Sandy Smelters

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This page was last updated on June 27, 2026.

Overview

In the early 1870s, Sandy, Utah, rapidly transformed from a quiet agricultural settlement into a bustling industrial and transportation powerhouse. The town's industrial growth began in September 1871 with the completion of the Utah Southern Railroad. This main line established a vital connection to Salt Lake City and the broader region, initially easing the transportation of the heavy granite blocks for the Mormon temple. While the movement of granite blocks was likely the reason for the Mormon-owned railroad reaching Sandy rather than other south valley locations, the mines, mills and primitive smelters of Little Cottonwood Canyon provided immediate financial profits. Up to this point, moving these large granite blocks, weighing many tons each, had required slow, grueling work by heavy ox teams for the entire distance to Salt Lake City.

For the mines, the impact of this new railroad infrastructure was immediate. Just two months later, in November 1871, the Saturn smelter was constructed, bringing ore from the Saturn mine in Bingham to the railroad connection, anchoring Sandy’s new identity as a mining hub. The industrial footprint expanded rapidly over the next few years. In April 1873, the Mountain Chief smelter (later the Mingo smelter) began operations, followed immediately in May 1873 by the building of the Last Chance smelter. The town's mineral processing capabilities expanded again in April 1874 with the establishment of the Pioneer Sampling Works, which allowed local mine operators to accurately test and grade ore before it was sent to the smelters.

Sandy's strategic importance grew rapidly with an expanding network of railroad branch lines. The movement of granite blocks was made easier in September 1873 when a railroad line was completed eastward connecting Sandy directly to the quarries at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. This new line took over the movement of the temple granite while simultaneously serving the Davenport and Flagstaff smelters, as well as shortening the distance for the mines to haul their ores. Just two months later, in November 1873, the railroad connecting Sandy westward to the mines of Bingham was completed. This railroad network connected Sandy to Salt Lake City to the north; Sandy to Little Cottonwood to the east; and Sandy to Bingham Canyon to the west, made Sandy the central point cementing the town as the indispensable crossroads for Utah's booming industrial economy.

The following comes from the EPA 1992 "Evaluation of the Risk" report for the Sandy Smelter Site.

Historic Sandy City was at one time home to four (sic: three) smelters, the largest of which was the Mingo Smelter, located at 50 East 9000 South. The Mingo Smelter processed lead, copper, and zinc ores from 1873 to 1876. Across the street from Mingo was the Saturn Mining and Smelting Company, which processed lead ore in 1872. Last Chance, or Flagstaff #2, also a lead processor, was in operation from 1872 until 1876, and was located al 400 East 8680 South, the current site of the Sandy City Hall and Sandy Elementary School. Sandy Sampling Works, which processed lead ore during the 1870s, was located at 8580-8586 South 150 East.

Sandy was home to three smelters and an ore sampler. The largest of these operations was the Mingo Smelter at 50 East 9000 South, which processed lead, copper, and zinc ores between 1873 and 1896.

Directly across the county road north sat the Saturn Mining and Smelting Company, which focused on lead ore during its time from 1872 to 1877. Another lead processor, the Last Chance (also known as the Flagstaff after 1874), operated from 1872 until 1876 at 400 East 8680 South (Sandy's historic Main Street) on the plot of land where Sandy City Hall and Sandy Elementary School stand today. Finally, the Pioneer Sampling Works also processed lead ore throughout the 1870s from its location where the railroad crossed Main Street.

At the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, five miles east of Sandy, in addition to the granite quarries, there were two primitive smelters, the Flagstaff and the Davenport. Remnants of the Davenport are visible in the area of 3500 East 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.

Railroads At Sandy

On September 6, 1871, Utah Southern reached Sandy. The Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railroad was incorporated in October 1872 to build a line from Sandy eastward 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. By September 1875, the line reached Alta by the use of an eight-mile mule tramway.

Sandy Smelter Locations

-- Davenport Smelter, mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon

-- Flagstaff Smelter (1st), located at mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon

-- Last Chance Smelter (Flagstaff, 2nd), approximately 9200 South and 150 East, on east side of Union Pacific tracks (site of Mount Jordan Middle School)

-- Mingo Smelter (formerly Mountain Chief), approximately 9000 South and 50 East, adjacent to Saturn smelter (only operating smelter in Sandy by 1889)

--- Aerial photos from 1937 show a large slag dump remaining on the site, south of 9000 South, between State Street and the Union Pacific (now UTA TRAX) railroad tracks.

