Tintic Mining District

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This page was last updated on September 22, 2025.

Overview

(The focus of this information is to describe mines and mills at Tintic that used railroad transportation, using sources not previously readily available.)

The Tintic Mining District in central Utah was the home of some of the richest silver mines in the West. The first silver ore was discovered in 1869 by George Rust, a cowboy herding cattle in Ruby Hollow, three miles south of what would later be the town of Eureka. Word soon spread and many other mines were very soon being developed. Those early miners organized the Tintic Mining District in December 1869, taking its name from the large open valley to the west. The valley got its name in 1856, from a local Ute chief who died from wounds received during the brief "Tintic War", also in 1856.

The first successful Tintic mines came in the early months of 1870, and included mines all along the western slopes of the East Tintic Mountains, from north to south, mines in Eureka, Mammoth Hollow, Ruby Hollow, and Diamond Gulch. Eureka came into being as the area surrounding the Eureka Hill mine was developed.

Quoting D&RGW's 1938 summary of branchlines, "This camp has been a steady producer and, even during the years when silver prices were low, production has been relatively continuous at some of the properties. Notable among producing mines of this district are the Mammoth, Grand Central, Eagle and Blue Bell, Chief Consolidated, Bullion, Beck, and others."

Tintic Mines and Mills

Tintic Mills

Tintic Mills -- Information about the large reducing and concentrating mills at Tintic, including the Mammoth and Sioux (Farrell) mills. Includes a glossary of terms of processes in the milling of ore.

Early Tintic Mills -- Information about the early mills at Tintic, 1872 to the mid-1890s.

Ajax Mine

Ajax Mine -- Information about the Ajax mine, including its predecessor companies Mammoth Copperopolis (1871-1875), then British Tintic Mining (1877-1883), then American Eagle (1883-1894), then Ajax after 1894.

Centennial-Eureka Mine and Mill

Centennial-Eureka -- Information about the Centennial-Eureka mine, including its predecessor companies.

Grand Central Mine

Grand Central Mine -- Information about the Grand Central mine in Mammoth Hollow in the Tintic Mining District.

Mammoth Mine and Mill

Mammoth Mine and Mill -- Information about the Mammoth mine and mill, including information about its predecessor companies.

Sioux Mine and Mill

Sioux Mine and Mill -- Information about the Sioux mine and mill, including information about its predecessor companies, and the Sioux-Ajax Tunnel.

Tintic Railroads

New East Tintic Railway (1896-1900) -- Information about New East Tintic Railway, builder of UP's Mammoth Branch in the Tintic Mining District, and the original operator of Union Pacific's only Shay locomotives.

Salt Lake & Western Railway (1881-1889) -- Information about the predecessor to UP's early Tintic Branch between Lehi and Tintic

Tintic Railroads -- An updated version of the original text used for an article published as "UP's Tintic Subdivision" in The Streamliner, Volume 19, Number 3, Summer 2005, published by the Union Pacific Historical Society. The article in The Streamliner includes 32 photos (three in color, plus the color cover), and seven maps, along with locomotive diagrams, timetable entries, and track profiles of the branches where UP ran its Shay locomotives.

UP-LA&SL Tintic Branches -- A list of UP's Tintic Branches, including their mileposts and stations.

Tintic Range Railway (1891-1908) -- Information about the Tintic Range Railway, which became D&RG's Tintic Branch in 1908. Although the information has always been available on other pages, it is also presented here to have it all on a single page. Includes links to additional information about the Tintic Branch.

Tintic Southern Railroad (2009-2015) -- Information about the failed Tintic Southern, actively planned from 2009 to 2015 to operate over portions of the former D&RGW Tintic Branch.

Tintic Transportation Tunnels

Sioux-Ajax Tunnel -- Information about the Sioux-Ajax Tunnel between a point near the Ajax mine on the west side of Sioux Peak, and the Sioux mine on the east side.

Tintic Drain Tunnel -- Information about the not-completed Tintic Drain Tunnel, its parent company, the Tintic Drain Tunnel Company, and its Ruby Shaft that shipped ore as part of its vertical shaft meant to meet the horizontal drain tunnel at the "water level." The goal of the drain tunnel was a connection at depth with the shaft of the Dragon mine at the head of Dragon Canyon, east of Silver City. Both mine and drain tunnel were owned by the Knight Investment group.

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