Park City Museum will host a lecture called Deaths in the Park City Shafts given by Brian Buck on Wednesday, October 29, 2025 from 5-6 p.m. held at the Education and Collections Center located at 2079 Sidewinder Drive. More information can be found at www.parkcityhistory.org.

The mines around Park City were dangerous places to work. Miners lost their lives under rock falls and explosions underground or by avalanches and ore wagons on the surface. Then there was miners’ consumption that caused fatal illness in many miners. The most horrific mine accidents happened in the many mine shafts around town. These were always newsworthy and the local Park Record published descriptions of at least 48 shaft accidents between 1880 and 1980. The author of this presentation has done the research to uncover these news articles. He will describe a number of these accidents, the causal factors involved, traumas to the victims, and measures employed over the years to reduce the occurrence of the accidents.

Brian Buck has degrees in Geology and Geological Engineering and has worked with the mining industry in the U.S. West since 1976. He studies the local mining history of Park City and enjoys sharing this history with others. He has presented multiple lectures on mining topics for the Park City Museum, contributes to the Way We Were columns in the Park Record, and has led a number of tours to the remaining
mining structures around Park City. He is a member of the Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History, a committee of the Park City Museum, where he is the Project Manager for the mine stabilization projects of that committee.