Salt Lake Valley Smelters
This page was last updated on April 30, 2008.
Compiled by Don Strack
Sandy Smelters
At the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, east of the town of Sandy City, in an unincorporated area of Salt Lake County, Utah, in addition to the granite quarries, there were at least three smelters. Today, the area includes the remains of three: the Flagstaff, the Davenport, and the McKay. Remnants of two smelters (Davenport and McKay) are visible in the area of 3500 E. Little Cottonwood Lane (about 9800 South). The Flagstaff smelter was located less than a quarter mile to the north, near 9500 South Wasatch Boulevard, on the north side of Little Cottonwood Creek.
In Big Cottonwood Canyon itself, on the Silver Fork of Big Cottonwood Creek, on August 3, 1871, ground was broken for a new Gerrish-patent smelting furnace. The new smelter was owned by the Chicago Mining Bureau and was the first furnace in Big Cottonwood Canyon. ("The Year Of 1871", Our Pioneer Heritage, Volume 15, 1972, p. 56)
On September 6, 1871, Utah Southern reached Sandy. Two smelters were built at Sandy, near the railroad tracks; one of them is the Saturn Silver Smelter, the largest in the territory, with a capacity of 50 tons per day. (Reeder, pages 116, 117)
The original Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railroad was incorporated October 24, 1872 to build a line from Sandy to the mines located in Little Cottonwood canyon. Construction started in November 1872 over a grade previously started by Utah Southern in summer 1872 and rails were laid five miles to the Davenport smelter and the granite quarries at the mouth of the canyon by April 1873. The line was completed to its terminal at Fairfield Flats at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon by September 1873. Scofield took control of the railroad in June 1875 and completed an eight-mile mule tramway to Alta by September 1875. (Reeder, pp. 170-189)
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