The Galena Canal
Index For This Page
This page was last updated on May 31, 2026.
Overview
The Galena Canal was built in 1874 to bring water to the Galena smelter at Bingham Junction, today's Midvale. The canal lay along the east side of the Jordan river from the vicinity of today's 13700 South, north to the site of the Galena smelter in the vicinity of today's 8000 South. The distance by modern standards was about eight miles, although reports from the 1880s to the early 1900s show the distance as between 9-1/2 and 10 miles, with some reports saying 12 miles.
The history of smelters and ore processing activities at Bingham Junction and later Midvale covers a period from 1871 to 1971. The earliest record of a smelter built on the site was the Sheridan Hill smelter, which was constructed by J. W. Kerr and Isadore Morris in 1873 to treat ores from their Neptune mine at Bingham. The smelter was located just south of the later Midvale site of the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company (USSR&M) smelter.
(Most later histories show that the Sheridan Hill smelter was built in 1871, but newspaper reports of the period show that it was built in 1873, at about the same time as the Galena smelter. The Sheridan Hill company went bankrupt in 1876 and the smelter was closed.)
The early smelters at Bingham Junction (Midvale), the Galena and the Sheridan Hill, were associated with early mines in Galena Gulch, in the upper reaches of Bingham Canyon: the Neptune and Kempton mines for the Sheridan Hill smelter, and the Jordan Silver mine for the Galena smelter.
Both smelters were on the south side of the railroad tracks, which was completed across the Jordan river in September 1873. The Galena smelter was directly south of and adjacent to the Sheridan Hill smelter. It later took over part or all of the property of the Sheridan Hill smelter after that company failed in 1876.
The canal remained in use from 1874 through the final closure of the smelter in 1971, with an inactive period between about 1880 until about 1899. The canal was also used at various times by adjacent farmers for their irrigation needs.
In later testimony as part of a law suit in 1895-1901 concerning water rights to the Jordan River, J. Fewson Smith related the following details of the Galena Canal. What was known as the "Jordan River Case" was first filed in 1895, and the final decision was handed down in May 1901.
The Galena Canal company, now owned by the United States Mining company, began its case by calling J. Fewson Smith, Jr., who testified that the capacity of the Galena canal was 80.6 cubic feet per second. Besides furnishing water for the smelter, the canal irrigated 325 acres of land. In the spring of 1900, $5000 was spent on the canal in cleaning it out and building new ditches around the flumes to carry the water. The witness testified that he laid out the canal in July and August, 1873. Some old canals were found there which had been used for irrigation when the canal was laid out. In the spring of 1874 the work was begun and completed in the fall of the same year. The ditch for one mile was twelve feet wide, and for the remainder of its length eight feet wide and four feet deep.
Canal Construction
The Galena Canal was built in 1874 by the partnership of Carson & Buzzo, who owned the Galena smelter, and the Galena mine in Bingham Canyon. In 1873, Carson and Buzzo purchased the mine and smelter and began making improvements to both. The Galena smelter was located south of the Sheridan Hill smelter. The Carson & Buzzo partnership ended with the death of Carson in July 1875, and the mine and smelter fell into limbo until purchased by Liberty E. Holden in 1877. The smelter was idle after 1878. Holden demolished the smelter and built a reduction mill on the smelter site in 1880, and in 1889 sold the mine and mill to his son, Albert Holden, who 10 years later organized the United States Mining company, and the associated United States Smelting company in 1899. The Galena Canal remained in the ownership of the United States company throughout its remaining years.
(Operation of the Galena smelter began in April 1873.)
(Operation of the Sheridan Hill smelter began in September 1873.)