-- Sandy Sampling Works (Pioneer Sampling Works), approximately 8600 South and 150 West, east of and adjacent to Union Pacific tracks (at today's Pioneer Avenue)

-- Saturn Mining and Smelting Company, approximately 9000 South and 200 West, three blocks west of Union Pacific tracks (closed by 1889)

"Sandy Smelter Site"

EPA address, 440 E. 8660 S.; east of the original Sandy Junior High (built in 1927), today's Sandy Rec Center.

This address was designated as a generic location for the EPA cleanup in the 1990s. (This was actually a smelter waste dump that required environmental cleanup, and not a smelter site)

When the agency designated the Sandy Smelter Site in 1992, they selected a residential property address near 440 E. 8660 S. simply to serve as the geographical anchor point for the entire geographic area. The actual history of why this site was designated, despite not having a smelter on it, breaks down into three key factors:

1. It was a slag and smelter waste dumping zone. - While the physical furnaces and smokestacks of the Flagstaff Smelter and Mingo Smelter were located several blocks to the west and southwest (near the main railroad tracks and State Street), the area east of the schools was used for waste disposal. During the 1870s, smelter waste (primarily slag, black glassy rock, and furnace dross) was hauled away from the active smelter plants and used across the community as cheap, durable "fill material" to level out uneven dirt lots, build up roadbeds, and pave early footpaths.

2. The Legacy of the Ore Sampling Work - The property lines just north and east of the school block was the site of the Sandy (or Pioneer) Sampling Works. Before raw ore was sent to the massive smelting furnaces, it was brought by rail or wagon to sampling yards to test its mineral grade. These staging areas frequently saw heavy ore dust spillage and tracking of contaminated soil across a wide area. Because the area at 440 E. 8660 S. was downstream and downwind from these sampler operations, it accumulated heavy concentrations of windblown dust and runoff containing lead and arsenic over time.

3. The EPA's Broad Regional Labeling System - When the EPA and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality began investigating the Salt Lake Valley's historic mining footprint in the early 1990s, they discovered that the toxic soil footprint had spread far beyond the original smelter and sampler plant boundaries.

Instead of naming dozens of individual residential yards, the EPA grouped the entire affected neighborhood under one umbrella project name: the Sandy Smelter Site.

They picked 440 E. 8660 S. as the primary "Site Address" in their comprehensive liability information database because it was one of the first central properties where soil core testing proved that lead and arsenic concentrations crossed safety thresholds, requiring federal environmental remediation. The "Sandy Smelter Site" label describes a contamination plume and cleanup zone, not the physical location of an old smelter.

The 1937 aerial photo shows freshly disturbed earth east of the new Sandy Junior High School (built in 1927). It was an area where smelter and sampler waste was repeatedly graded and disposed, ultimately leaving behind the chemical markers that triggered the 1992 EPA response. Following the EPA cleanup, the area was capped with safe soil imported from other sites, and converted to today's open green space administered by Sandy City.

Davenport Smelter

The Davenport mine was located in Little Cottonwood Canyon, southeast of Salt Lake City. It was one of the early mines in the Little Cottonwood district, dating from June 1870. In 1872, the mine was sold to a group of British investors, but the mine failed in year's time. The mine, and its affilated smelter failed along with so many other mines and smelters in Utah due to changes in the silver market during the early 1870s.

The Davenport Smelter was located at mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, on the south side of Little Cottonwood Creek.

Flagstaff Smelter

(The original Flagstaff Smelter was located at mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, on the north side of Little Cottonwood Creek.)

In the early 1870s, the Flagstaff Silver Mining Co. of Utah, Ltd. was organized in London by British investors who had paid an exorbitant sum for the Alta properties. To process the massive flow of silver-lead ores coming down Little Cottonwood Canyon via the mule-powered tramways, the company established its primary reduction works at the mouth of the canyon (the Flagstaff Smelter).

