The Ontario Mine and the Hearst Fortune
Near Park City, Utah
On January nineteenth, eighteen seventy-two, four prospectors working in the hills above Park City discovered a rich vein of silver ore on a ridge they would name the Ontario. The discovery was extraordinary: the ore carried roughly four hundred ounces of silver per ton, among the richest concentrations found anywhere in the American West. Word spread quickly, and within months the mine attracted the attention of a California mining speculator named George Hearst.
Hearst bought the Ontario Mine soon after, working through his partner R. C. Chambers. He understood exactly what he had bought. Over the following decades, the Ontario Mine produced tens of millions of dollars in silver and became one of the most productive mines in American history. It was one of the principal sources of the Hearst family fortune, which George's son William Randolph Hearst would use to build one of the largest media empires in American history, publishing dozens of newspapers and eventually constructing the famous Hearst Castle on the California coast. The silver under Park City Mountain helped fund a dynasty.
The Ontario Mine operated for more than a century, with production fluctuating as silver prices changed. At its peak, the mine employed hundreds of workers. The company built roads, utilities, and housing that became the infrastructure of the broader community. The Ontario Mine complex is still visible above the town, its structures preserved as a reminder of the industrial enterprise that put Park City on the map before a single ski run had been cut into the mountain above it.
