Nostalgia & History > Watercolor Wednesday: Abandoned and Washed Out

This represents a scene near Tooele, Utah, on a spur that ran north from the Tooele Valley Ry. down the slope from the smelter there, about 1968. I never found out what the track was used for. The view is to the west, towards Grantsville and the south end of the Great Salt Lake.
Tooele had the short line that connected with both the UP and the WP at the station of Warner, and ran in the streets east up the hill, carrying ores and other smelting supplies to (IIRC) the American Smelting and Refining Co. operation above and east of town. This is on the west side of the Oquirhh Mountains where the huge Kennecott pit is visible from Salt Lake City. I believe that they did smelting for several smaller mining operations around the west.

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Very nice....thank you for posting. B

railstiesballast Wrote:
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> This represents a scene near Tooele, Utah, on a
> spur that ran north from the Tooele Valley Ry.
> down the slope from the smelter there, about 1968.
> I never found out what the track was used for.
> The view is to the west, towards Grantsville and
> the south end of the Great Salt Lake.
> Tooele had the short line that connected with both
> the UP and the WP at the station of Warner, and
> ran in the streets east up the hill, carrying ores
> and other smelting supplies to (IIRC) the American
> Smelting and Refining Co. operation above and east
> of town. This is on the west side of the Oquirhh
> Mountains where the huge Kennecott pit is visible
> from Salt Lake City. I believe that they did
> smelting for several smaller mining operations
> around the west.


This spur went to the Elton Tunnel. The dirt that they collected from the tunnel they dumped over the sides of the trestle in Middle canyon. I wish I could help out more about the tunnel.

MrOGDEN