Park City Utah has been reinventing itself since the silver mines that created it died in the mid-twentieth century. New to town for the fall of 2009 are the re-opening of the Park City Museum and the opening of the new High West Distillery.
Park City Museum Highlights Mining History
The Park City Museum has been an institution on main Street for many years, but in late October it reopens in a sparkling new facility at the same location. City Hall, built just before the town’s disastrous fire of 1898 (a charred beam can still be seen), became the home for a small museum, which has been transformed into a new state-of-the-art facility that fills the entire of the old building as well as the fire station.
Nineteenth Century Life Recreated
The concept of the museum is to bring people of each historic period to life. Daily life shows up in many ways, but especially at the Smith and Brim grocery store. When the store closed decades ago the entire inventory -- counters and tools to canned goods -- was packed up and saved. They are now reassembled in the museum. Look at an old photo of the store, then look around to see it recreated. In the museum’s cellar is the old Utah Territorial Jail, and on its walls graffiti celebrates the IWW, a labor movement known as the Wobblies.
Silver Mining and Transportation
The silver mining that created Park City shows up throughout the museum. Carts that once hauled ore to the surface and miners down into the mine shafts show how cramped and dangerous the work was. The most exciting part of the exhibits, however, is a three-story tall scale model of the mines under Park City with operating carts, lights and elevators (as well as an unlikely visitor that kids are sure to spot if they look closely). The exhibit on the advent of the railroad, also critical to the town’s development, stars a restored Abbott & Downing stagecoach made in Concord, New Hampshire.
High West Distillery
Park Avenue, parallel to Main Street, is the home of the brand-new High West Distillery, dedicated to the principal that fine rye whiskies deserve the same respect as fine wine. In making that point they have saved two fine old Park City buildings, converting them into a showcase distillery, tasting room, restaurant and lounge. Their current editions include 25-year-old and 16-year-old whiskeys and Rendezvous, a rye that won a double Gold at the 2008 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. They also offer a fine Vodka, Vodka 7000, named for altitude at which it is produced, and a Peach Vodka.
Rye Whiskey with a Historic Preservation Chaser
The new facilities are well worth a visit. In the former National Garage, carefully taken down piece by piece and reassembled on a new foundation, fine dining will be offered in a casual restaurant atmosphere. Rooms of the former rooming house have become comfortable meeting places around the centerpiece of a grand new bar, a class act of recycling and historic preservation. The wood in the bar started life as part of a massive bridge carrying a 19th-century railroad across Great Salt Lake. The High West Distillery is slated to open in late November or December 2009.
The new Park City Museum and the High West Distillery are exciting additions to Park City Utah’s already attractive tourist offerings and make the town even more of a required stop for winter skiers or travelers in any season.
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