A piece of Western mining history stands tall in Utah town of Eureka

Eureka • Wasatch Front travelers heading to Little Sahara Sand Dunes for Easter weekend fun will likely drive past the Bullion Beck and Champion Mining Company Headframe in Eureka without realizing its history.

The big frame, which measures 40 by 90 feet and is about 70 feet in height, stands on the outskirts of this old mining town.

According to the Utah Division of State History, the frame was perched over a deep mining shaft. It was constructed in 1890 and used to transport men, mules, supplies and oar in and out of the underground workings.

"Over the shaft is a main building of hoisting works," reported The Salt Lake Tribune in a Jan. 1, 1891 story. "This is a substantially-framed structure, 40 by 119 feet, and high enough to take in the gallows frame, that being one of the best and strongest in the country…There are no better frame timbers or larger ones than these in Utah."

The frame, according to the Division of History, allowed mining from depths of 300 to more than 3,000 feet below the surface. Two Frazer and Chalmers 500-horsepower engines moved cages that traveled in and out of the vertical shaft.

Though the shaft is covered, the frame remains. Since this type of frame is rare, historians say it serves as a symbol for the Western mining landscape.

This was one of Eureka's four big mines. The others, the Gemini, Eureka Hill and Centennial Eureka or Blue Rock, are all visible from the Beck.

According to Western Mining History, the Beck produced lead, copper, zinc and silver.

Today, there is a parking area at the base of the large frame with a historical marker telling its history that can be seen in a short stop for those driving through Eureka.