Silver and Snow: The Park City Story

"Silver and Snow--The Park City Story," is the first comprehensive documentary on the origins and evolution of a famed mining town that almost died when the mines played out.

The film, written and produced by award-winning Salt Lake City television reporter and filmmaker Larry Warren, tells the story of the eventual rise of Park City into a thriving mining camp second only to Nevada's legendary Comstock Lode in silver production.

The town's miners came from around the world, and produced $400 million in silver ore-effectively creating 23 millionaires.

This film tells the stories of both common miners and mining moguls, like the colorful "Silver Queen" who inherited $100 million and managed to spend it all.

It also documents how the mining fortunes became a cornerstone in the development and rise of Salt Lake City. Its biggest office buildings, apartments and mansions came from Park City mining fortunes, and many civic institutions, from cathedrals to colleges and hospitals, owe their beginnings to the labors of the miners.

"Silver and Snow" documents the rise and decline of the mining industry, to the point where people were moving out of town and taking their houses with them because "The Park" seemed to have no future. At its low ebb in the late 1950's, it was even featured in a guidebook to the ghost towns of the west.

In the early 60's, townspeople and the only remaining mining company decided to bet their future on the fortune which lay above ground--the snow-covered mountains where pioneer miners first started skiing at the turn of the 19th century.

Ski promoters struggled to make a name for Park City, often going bankrupt in the process. But eventually, the word of the bountiful powder snow and wide open slopes reached American skiers, and over time, Park City prospered again from its second "boom" as a world class destination ski resort.

Ski champions like Stein Eriksen and Picabo Street now make Park City their home and work to promote its reputation world wide, a reputation that will grow when Park City Mountain Resort and Deer Valley Resort host the best in the world for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

"Silver and Snow" is photographed by Emmy award winning Utah filmmaker Ken Fall.