Cyanide Process

Mercur began in 1870 as the silver camp of Lewiston, then became the place where cyanide leaching first made Utah’s fine-grained gold pay. After two fires, a railroad over the mountain and a steel mill on the hillside, the ore ran out in 1913, and a modern open pit later excavated the old townsite. Today it is private land inside an active mining project, and a cemetery and a rich photographic record are what remain.