"On the north side of Little Cottonwood Canyon, Buel and Bateman built a plant in 1870 for treating ore from the Flagstaff mine. The product of the Flagstaff furnaces during 1872 was 3,000 tons of metal valued at $750,000. In 1873 the Flagstaff Smelter consisted of three stacks. The Flagstaff was owned by an English company, who shut it down soon after and shipped ore to Sandy." (Early History of Lead Smelting in the West, AX-I-DENT-AX, Volume 14, Number 5, May 1929, page 8)

Last Chance (Flagstaff) Smelter

(The Last Chance Smelter was located at approximately 9200 South, on east side of Union Pacific tracks, near the site of the original Mount Jordan Middle School.)

The Last Chance smelter at Sandy was built by the Last Chance Mining Company of Bingham. The site was purchased in February 1873 and the smelter went into operation in May 1873. Ore was brought to Sandy from the Last Chance mine located at the head of the Muddy Fork branch of Bingham Canyon.

In early 1874, the Flagstaff Silver Mining Co. of Utah., a British company, took control of the Last Chance company to gain access to its ore, which the Flagstaff company needed to balance the ore being taken from the Flagstaff mine in Little Cottonwood. To improve transportation costs, instead of hauling the Last Chance ore to the Flagstaff smelter at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, the Flagstaff company took over the Last Chance company's smelter at Sandy, which was located directly on the railroad line to Bingham.

Pioneer Sampling Works

(Known also as the Pioneer Sampler, and as the Sandy Sampling Works)

Located at approximately 8600 South and 150 West, east of and adjacent to Union Pacific tracks (at today's Pioneer Avenue)

Pioneer Sampling Works, in operation, 1871-1910.

Mingo Smelter

(Mingo Smelter, formerly Mountain Chief, adjacent to Saturn smelter, was the only operating smelter in Sandy by 1889)

Mingo Smelter

(Historical Marker at 50 East 9000 South, on the south side of the street; placed by Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Marker 470, erected in 1993)

The Mingo Smelter was the largest single producer in Utah of metals such as gold, silver, and lead. When it began in 1873, it was known as the Mountain Chief Smelter and was renamed the Mingo smelter in 1876 when it was expanded. By 1881 it produced 19,000,000 pounds of unrefined metal which was shipped to Pennsylvania. The rich ores came from Little Cottonwood Canyon, Bingham Canyon and Lark and provided work for 500 to 1,200 men. Power for the smelter was provided by water traveling through a network of canals to Allsop’s Pond on the south side of Locust Street. From there, it was channeled through wooden pipes to Mingo. In 1877 the plant consisted of Blake crusher, one pair of Cornish rolls, two reverberatory furnaces for ore, matte, and flue dust, three blast furnaces, two boilers, three blowers, and one 35 horsepower horizontal engine. The iron flux came from the Tintic District, the limestone was bought in Salt Lake City, and the fuel used was coke.

Using all four of its furnaces, the Mingo Smelter could produce enough metal to fill sixteen railroad cars each week. It was destroyed by fire in 1887 and was rebuilt in 1888.

The Mingo closed in April 1901 when the ores were depleted. This was one of the most successful of the old smelters that operated in Utah.

Saturn Smelter

(Saturn Mining & Smelting Company, located on the north side of today's 9000 South, on the west side the Union Pacific tracks. The disposal and slag area was on the west side of the East Jordan Canal, immediately to the west. Closed in 1877.)

(This Saturn smelter was the successor to the Buel & Bateman smelter at Bingham, which was closed by the company's new English investors.)

"The Saturn Silver Mining Co., Ltd., started a smelter in May 1872 at Sandy, on Little Cottonwood Creek west of the base of the mountains. It adjoined the site of the Mountain Chief or Mingo works, half a mile south of the Utah Southern Railway station, and was afterward the property of the Mingo Co. The equipment consisted of three vertical blast furnaces with a capacity of 20 tons daily. The ores treated at the smelters at Sandy came mostly from Little Cottonwood and Bingham, though small lots came from the Big Cottonwood, Tintic, and other districts. The Last Chance smelter was situated at Sandy, at the place where the public school building now stands. This plant, which was afterward known as the Flagstaff smelter, had three cupola blast furnaces and used steam as motive power for the blast engines." (Geology And Ore Deposits Of The Cottonwood-American Fork Area, Utah, USGS Professional Paper 201, published in 1943, page 74, citing Utah Mining Gazette, April 11, 1874)

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