Kimberly, Utah facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kimberly
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 Kimberly
Location in Utah
Kimberly
Location in the United States
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| Country | United States |
| State | Utah |
| County | Piute |
| Established | 1890s |
| Abandoned | 1938 |
| Named for | Peter Kimberly |
| Elevation | 8,970 ft (2,734 m) |
| GNIS feature ID | 1446867 |
Kimberly is a ghost town located in Piute County, Utah, United States. A ghost town is a place that used to be a lively community but is now mostly empty. Kimberly was once a busy town where people mined for gold. It was built high up in Mill Canyon, on the side of Gold Mountain, within the Tushar Mountains.
The town was first settled in the 1890s and thrived until about 1910. Kimberly had a brief comeback in the 1930s, but it has been empty since around 1938. This historic town is also known as the birthplace of Ivy Baker Priest, who later became a very important person: the United States Treasurer.
Kimberly's History
How Kimberly Started
People looking for gold, called prospectors, found gold in the Gold Mountain area as early as 1888. In 1891, a man named Newton Hill discovered the famous Annie Laurie mines here. Another person, Willard Snyder, developed the Bald Mountain Mine.
Snyder planned out a townsite in Mill Canyon and named it Snyder City. A few businesses opened there. However, the town really started to grow in 1899. This was when Peter L. Kimberly, an investor from Sharon, Pennsylvania, bought the Annie Laurie and other mines nearby.
Kimberly created a company called the Annie Laurie Consolidated Gold Mining Company. This company built a special mill to process gold using a method called gold cyanidation.
Growing into a Gold Town
The town was renamed Kimberly and quickly became very busy. Mill Canyon's natural shape divided Kimberly into two main parts. Upper Kimberly was the residential area, where people lived, higher up the canyon. Lower Kimberly was the business district, which used to be Snyder City. The main street in Lower Kimberly curved like a horseshoe around the canyon's end.
Kimberly quickly became the most important gold mining town in Utah. It had two hotels, two stores, three saloons, and two newspapers. In 1900, the county created the Gold Mountain School District, and a schoolhouse made of logs was built. The school had its highest number of students, 89, in 1903.
Interestingly, Kimberly's school year was different from most places. Children went to school from April through November. This was to avoid the very deep snows that fell during the winter months.
The years from 1901 to 1908 were the town's best. The Annie Laurie Company bought several other mines and paid out almost $500,000 in dividends (money paid to investors). By 1902, the Annie Laurie Company employed 300 miners, and Kimberly's population reached 500 people.
The steep road in the canyon was always full of wagons. These wagons carried ore (rock with gold), bullion (gold bars), and supplies to and from the train station in the town of Sevier. All this heavy traffic helped keep the road clear even in winter.
During this busy time, Ivy Baker Priest was born in Kimberly in 1905. Her house was at the north end of Lower Kimberly. She later became the United States Treasurer under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. This means she was in charge of the country's money!
Kimberly's Decline
| Historical population | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1900 | 104 | — | |
| 1910 | 8 | −92.3% | |
| 1920 | 3 | −62.5% | |
Kimberly's future changed when Peter Kimberly died in 1905. The Annie Laurie Company was sold to a British company. This new company didn't have much experience running a mine. They tried to save money by paying workers with scrip, which was like special money that could only be used at the company store. Miners were unhappy and started to quit.
The company borrowed a lot of money to build a new processing mill. Then, a financial crisis called the Panic of 1907 hit, leaving the company in a difficult spot. The Annie Laurie Consolidated Gold Mining Company went bankrupt (ran out of money) in 1910. This led to the mines closing and the town becoming empty.
In 1902, Peter Kimberly had refused an offer of $5,000,000 for his company's assets. But after the bankruptcy, everything was sold at an auction for only $31,000. The 1910 United States Census showed that Kimberly's population had dropped to just 8 people.
For several years, only a few people stayed in Kimberly to do small maintenance jobs. Then, in 1931, a new vein (a layer of valuable ore) of gold was found. A smaller mill was built, and the company hired about 50 men to work the mine. Kimberly came back to life for a short time!
However, this new gold and silver ore was mined out by 1938. Kimberly was abandoned again. Most of the buildings that could be saved were moved away by 1942. The old jailhouse was claimed by both Piute County and the Gold Hill Mining Company. After many years in Kimberly, it was moved to Pioneer Village, which is now at Lagoon Amusement Park in northern Utah.
Kimberly is located at a very high elevation, which means it's hard to reach for much of the year due to snow. But many parts of the old town can still be seen. The upper part of the canyon is filled with tailings (waste material from mining). You can still see the ruins of many log and wooden buildings along the lower canyon. The frame of the Annie Laurie mill is still standing, and a few mine buildings are mostly intact.
