“The last passenger train in Park City” arrives on Thursday

The historians David Nicholas and Stuart Stanek invite the public to rise on Thursday, February 27th, on board the lecture “The Last Passenger Zug to Park City”.

The free presentation begins at 5 p.m. in the educational and collection center of the Park City Museum, 2079 Sidewinder Drive, and information is available online at ParkCityhistory.org.

The museum board member Nicholas and Stanek, a veteran of the Broadcast Media, requested the date on Thursday as a lecture date for a comfortable and historical reason.

“That was the date, Saturday, February 27, 1971, when the last passenger train came to Park City,” said Nicholas.

The lecture is aimed at covering the event, the railway history of Park City, the development of the so -called skiing and the decline of the Intercity passenger service, according to Nicholas.

“Skizers were a product of the global economic crisis,” he said. “The first skizings that came to Park City were in February 1936. The place where we call Snow Park was developed by the WPA and planned the first winter carnival from Park City. So the Rio Grande drove two trains up here and a total of 600 people have registered. “

The lecture will discuss what it was like to drive one of these skizers, said Nicholas.

“I had the opportunity to interview four people in their modern resurrection, which began in 1965 and ran once a year in connection with the winter carnival of Park City until 1971,”, “he said. “The resurrection of the skizug had something to do with Utah's first Olympic offer. In 1965 they announced intentions for the 1972 Winter Olympics. They didn't win, but almost won. “

Union Pacific has contributed to facilitating these resurrections of the skiing, said Nicholals.

“You donated your equipment,” he said. “The trains would take a five -hour trip and leave Salt Lake City, held in Ogden and travel to Echo through Morgan.”

According to Nicholas, the train would bring the Park City to the depot in Echo.

“The trains would be led by the mayor, the Park City Marching Band and the city council members,” he said. “It was a big deal and the trips would be sold out.”

One of the reasons for the demand was the atmosphere of the skizug.

“It was a party train,” said Nicholas. “It was not subject to local alcohol laws because it was under the Federal Railway Administration. So you could bring your own bottles on board and they had set up bar cars. They even desired specially coveted luggage cars for dancing. “

According to Nicholas, two local rock groups played live on the train.

“There was one of Salt Lake City and one from Park City,” he said. “The Park City was the name of the slum galons and were very popular at the end of the 1960s.”

The skizug also attracted celebrities, said Nicholas.

“Jack Palance, Vic Morrow and the Heisman Trophy winner of the University of Utah, Lee Grosscup, would take the train, and they were very generous with their time, the interviews and the like,” he said.

Nicholas and Stanek also plan to talk about what has led to the resurrections of the skizug.

“In the beginning of 1960, fewer than 1,300 people lived here,” he said. “More people were unemployed than busy. The city had been performed as a ghost city in two large reference works, and Summit County added the injury to the injury by removing Park City from his updated card in 1959. “

According to Nicholas, Jack Gallivan, of desolation, including the publisher of Salt Lake Tribune Jack Gallivan, spurred a group of business leaders, including Salt Lake Tribuner.

“Jack Gallivan and a junior senator from Massachusetts named John Kennedy made a close friendship at the end of the 1950s, and Jack played a key role in John Kennedy's presidential election from 1960,” he said. “After Kennedy won, one of his political initiatives was described as a modernized version of the WPA, which was part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal program.”

The ARA should invest in chronically depressive areas and offer long -term solutions for its economic problems, said Nicholas.

“Community officers, state officials and mines for United Park City submitted an application, and in 1962 Jack Gallivan organized a press lunch with Kennedy, who was elected president and members of the media in Utah,” he said. “In the course of lunch, Kennedy asked if he could do something and Jack brought the suggestion. Kennedy then turned to his press spokesman Pierre Sallinger and said: “Make it possible.”

With these words, the federal government approved a loan of 1.2 million US dollars for the development of what would become Treasure Mountain, and the Mine of the United Park City corresponded to the scholarship, said Nicholas.

“Treasure Mountain, who was later to become Park City Mountain, was opened in 1963, and as part of the promotion of the resort, the state was imposed on the skizings that have not been opened since World War II,” he said.

Nicholas will then surround the lecture as to why Park City drove the last passenger train into the city on February 27, 1971.

“Although Park City had gone economically better, the nation's Intercity Rail Travel was in a free fall and that led to the nationalization of passenger tracks in the country,” he said. “Amtrak was founded in 1971 and Union Pacific joined.”

To do this, Union Pacific had to enter all of her equipment and facilities, and according to Nicholas, they could no longer offer passenger services, including special excursions.

“All people who were on this last train didn't know that this would be their last trip,” he said.

Special guests Alan Dearden and his sister Marian McGuire will also take part in Nicholas and Stanek's lecture.

“Her father was the Union Pacific Station Agent for Park City from 1957 to 1977,” said Nicholas. “They lived over an active train station in Park City, so they add a perspective for how it really was when the trains are still important.”

Nicholas believes that this lecture now has special relevance due to the upcoming winter games of 2034.

“Since this announcement, alternative transport options have been talked about and maybe dreams,” he said. “Could there be a rail connection between the airport in Salt Lake and Park City again? Trains came up in the past. So why couldn't you do it in the future? “

“The last passenger train in Park City – everything on board!”

• When: 5 p.m., Thursday, February 27th
• Where: Image and collection center of the Park City Museum, Sidewinder Drive 2079
• Cost: Free
• Web: parkcityhistory.org/events

Related stories