When many people think of Park City’s mining history, they dig up names such as John Daly, Thomas Kearns and R. C. Chambers.
Historians Mark Danninger and Sandy Brumley would like to shine the headlamp on another name — Solon Spiro — and they will do that during a free lecture titled “Solon Spiro From Immigrant Store Clerk to Mining Magnate.”
The presentation, sponsored by the Park City Museum and Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History, will run from 5-6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 15, at the Education and Collections Center located at 2079 Sidewinder Drive.
Spiro, who moved from Prussia in 1881 to work as a clerk at Park City’s general store owned by his uncle M.S. Ascheim, became one of the town’s prominent mining company owners, after building the Silver King Consolidated Mine, also known as the King Con.
“A few years ago, Sandy had taken an interest in all of the notable mining leaders in Park City, and he was really interested in Mr. Spiro,” Danninger said.
One of the reasons was because Spiro didn’t have the same start in the business as the others.
“He wasn’t a miner,” Danninger said. “He wasn’t a degreed mining engineer. He wasn’t a geologist or a metallurgist. So, it is even more remarkable at how far he was able to go in an industry that was not known to him.”
Brumely approached Danninger, a mining engineer with over 30 years experience in underground mining, maintenance, welding, project management, safety and consulting, to see if he’d be interested in doing some research and putting together a presentation for the Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History, a preservation committee for the Park City Museum.
“I agreed, because we felt it was important to understand who Solon Spiro was, where he came from, how he got into mining and how that contrasts the typical mine manager, owner and magnate,” Danninger said.
Spiro’s road to living the American Dream started at the general store, where he worked for 20 years, according to Danninger.
“During that time, Mr. Spiro studied mining,” he said. “He would also talk with customers and slowly acquire penny-stock shares of no-name mining properties.”
In addition, Chambers, manager of the Ontario Silver Mine and one of the town’s “Silver Kings,” took Spiro under his wing.
“Mr. Chambers was friends with Mr. Spiro’s uncle, Ascheim, before they both moved to Utah from California,” Danninger said.
In 1908 Spiro decided it was time for him to get into the mining business.
He built The Silver King Consolidated Mine, which he operated profitably for many years, and also won a major lawsuit against his main nemesis, the Silver King Coalition, in 1913, according to Danninger.
“If you’ve ever looked at underground mining-claim maps, it’s a real nightmare of hodge-podge, geometric, polygon shapes, so it’s easy to make mistakes when you start mining another person’s claim,” he said. “Although a claim is staked out on the surface, it gets a little sketchy when people try to project that area hundreds or thousands of feet underground. And if people have fraudulent intent, it’s easy to manipulate things.”
Spiro’s lawsuit accused the Silver King Coalition of mining on and taking ore out of Silver King Consolidated ground, Danninger said.
“The courts ruled in favor of King Con and Solon Spiro,” he said. “The original ruling was that the Silver King Coalition had to pay $700,000.”
The coalition, smarting from the judgment, decided not to pay, Danninger said.
“So, after they muddled around and delayed for several years, the courts came back, threatened jail time and slapped a $200,000 fine on top of the original number,” he said. “And Mr. Spiro, who won this David-and-Goliath case, took the money and invested in his mine.”
Spiro used the money to acquire a zinc mill from John Daly, and converted it to process low-grade silver ore, Danninger said.
“He also built the aerial tramway that ran from the mine to the mill, and that tram was one of three in the district,” he said. “Mr. Spiro also started boring what is known as the Spiro Tunnel.”
Spiro hoped the tunnel, located near the Silver Star Cafe at Three Kings Drive, would produce some high-grade ore bodies, Danninger said.
“That really didn’t happen,” he said. “Mr. Spiro only encountered low-grade ore and small pockets of ore.”
Still, Spiro had done well for himself, and, by 1924, he had built up the King Con, Danninger said.
“It included about 1,400 acres of mining claims, and had a completely rebuilt surface infrastructure,” he said. “But the Spiro Tunnel wasn’t yielding any high-grade ore.”
That’s when Spiro decided to sell his company to the Silver King Coalition.
“I think he just wanted to retire, because he felt he accomplished more than he imagined, and he sold the King Con to the coalition for just about the same amount he won in the lawsuit,” Danninger said with a laugh. “The coalition was willing to roll the dice and acquire the property, because they felt like there were more big ore bodies to be discovered. But if there was a mining company that could afford to lose money, it was them.”
The sale proved to be beneficial to the coalition, according to a local myth, Danninger said.
“The legend claims that after the Silver King Coalition took over the Spiro Tunnel it dug another 40 feet and discovered a major ore deposit,” Danninger said. “I always felt that was a dubious legend, and it was something that Sandy and I rigorously investigated as we were researching who Mr. Spiro was.”
Danninger and Brumley will reveal their findings of this myth during the Nov. 15 lecture.
“I can tell you that Sandy and I, based on the research, do come to the same conclusions, but there is a bit of a nuance there,” he said with a laugh. “So, I’ll just leave it at that.”