The Hal Compton Research Library
Located on the lower level of the Park City Museum, the Hal Compton Research Library offers you a unique opportunity to search and discover. Whether your interest lies in your historic Park City home, the emergence of silver mining in Park City, the building of Park City’s first ski jump, or finding a distant relative, we can help you piece together the past from the 1860s to the present day.
Hal Compton (1929-2020) generously donated his time to researching and teaching Park City history and was a fixture with the Museum for nearly three decades. Hal helped develop Glenwood Cemetery programming, historic hikes, and other core Museum offerings in addition to his tireless research, much of which was featured in our Way We Were article series. In 1998, Hal was designated Park City's Historian Laureate.
The Hal Compton Research Library bears his name as a testament to his dedication to Park City's incredible history.
He is pictured to the right in Army uniform. He served two years as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Army Signal Corps, including a tour of duty in Korea in 1954.
Research Library Materials & Resources
The Research Library’s materials include many Park City, Utah, and western history books, personal papers and oratories, maps, thousands of historic photographs. Highlights include the historic images from local photographers Kendall Webb and Pop Jenks, and from Thomas F. Hansen’s rare and extensive collection.
Research Library Hours
Monday - Friday, By Appointment Only
Please email your research requests to our research@parkcityhistory.org
Let Us Do the Research for You
The first half hour is free!
($25/hour after)
Archival Collections
Archival collections are unique historic resources rich in information. The Park City Historical Museum accessions and maintains archival materials as part of its permanent collection. These materials are available to researchers by appointment and on a supervised basis.
The letters, receipts, postcards, brochures, ledgers, and other records that make up the collections housed at the Park City Museum are not readily available elsewhere and are thus some of the most important research tools the Research Library has to offer.
Published Works
The Research Library houses over 800 non-circulating published works, dissertations, theses, and thematic binders on Park City, mining, skiing, Utah, and Western history, including:
- Geology and Ore Deposits of the Park City District, by John Mason Boutwell
- A History of Summit County, by David Hampshire, Martha S. Bradley, Allen Roberts
- Treasure Mountain Home: Park City Revisited, by George A. Thompson and Fraser Buck
- The Trail of the Leprechaun, by William McPhee
- Park City: Mountain of Treasure, by Larry Warren
- Park City's Pop by David Hampshire
- From the Ground Up by Colleen Whitney
Newspapers
- Park Record Digital Collection, 1880-present
- The Newspaper, 1976-1983
- Salt Lake Mining Review Digital Collection, April 15, 1899 to March 30,1929
Genealogical Research Tools
- Subscription to Ancestry.com
- Cemetery indexes:
- Glenwood Cemetery, 1885-1982 (location, DOB, DOD, father, mother, profession, COD, funeral, and history)
- Park City Cemetery, 1881-1995 (location DOB, DOD)
- Obituaries for Park City and surrounding areas
- Park City Birth Register, 1892-1897
- Park City Record of Deaths, 1892-1975
- Oral History Index
- Family histories and research files on a limited number of Park City residents
- Park City High School yearbooks, 1915, 1917-22, 1931, 1943, 1945-46, 1948-62, 1976, 1980-2002, 2004-05
- Other Park City genealogy links
Historic Preservation & Researching Your Home
- Historic Property Indexes and Tax Photos from the late 1930s
- National Historic Register forms for the Park City Main Street Historic District and for other historic properties
- "The Residences of Mining Boom Era Park City" National Historic Register nomination and Main Street nomination
- “Park City, Utah: An Architectural History of Mining Town Housing, 1869-1907,” by Deborah Lyn Randall, Master’s thesis, 1985
- Park City Municipal Corporation's Historic Sites Inventory
- Park City Municipal Code for the Historic Sites Inventory and for the Land Management Code (which includes historic districts and historic preservation)
- Utah Preservation journals
- Utah's Historic Architecture Guide
- Utah Preservation Restoration three-volume publication
Maps
- Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps from 1889, 1900, 1907, 1929, 1941 (some also online at the University of Utah’s digital collections)
- Map of Main Street Park City, 1969 by Jim Tedford
- Geologic Maps of the Park City District, 1950-1960
- Topographical map, 1998-1999
- Deer Valley Conditions Survey, 2002 (Lower Big Stick Run)
- Gorlinski’s General Map of Park City Mines, 1893 (Ontario, Daly, Crescent, Anchor, Alliance, Meears, Silver King, Woodside, Mayflower, Glencoe, etc.)
- Various Mine and Mine Claim Maps
- Various Ski Area Maps
Magazines & Journals
- Park City Magazine (Lodestar), 1981-present
- Utah Historical Quarterly
- Beehive History
- Utah Archaeology
- The Geology of the Snyderville Basin, Western Summit County, Utah, and its Relation to Ground-Water Condition