One of the last working mines in American Fork Canyon, the so-named Live Yankee Mine, has been called "a testament to grim determination."

After a railroad and then a wagon train ore hauling service failed in the canyon in the 1870s, miners at the Live Yankee Mine got creative in the 1930s, building a tram system in the canyon.

"Towers from their four-and-a-half-mile-long tramway still stand in the canyons, a testament to grim determination," according to "History of the Uinta National Forest: A Century of Stewardship" edited by Shaun R. Nelson.

Since it was abandoned, the legacy of the mine has become poisonous.

Water that naturally flows out of one passage of the mine is essentially clean, but once outside the mine, the water travels over mine waste, where it picks up lead and zinc that far exceed federal clean water standards, according to a Trout Unlimited cleanup proposal to Snowbird, based on federal test data.

This has had disastrous effects on a stream in Mary Ellen Gulch. Two Forest Service studies showed that macro-invertebrates "tiny simple organisms that fish depend on for food " were "plentiful and robust" in the stream above the mine, but for several thousand feet below the mine, they were "nearly nonexistent." The demise of these creatures is "due directly to the high levels of zinc in the stream."

By today, all that will begin to change. Rather than removing the mine slag, which would be expensive and difficult because of the remote location of the mine, workers are installing a concrete wall and redirecting water through conduits over the slag so that it will arrive into the stream in the same clean condition that it left the mine, said Jared Ishkanian of Snowbird.

The project is not the first of its kind for Snowbird, and may not be the last, Ishkanian said.

In August 2006, Snowbird garnered attention as a national model for overcoming the red tape that has so far stymied the cleanup of half a million toxic abandoned mines on private property around the West. That month marked the end of a 3-year private cleanup effort, sponsored by Trout Unlimited, that removed contaminated earth from 11 mine sites owned by Snowbird resort along American Fork River in the Mineral Basin area. The project was the first of its kind in the nation.

Snowbird resort did not create the contamination and is not responsible for its cleanup, according to federal law, but helped pay the $1.5 million cost of cleanup anyway, along with donations from Trout Unlimited and Tiffany & Co., the New York City-based jeweler famous for its pricey blue-boxed baubles.

Federal law demanded that only a full cleanup be done, making a private effort all but prohibitive. But Trout Unlimited petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to allow the nonprofit to conduct a partial cleanup, moving the tailings away from the watershed areas in order to remove 90 percent of contaminants. It took two years, but the EPA finally agreed to waive liability for a nonprofit to do a site cleanup.

Snowbird won a handful of awards for the 2006 project and is committed to continue to do what it can to clean up land that it owns it the canyon, Ishkanian said.

Both Snowbird and Trout Unlimited praised the project underway this week.

"From Snowbird's perspective, this is a creative and effective way to help the environment along the Wasatch," Ishkanian said.

"Trout Unlimited has been proud to ally with Snowbird on the precedent-setting cleanups of the Pacific and Live Yankee Mines," said Ted Fitzgerald of Trout Unlimited. "Both the local habitat in American Fork Canyon and large numbers of people who enjoy this recreational area will clearly benefit from this restoration project."

History of the American Fork Mining District, excerpted from "History of the Uinta National Forest: A Century of Stewardship" edited by Shaun R. Nelson:

"In the 1860's, mining was a costly venture in Utah. The costs of transport made mining barely feasible. In 1869, with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad and the North-South Railroad Lines, the cost-effective transport of ore became a reality. Col. Connor's prospecting patrols had aided in the discovery of precious metals along the Wasatch Range, and the mining industry in the mountains of the Uinta exploded ...

Early mining claims resulted in the checkerboard of public and private property in the canyon, a pattern of ownership that complicates right of ways and ecological land management aspects.

Among the first mines established in American Fork Canyon was the Pittsburgh Mine just south of Alta. It was discovered by soldiers from Fort Douglas and officially located by them in 1870. A flurry of activity followed and the American Fork Mining District was formed in July of 1870. Soon thereafter, Jacob and William Miller found rich ore deposits on what would become known as Miller Hill. The following year, they sold their claim to the Aspinwall Steamship Company of New York City. Aspinwall had the capital to develop the mines and soon they became the leading producer in the canyon and a catalyst for the development of transportation systems there.

The American Fork Railroad Company was established in April of 1872 by the Aspinwall Steamship Company in order to haul ore from the Miller Hill mines to American Fork City. The railroad was to end at the Sultana Smelter at Forest City at the mouth of Mary Ellen Gulch which was near the head of American Fork Canyon.

A grade was completed all the way up to Forest City but a proposed trestle to climb the "Z" Dugway near Major Evans Gulch would have been too steep. The decision was made to terminate the railroad at a large flat near Deer Creek, the site of present day Tibble Fork Reservoir. The little town that sprang up there to service the railroad was known as Deer Creek City.

The grade constructed to the Sultana Smelter was used by wagons to haul the ore to Deer Creek, and it continues to be used today to access the head of American Fork Canyon.

Two locomotives operated on this line, an 0-4-4 named the 'American Fork,' which operated until 1873, and an 0-6-0 which operated from 1874 to 1878. These locomotives hauled not only ore, but lumber for use in and around American Fork City. Records indicate that horses or mules were sometimes used to pull the flat cars up the canyon and ... going down was no problem at all, it being possible to get from Deer Creek to American Fork on a flatcar by judicious use of the brakes. In 'Histories of American Fork Canyon,' Alan Stauffer mentions an injury occurring while coasting a flatcar down canyon: 'John Chadwick was one of the first brakemen. On November 24, 1873, he fell off his speeding car and was injured, causing him to miss five days of work. Pay was $3 per day (Stauffer 1971).' No mention is made about what happened to the unmanned car.

In 1876, the ore bodies on Miller Hill began to give out and mining activity in the American Fork Mining District began to decline. The Sultana Smelter was dismantled and Forest City was never again as large or as important. Several of the larger mines were leased to smaller operators and a few local operators continued their own mining operations.

Due to the decline in mining activity, the cost of operating the railroad became prohibitive. To help cover the operating costs, the train was made available for sight seeing trips into the canyon. By 1878, revenue could not cover operating costs and the railroad was discontinued. The associated hardware, including the track, was sold. By June of 1878, all that remained of the railroad was an abandoned grade. As a result, the remaining mines in the canyon experienced a transportation crisis until the formation of the American Fork Wagon Road Company, which established a toll road over the former railroad grade.

Though mining continued in the canyon, the years between 1872-76 saw the most productive period in the American Fork Mining District, in which over $2,000,000 worth of gold, silver and lead was recovered ... Mining activity did surge again after the turn of the century when George Tyng relocated the rich ore bodies in Miller Hill that had brought the mining district to life in the first place. There was also a resurgence during World War I, when many world metal sources were cut off from U.S. markets. Even creative attempts by miners at the Yankee in Mary Ellen Gulch in the 1930's to reduce ore transport costs were not enough to keep canyon mining alive. Towers from their four-and-a-half mile long tramway still stand in the canyons, a testament to grim determination. Mining in American Fork Canyon came to a close, for the most part, by 1950."