John J. Daly and the Daly West Mine lecture given by Brian Buck

Park City Museum will host a lecture called John J. Daly and the Daly West Mine given by Brian Buck on Wednesday, December 3, 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.

John J. Daly was a mining entrepreneur who arrived in the Park City area in 1876. His story is intertwined with the early leaders and development of the mining industry around Park City where he became immensely wealthy by the time he was forty. He was influential in the growth of Park City and Salt Lake City until 1916. Brian will describe the early mining development of Park City in general and then focus on how John Daly built a local mining empire. This history will include the worst mining disaster to hit Park City with the deaths of thirty-four miners in the Daly West Mine in 1902. The history will culminate with the tragic collapse of the Daly West headframe in 2015 and its triumphant raising in 2022. This restored headframe will continue to be a monument to the miners who died in the Daly West and to the memory of John J. Daly.

Brian Buck has a B.S. in Geology and M.S. in 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.