Dividend and the Tintic Standard Mine

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Few today know the story of the Tintic Mining District, but over its long life it produced enough precious metals to have made it one of the richest mining areas in Utah. In total production it was an equal to Park City, and by 1959 the district was ranked 20th in the top 25 gold mining districts of the United States with 2,648,000 ounces produced. Figures for other metals are equally impressive, with 250 million ounces of silver, 250 million pounds of copper, 350 million pounds of zinc, and 2.2 billion pounds of lead produced district wide. By 1976, the estimated value at the time of production of all metals mined was an astounding $568,620,003, a figure which places the Tintic district second in state production behind the massive Bigham mine.

On all sides of the long, North- South Tintic Mountain Range, several mining camps sprung up, lived, and died during the 133 year period mining took place. Unlike some of Utah's better known mining districts, the lower and drier Tintic mountains are geographically unsuited to be revived by ski development, and has like so many other West Desert mining camps faded into near-obscurity. Historically the largest town in the district, Eureka, is today a shadow of its former self with approximately 600 residents. Over a ridge, Mammoth clings to life with only a few dwellings occupied year round. The other towns are today entirely deserted with only a few foundations and structures remaining to park their passing. This is the story of one of those towns, the town that would be known as Dividend...


East Tintic




Dividend







The North Lilly



The Eureka Lilly

The Ghost Towns Have Always Capitvated the Attention

The ghost towns have always captivated the attention of millions of people...

Yet, most who have ever read or wondered about Ghost towns have never had any concerte plans to ever actualy visit one.

And therein lies the true value of so much of the American West.

The wilderness, the open spaces, the mountain ranges, the deserts, the gold, the history and the dreams... The value of these places as intellectual resources have always been neck and neck with their value as material resources. For no matter how much we market ourselves, the great majority of our fellow citizens will be unable, or unwilling, to visit these places in person- and, if they should- only the tiniest minority will have the time and fiance to ever come close to seeing it all. Culturally, however, the idea of The West has perhaps been our country's most valuable export. Every year new films, songs, paintings, books, and even fashions are gobbled up by a public thirsty for an escape, a thrill, an inspiration. And so, in the steady march of time, do our actual histories and our fictionial histories merge and blend in the public consciousness...