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257 A TOWN AT WORK early 1900's . ~ the sm I f~€ foreigners brought something to Murray as his we ter sh ould not be forgotten. In addition to the 1t he got ~rk~:r_workers there were other foreign-born :osis" Th be, who were attracted to Murray and who . e Cc:: . . l provided 'th eir Influence felt upon the community. The idn't beli f(, . who for the most part were not smelter- Went to ~V~ developed be autiful truck farms in the I confirmed O,y com munity . Th ese farmers provided work Ir 's report tIe smelter-workers when the smelters shut Jut he did wa~. The foreign ers helped each other out, officials n~t ' w e re a united people and determined to Jrming th ~ a suc cess of th eir lives in America. The sed by th~ s~s , Mash . DeNlro. Pilatti. Sardella. and Vicre in his ~ - some of the early truck-farmers in Mur~ Compa~~nl. are co mmon in the c ommunity today. ·; rrs wa~ without he sme lters of Murra y played a big role in k'nd of perp'iShin g Murray ·s heritag e. wit h the A . S. & ~ fore he wa,ak ing the lead . The A. S. & R. operat ed for ClS wage Of f lY thirty years at a near-capacity. but as the ~s of Bingham . Park City . Tint ic and others 3t they ' ou t. so did production at the sme lter. During ady hadwere~ years from 1902-1931 the A. S. & R. became intage of a largest buyer of leiJd in the co untry and was lme treat 't~a lor producer of many products from gold to vived in rn\e nic. but In 1931 the smelter shut down for breed th MLarl y seve n months because of a shortage of ore ng tad aIFp this wa s the b eg inning of the end. ;' DUring Murra ay. ~ depressio n work really slacked off in th e ~port h y Whel ter. with many temporary shutdowns. Producforei as ~n pick ed up a littl e during the war years, but olidar~tne;sJ II the smelter's end wou ld be announced before y 0 e decade of th e fifties. I If ] Mur Th e Murray Eag le. the local weekly news- the ~f~,,. per, reported th at a fifty-year openhouse celer era a ''irati on for th e A. S. & R, was held in April, 1949." foreig andjowever, only five months after this jubilee, R. D. and n ~toaradford, the general manager of the A. S. & R. fry toP2de~nn ounced that th e plant would close permanFe in M ee1tntl y Th e gradual shutdown of operations began st-side ur'<pn October 15 , 1949 and by November, 1950, the ) foreig~~~lant was c losed co mpletely and dismantlement iore than htJegan, 'ing smell, Th e c lo si ng of the Murray plant brought an industrio,!end to a fabulous era which began eighty years able. Th~ bef o r e on the banks of Big Cottonwood Creek )r that thEi wh en the Woodhull Brothers found a favorable Jotleggin( Pl ace to smelt their ores. Since 1950 to the pres~ of c/osf' ent. the City of Murray has been in a state of did eve0! transition. The 1,000-1 ,500 former employees of and we,} th e A, S. & R. have gone to the Garfield plant, or I feel th';) ~ound new occupations . The. foreign element ,. Nhlc h dominated the west side IS all but gone , as 0reigner:: are most of the dwellings , The smelter smoke is Ir .n, Murra) ' 75. :rant Ele- I ! • ! :1 Il lbid . I:Webb , " Fact s and Informati on abou t Murray City," p . " ;Ahlbe rg , " A Hi story of Murray to 1905." ,p. 72. I;Murray Eag le . 1 April 1949. l' lbid ., 2 September 1949. gon e, too, but people are still complaining about the pollution , The smelter property is now being oper ated by new industries and the old slag is t's2d in hig hway and railroad construction. The bus iness dist rict s of Murray which once thrived bec ause of smelter workers has left the do wntown area and shifted many blocks south where the greatest population of Murray is now centered. No w all that is left in the " Heart of Murray" to rem ind us of the smelter period are a few old buil dings, the slag dumps and , of course , the tall stacks on 5300 South . In 1839, in the publication, The Mining Industry of Utah, is was state d that , " Without Utah ' s smelt- ing industry. Utah 's mining industry would be comparat iveiy sma" , but together they make the State the world ' s leading mining center, '" The many smelt ers of Murray and the people who built and operated them piayed a major role in helping the State of Ut3h ac hie ve this status. . ' T/ :c M ining InduSlry of Ul ah. p. 13. Books All er . J. Cecil . Ulah . The Sio r ied Dom ain . 3 vol s. Chicago and New Yo rk: The American Hi storica l Society In c .. 1932. Th e MIf)JIlg fn dusl ry o f Ulah. Salt Lake City . Utah: Chamber 01 Comm erce . 1941 . Sloa n. Edward L .. ed. Gazetee r of Ul ah and Salt Lake Cily Dire clory. Salt Lake City. Utah : Herald Prin ting and Publishing Company . 1874 . Sl oan . Robert W .. ed. Ulah Gazeteer and Direclory . Salt Lak e City. Utah : Heral d Prin tin g and Publi sh ing Compan y, 1884 . Stenhouse. T. B. H. Th e Rocky Mountain Saints. London: Ward . Lock and Tyler. 1874. Periodicals Arr ingto n. Leonard J .. " Abundance from the Earth: Th e Begin ning 0 1 Com merc ial Mining in Utah. ·' Utah Hislor i cal Ou arl erly 3 1 (Summer 1963) : 192-219. Jen so n, Andrew. ed .. The Historic al Reco rd , De ce mb er 1887, p , 29 1. Ledyard , Ed gar M .. ' ·Earl y Mining and Smelting South of Salt Lake Ci ty,· ' Ax-I-Dent-Ax . May 1931. Murray Eagle , 1 Ap ril: 2 September: 14 October 1949. Salt Lake Herald. 21 October 1904 . Th e Sail Lake Mining Re view , 1(30 May 1899) :5 16(30 Se ptember 1914) :11-18. Salt Lake Telegram, 7 Jun e 1939. Smith . Josep h F. . Jr. , ed. The Improvement Era, January , A pri l. October, 1905. Utah Mining Gazette, 13 Septe mber 1873, W allace, Robert. " Earl y History of Lead Smelting in the West.'· Ax-I-Dent-Ax, May 1929. Unpublished Materials Ah lberg , Clinton R., " A History of Murray to 1905," Masters' thesis, Brigham Young University , 1959, Cl egg, Reed , " A Soc iological Survey of the Murray Community.· ' Masters ' thesis, University of Utah, 1937. Ra smu sse n. R, R., " Hi story of Murray, " In posess ion of Muiray City Re corde r, 1936 (typewritten). Snarr. G, Webb, " Facts and Information about Murray City, The Center of Salt Lake County. " Prepared by Mu rray City Elementary Schools Summer Workshop , 1965 (typewritten).