Bingham Canyon | |
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Location of Bingham Canyon within the State of Utah | |
Coordinates: 40°33′30″N 112°07′50″W / 40.55833°N 112.13056°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Utah |
County | Salt Lake |
Founded | 1863 |
Incorporated | February 29, 1904 |
Became a city | May 23, 1938 |
Abandoned | 1972 |
Named for | Thomas and Sanford Bingham |
Elevation | 5,938 ft (1,810 m) |
GNIS feature ID | 1425580[1] |
Bingham Canyon was a city formerly located in southwestern Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, in a narrow canyon on the eastern face of the Oquirrh Mountains. The Bingham Canyon area boomed during the first years of the twentieth century, as rich copper deposits in the canyon began to be developed, and at its peak the city had approximately 15,000 residents. The success of the local mines eventually proved to be the town's undoing, however: by the mid-twentieth century, the huge open-pit Bingham Canyon Mine began encroaching on the land of the community, causing residents to relocate. By the 1970s, almost the entirety of the town had been devoured by the mine, and the few remaining residents voted to disincorporate and abandon the community. No trace of Bingham Canyon remains today.[2]