(The completed railroad passed the smelter site in September or October 1873. Operation over the first 10 miles of track began in mid-October, and the railroad was completed 16 miles to its end in Bingham Canyon next to the Winnamuck mill in mid November 1873. The railroad roadbed had been completed to Bingham earlier in the late Winter and early Spring 1873, but laying ties and spiking rail was delayed until those materials arrived in September 1873. Timbers for the bridge over the Jordan River were "on the ground" during mid-December 1872. By June 1873, construction of the railroad roadbed had reached Bingham, ties had been placed, and the Jordan River bridge was completed, but there was not yet enough rail to actually lay track over the last few miles to Bingham, which happened by mid November 1873.)
The Galena Canal was between eight and nine miles long, and was a ditch four feet deep and eight feet wide. Because there were so many washes, gulches and gullies, six different wooden flumes had to be built to cross them, ranging from ten feet in length to one hundred feet in length. Each wooden flume was the same dimensions as the canal, eight feet wide and four feet deep, made of freshly-sawn "green" red pine taken from Butterfield Canyon. By the time the canal was ready to use, the lumber had dried out and shrunk so much that all the flumes had to be caulked from one end to the other to fill the cracks. Burlap and rope were used for caulking, which added a lot to the construction cost.
According to published local histories, while cutting through the bluffs along the route, the workers ran into so much seepage water and mud that horses were useless for plowing and scraping. So they brought in oxen from American Fork and Pleasant Grove. These oxen often worked in mud up to their bellies. The bull-whackers guided the animals from the banks, but in some places the muck was so deep in the unfinished canal that long chains had to be attached to the plow or scraper. At times the men controlling the equipment were forced to struggle through mud up to their waists. The canal is about eight feet wide, with a bank that averages four feet high.
Some of the cuts are ten feet deep, and this was where seepage was the worst. To waterproof the bottom of the canal, the cattle were driven back to pack the surface.
According to these later published histories, Archibald Gardner took a contract [in 1874, not 1878] to build a canal, later known as the Galena Canal, on the east side of the river for the smelting company of Carson and Buzzo. J. Fewson Smith, Sr., worked as the surveyor. Gardner set up a large steam sawmill in Butterfield Canyon, south of Bingham Canyon. Logs were obtained and sawed at this sawmill to build flumes and gates for the new canal, which was to be ten miles long.
The canal started from a point on the Jordan River, in the vicinity of today's 13700 South, near the north limits of Bluffdale in Salt Lake County. From there, it ran along the bluffs on the east side of the river and ended just south of today's Midvale Center Street.
(An overhead flume was built crossing over the railroad tracks and county road (today's Center Street) bringing the canal water over Center Street to the northern portions of the later USSR&M smelter. This overhead flume across Center Street was removed in 1964, along with one of the two overhead railroad crossings, when Center Street was improved and widened to four lanes The D&RGW Bingham Branch railroad track that paralleled Center Street was removed at the same time and moved to the alignment used today by the UTA TRAX light-rail line.)
October 16, 1873
An accumulation of 60 tons of base bullion at Carson & Buzzo's running smelters; at the Sheridan Hill Smelting Co.'s works, 40 tons. (Helena Weekly Herald, October 16, 1873)
November 29, 1873
"A water site has also been taken up, and surveyed, for the purpose of bringing water from the Jordan river, by means of a canal direct to their works. This will cost, at the least calculation, $15,000, making a total outlay [for the smelter improvements and water ditch], independent of the land purchase, of $65,000. Such an outlay as this, made in such tight times as the present, by a firm of two men, strongly indicates that they mean business in earnest." (Utah Mining Gazette, November 29, 1873)
March 5, 1874
"Carson & Buzzo, owners of the Galena and Jordan mines in Bingham Canyon, and smelting furnaces on Jordan, have let a contract to Bishop A. Gardner, of Cottonwood, to dig a canal to their furnaces from a point on Jordan nine miles south of them. The canal will give the company water power equal to 500 horse power, with which to run the machinery for their thirteen furnaces, to be erected immediately. The canal is to be constructed under the supervision of Mr. J. F. Smith, engineer, of this city, and is to be completed by the 20th of June next. The work will cost about $35,000 and we understrnd, will make Carson & Buzzo's smelter the most extensive on the Coast." (Provo Daily Times, March 5, 1874; edited version in Salt Lake Herald, March 5, 1874)
The water power generated was a minimum of 500 horsepower. The blast engines, water works and other machinery were built to special order in Boston, Massachusetts.
