Lark, Utah

Lark is a ghost town located 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Herriman in the Oquirrh Mountains of southwest Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. Lark was the location of several copper mines.

Lark
Ghost town
Lark is located in Utah
Lark
Lark
Location of Lark within the State of Utah
Lark is located in the United States
Lark
Lark
Lark (the United States)
Coordinates: 40°31′30″N 112°05′47″W
CountryUnited States
StateUtah
CountySalt Lake
Founded1866
Abandoned1978
Named forA prospector named Lark
Elevation
[1]
5,541 ft (1,689 m)
GNIS feature ID1437617[1]

History

The discovery of gold in Bingham Canyon in 1863 brought a rush of prospectors, two of whom were named Dalton and Lark. Settlements with these names grew up around the two mining claims, but Dalton was later merged into Lark.[2] The town of Lark was officially established January 3, 1866.[3]

The town had enough Latter-day Saint residents by 1918 to be made a ward, but by 1923, the ward was reduced to a branch. It had 234 members in 1930.[4]

By 1929, Lark was a company town of the United States Smelting and Refining Company, which expanded the town through the 1940s and 1950s. At its peak, the population exceeded 800. Then the nearby non-copper mines began to close, and the town went into decline. The last silver, zinc, and lead mine closed about 1971. In 1972, Kennecott Copper bought the land, and on December 14, 1977, the company announced the termination of the 51 families' leases on the land where homes had been built, and gave them notices of eviction.[5][6] The company wanted the land to dump large quantities of overburden from nearby Bingham Canyon Mine. The population was 591, and Kennecott helped move people and some homes, even preparing a subdivision in nearby Copperton.[2] By 1978, Lark was dismantled.[3]

Lark's most famous citizen was Vina Fay Wray, who portrayed Ann Darrow in the 1933 movie King Kong. As a child Wray lived in two locations in Salt Lake City, and also in Lark, before her family moved to Los Angeles.

See also

References
  1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Lark
  2. Carr, Stephen L. (1986) [June 1972]. The Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns (3rd ed.). Salt Lake City, Utah: Western Epics. p. 159. ISBN 0-914740-30-X.
  3. Van Cott, John W. (1990). Utah Place Names. Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press. p. 222. ISBN 0-87480-345-4.
  4. Jenson, Andrew. Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1941) p.414.
  5. "A Tiny Town's Last New Year", by Billy Bowles, Detroit Free Press, December 27, 1977, p.1 (includes photo of the town before demolition)
  6. "Get Out of Town, Copper Firm Tells 591 Residents", by David Johnston, Los Angeles Times, December 18, 1977, p.I-1

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