There is a long-standing Park City legend about Solon Spiro, the founder of The King Con Mine, regarding his missed opportunity for vast wealth. It goes something like this.
Mr. Spiro incorporated the Silver King Consolidated Mine in clear imitation of the long-established Silver King Coalition Mine. Locals quickly dubbed Spiro’s mine “King Con,” because clearly, there was only one true “Silver King.” The King Con’s claims were adjacent to those of the Silver King, and some were even jointly owned between the rivals.
Since these were wild west times, the Silver King took advantage of its underground workings and “snuck into” the jointly owned claims (including some owned outright by Mr. Spiro) and mined the ore. Now, Solon was nobody’s fool and he discovered the theft, sued, and – after years in court – won a $905,000 settlement in 1913, which would be worth about $23 million today.
Spiro plowed that money into his mine and built the King Con Aerial Tram to connect his mine on the Claimjumper ski run over to a mill he bought near the present-day Boneyard Saloon. He also dug the three-mile Spiro Tunnel that presently runs from the Silver Star area of town up Thaynes Canyon, ending near The Thaynes Chairlift. (This tunnel was also used as the Skier Subway by Treasure Mountains in the 1960s).
He dug this tunnel with hopes that he would strike a new bonanza along the way, as evidenced by the mine claims he filed over the entire route. Much to his chagrin, he never hit pay dirt in this venture.
Things went well for Spiro for many years, until they didn’t. In 1925 he ended up having to sell out to his rival, The Silver King, under distressed circumstances. The Silver King pretty much valued his property at what it cost Spiro to dig the tunnel. We know this because we can see the tunnel listed as an asset on the Silver King balance sheets of the era.
What happened next, according to the legend, is that the Silver King dug “another 40 feet of tunnel” and hit that pay dirt. The poetry of these “just deserts” for the Silver King and the tragedy for King Con, is the principal fuel of the legend. But what are the facts?
Indeed, while investigating the value of their newly acquired asset, the Silver King did discover a substantial ore body not far from the edge of the Spiro Tunnel, about two-thirds of the way up the canyon. To find the strike, you must look along the length of the tunnel where you see a dot labeled “West End Shaft.”
Credit: Park City Historical Society & Museum, Matt Ivers Collection
But was it really just 40 feet? It’s hard to tell from this drawing how far it was. Another map suggests that The Silver King had to spend a substantial amount of time and money to sink the West End Shaft and another called the 5141 Shaft nearby.
Credit: Park City Historical Society & Museum, Will Jacobs Collection
So, not just “another 40 feet.” And what about Spiro: did he fail to make his fortune? Well, all we can say is that when he left Utah after the sale of King Con, he moved to New York to revel in the roaring twenties. There are also reports that, like many New Yorkers, he moved into investing in Florida real estate. But that is a story for another time….
For more information, see “Solon Spiro From Immigrant Store Clerk to Mining Magnate” given by Mark Danninger and Sandy Brumley on the Park City Museum YouTube page.