March 14, 1874
The water power from the canal, 9-1/2 miles, would be sufficient to smelt 200 tons per day. (Salt Lake Tribune, March 14, 1874)
June 23, 1874
"Bishop A. Gardiner informs us that work on the Carson & Buzzo canal, West Jordan, is progressing satisfactorily, but, owing to some alterations at the head of it, involving more labor, the job will not be completed as soon as previously expected. The alterations are the widening of two miles of the ditch and the shortening of it at the head by two miles." (Deseret News, June 23, 1874)
(This "alteration" by Gardiner explains the variation in the planned canal length of 10 miles, and the final length of 8 miles, by modern measurement methods.)
September 13, 1874
"Galena Canal. - The canal, for conveying water to the Galena smelters, West Jordan, is fast approaching completion. The contractor, Bishop Gardiner, has had a large force of men at work for several months. The canal, when finished, will be nine miles long, and has about 1,200 feet of fluming before reaching the smelters. At these [the smelters] there is now in course of construction, 1,400 feet of fluming, which is being built at a cost of seven cents per foot. The original contract price for the canal was $35,000, but it is thought the necessary extras will run the cost up to $60,000. The head gates for turning the water into the ditch were put in last week, and the entire work will be finished in about a month." (Salt Lake Herald, September 13, 1874)
March 28, 1877
"The [Galena] furnaces are at present running by water power, fed from the Galena canal, but will be put under steam power as soon as the engine which is already in position shall be in running order." (Salt Lake Herald, March 28, 1877)
March 1898
Absalom W. Smith sued the Old Jordan & Galena Mining company, and the Conglomerate Mining company over the water rights of the Galena canal. Under the previous mining company, Jordan Mining & Smelting company, when the canal was built, in return for allowing the canal to pass over his land, Smith was promised a certain flow from the canal. But during 1897, he had not received the measured flow as promised and he sued for lost crop value, $685. An additional suit was filed in April 1898 by two more land owners, with the same argument. (Salt Lake Herald, March 22, 1898; April 17, 1898)
(The law suit was dismissed "by stipulation" on November 19, 1899. -- Salt Lake Tribune, November 19, 1899)
(This suggests that the smelter company was inactive during the 1897 growing season, and possibly since 1878, and not using the canal, indicating that the water was not being let into the canal at the headgate, eight miles south of the smelter site.)
(The Conglomerate company was the surviving company of the Old Telegraph company, and was reported as owning a half-interest in the Galena Canal. On May 7, 1879, L. E. Holden sold his interest in the Old Telegraph mine to the French company, Societe des Mines d'Argent et Fonderies de Bingham, for a reported $3 million. It passed to another French company, Societe Anonyme des Mines de Lexington, in 1884, then to the Conglomerate Mining company in 1896, then to the United States Mining company in 1899.)
February 1, 1901
"The Galena Canal company, now owned by the United States Mining company, began its case by calling J. Fewson Smith, Jr., who testified that the capacity of the Galena canal was 80.6 cubic feet per second. Besides furnishing water for the smelter, the canal irrigated 325 acres of land. In the spring of 1900, $5000 was spent on the canal in cleaning it out and building new ditches around the flumes to carry the water. The witness testified that he laid out the canal in July and August, 1873. Some old canals were found there which had been used for irrigation when the canal was laid out. In the spring of 1874 the work was begun and completed in the fall of the same year. The ditch for one mile was twelve feet wide, and for the remainder of its length eight feet wide and four feet deep." (Salt Lake Tribune, February 1, 1901)
Canal Ownership
After 1874, the Galena Canal was under the ownership of the Galena Silver Mining company (Carson & Buzzo), which also owned the Galena smelter and mine.
Carson & Buzzo's Galena Silver Mining company owned the Jordan mine, which had been incorporated in 1864, under the laws of California, as Jordan Silver Mining Company. In 1870 the property was purchased by J. W. Kerr, Isadore Morris, and others, who erected the Galena smelter at Bingham Junction (now Midvale) in 1873. Carson & Buzzo bought the Kerr and Morris interests in 1873.
The Galena Canal was completed in 1874, after 1873 when the Galena smelter and Jordan and Galena mines were sold to Carson and Buzzo, who organized themselves as the Galena Silver Mining Company. This company constructed a canal at a cost of $120,000, to furnish water to the smelter for power. After Carson and Buzzo sold out in 1875, the smelter was acquired in 1877 by the Jordan Mining and Smelting Company, and in 1879 by the Jordan Mining and Milling Company.
(Read more about Carson & Buzzo, active in Utah mining and smelting from 1873 to 1875)
Upon completion in 1874, the Galena Canal served the smelter of the Galena Silver Mining company, and all successors to that same site.
-- Galena Silver Mining Company (1873-1875) (Carson & Buzzo)
-- Jordan Mining and Smelting company (1875-1880)
-- Jordan Mining and Smelting company reorganized in April 1877, leased then sold to Liberty Holden
(At some point in this 1877-1878 period, ownership of the Galena Canal was divided, with half going to the Holden-controlled Jordan Mining and Smelting company, and the other half going to the Holden-controlled Old Telegraph Mining company.)
(smelter closed in 1878; replaced by reduction mill in 1880)
-- Old Jordan Mining and Milling Company (1880-1891) (Liberty Holden)
(Holden sold the Telegraph mine to a French company in 1879, including an undivided half-interest in the Galena Canal. Holden retained the other half interest which he used for his reduction mill in 1880. The French company was Societe des Mines d'Argent et Fonderies de Bingham, which was reorganized in 1884 as a second French company, Societe Anonyme des Mines de Lexington, which was reorganized in 1896 as the Conglomerate Mining company. This half interest in the Galena Canal was among the property sold by the Conglomerate company to United States Mining company in 1899, giving the Holdens full ownership of the canal.)
-- Old Jordan and Galena Mining Company (1891-1899) (Bert Holden)
-- United States Mining Company (1899-1906)
-- USSR&M (1906-1971)
After The Smelters
During the environmental mitigation of the Midvale smelter from 1991 to 2001, the remedy included rehabilitation of the Galena Canal in order to control storm water run-off. But due to cost considerations the canal project was discontinued and the canal decommissioned prior to the final version of the remediation plan. The canal was therefore removed in the vicinity of the environmental cleanup (in the area north of 8600 South) and not rehabilitated.
The south end of the route of the former Galena Canal is today part of the Galena Soonkahni Preserve, which comprises approximately 250 acres adjacent to the Jordan River between 12300 South and 14600 South in Salt Lake County. The preserve, which is owned by the Utah Department of Forestry, Fire and State Lands includes approximately 100 acres of river-lands and and wetland habitat on the east side of the Jordan River and approximately 150 acres of drier upland. Approximately two miles of the Jordan River run along and through the Galena-Soonkahni Preserve forming meandering bends with associated sandbars and oxbows. The paved Jordan River Parkway Trail runs through the property along the approximate edge of the river-lands area, bordering the route of the unused Galena Canal. Near the center of the preserve, 25 acres of land adjacent to the Jordan River is being used to create wetlands by the Utah Department of Transportation as part of a wetland mitigation banking. Currently this mitigation area consists of a constructed meandering stream channel through which flows Corner Canyon Creek, and several acres of wetland with open, standing water. The Galena-Soonkahni Preserve includes an archaeological site of tremendous importance historically, dating from the pre-pioneer era, that rank among dwellings and artifacts that are among oldest known in Utah.
YouTube Video
Watch Tim Dumas' excellent eight-minute video about the Galena Canal.
(Galena Canal, Its Bingham Connection)
###