Abandoned Towns
A boarded-up, unpainted frame house with a brick chimney and a No Trespassing sign, in sagebrush below bare hills at Mammoth

Silver mining town · Gold mining town

Mammoth

The town below the Mammoth Mine, one of the big producers of the Tintic Mining District. It had roughly 1,800 to 3,000 people around 1910 and about 35 people in the National Register inventory. People still live here, and the mine ground is private.

39°55′38″N 112°07′26″W · ≈6,460 ft

Photo: The Utahraptor at en.wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Inhabited; tourist access not verified

Mammoth is a semi-ghost town with residents. KSL reported on June 26, 2026, that the Juab County Sheriff's Office ordered "residents of Eureka, Mammoth, and Silver City" to evacuate ahead of the Cherry Fire, and on June 28 that they could go home. That confirms residents, not permission for sightseeing. We have not verified current visitor access or which lanes are public. Houses and mining claims are private. A 2019 trip report ends at a No Trespassing sign on the road up to the mine. Do not cross gates, posted boundaries or private yards.

Overview

The town below the Mammoth Mine

Mammoth sits in a canyon on the west side of the East Tintic Mountains, about three miles south of Eureka. The Mammoth claim was located on February 26, 1870, about the same time as the first strikes at Eureka, and a camp grew up just below the mine. There was no water. The mines piped it in for their own use, and residents paid ten cents a gallon to drink.

The town really took off after the railroad reached the district in 1891 and the Mammoth Mining Company built its mill at the mouth of Mammoth Hollow in 1893–1894 (UtahRails says 1894; Western Mining History says December 1893). A second town, Robinson, grew up around the mill half a mile below the first one, with the Hotel Mammoth and, by 1898, a depot shared by two railroads. In 1910 the two merged and incorporated as Mammoth City. Sources disagree on how big it was: one gives 1,828 people that year, another about 2,800 in 350 houses, and Wikipedia puts the peak at 2,500 to 3,000, with a school and four large hotels.

The decline was quick. A court cut several hundred acres out of the city in 1925, fires in 1926 and 1928 took the company store and the mine office, and the city disincorporated on November 29, 1929. About 750 people were left in 1930. The mine shipped ore by truck through the 1930s and UtahRails records its last reported shipment in May 1958. The National Register inventory accompanying the 1979 listing described sporadic mine operation through 1977 and about 35 residents. The post office had been closed since 1973. June 2026 reporting confirms residents still lived here. Ivanhoe Electric reported exploration drilling in 2022–2024; those reports do not establish current operations or visitor access.

Timeline

From the Mammoth claim to the Cherry Fire

  1. The Mammoth claim is located on February 26, 1870, by a group of miners associated with the Crismon family. A camp grows up below the mine.
  2. Crismon trades his share of the mine to Samuel and William McIntyre for cattle. The McIntyre family runs the Mammoth for decades.
  3. English investors option the mine and build smelters. The venture fails within the year and leaves lawsuits behind.
  4. Mammoth gets a post office.
  5. The Denver & Rio Grande Western reaches the Tintic district. By 1892 about 300 people live in Mammoth, with saloons, stores and a hotel.
  6. Falling silver and lead prices close most Tintic mines in 1893. The Mammoth reopens with a small crew in May. The company's mill at the mouth of Mammoth Hollow is built in 1893–1894, and a second town, Robinson, grows up around it half a mile below Mammoth.
  7. The Hotel Mammoth operates in Robinson. A rail branch to the mills is completed.
  8. The Mammoth Mining Company recovers 8,271 ounces of gold and 178,976 ounces of silver in the year.
  9. Mammoth and Robinson incorporate together as Mammoth City. One account puts the population at 1,828; another at about 2,800 in 350 houses.
  10. Fire destroys the post office, a confectionery and a movie theater in old Robinson. The city council organizes a volunteer fire department that August.
  11. A court ruling in July 1925 removes several hundred acres from the city. Fires in 1926 and 1928 burn the company store and the mine office.
  12. Mammoth City disincorporates. By 1930 the population is about 750.
  13. Trucks haul ore to the railroad at Mammoth Station: 474 carloads in 1935, 938 in 1937.
  14. UtahRails records a 120-ton shipment, its last reported shipment from the mine. The National Register inventory instead described sporadic operation through 1977.
  15. The post office closes.
  16. The Mammoth Historic District, about 170 acres, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The inventory accompanying the listing counts some 35 residents.
  17. Ivanhoe Electric drills below the old Mammoth Mine as part of its Tintic copper-gold project on private mining claims.
  18. The Cherry Fire, started by lightning southwest of town, forces Mammoth, Eureka and Silver City to evacuate on June 26. Residents are allowed home two days later.

Fire insurance maps

The town on paper, 1898 and 1908

Sanborn fire insurance map of Mammoth, sheet 1, September 1898: the lower town's blocks, the shared depot, Farrel's Mill and the Mammoth mill
Sanborn fire insurance map of Mammoth, sheet 1, September 1898: the lower town's blocks, the shared depot, Farrel's Mill and the Mammoth mill · Photo: Sanborn-Perris Map Company, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Sanborn fire insurance map of Mammoth, sheet 1, May 1908: Emerald, Opex, Ajax and Mammoth avenues, the Hotel Mammoth and the livery
Sanborn fire insurance map of Mammoth, sheet 1, May 1908: Emerald, Opex, Ajax and Mammoth avenues, the Hotel Mammoth and the livery · Photo: Sanborn Map Company, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

These Sanborn fire insurance plans date from 1898 and 1908. The Library of Congress holds the sheets, and these published pre-1931 maps are public domain. The September 1898 sheet gives a population of 450 and notes that the town had no fire engine and drew its water from the Mammoth mill. It draws the Kirkendall hotel on Mammoth Avenue, the Rio Grande Western and Oregon Short Line depot, the New East Tintic Railway curving up toward the mine, Farrel's 20-stamp mill and the Mammoth Mining Company's mill with its ore bins and pan floor.

By May 1908 the sheet shows a grid of streets named for the mines, Emerald, Opex, Ajax and Mammoth avenues crossed by Gold and Mercury streets, with the Hotel Mammoth, a livery, a loading platform on the Salt Lake Route spur and a pumping station for the Grand Central Mine. Its notes say the water came from the Mammoth Mining Company's pumping station, for domestic use only, and that there was still no fire department.

What's left

What's left

The National Register inventory accompanying the 1979 listing enumerates 49 properties. Most are small frame houses built between 1892 and 1910, several of them owned by the Mammoth Mining Company for its staff, and the nomination says about 85 percent of the existing structures date from those years. It also lists the brick fire station of about 1930 on Main Street, one of two commercial buildings left; the Mammoth Supply store of about 1926, which replaced the company store lost in the 1926 fire; the mine's residence, office and surface plant below the mine, with a two-story boarding house dated to about 1875; the site of the Tintic Miners' Hospital, which served the district from 1902 to 1933; the Farrell Mill site of 1895; a ball park grandstand; a stone cellar; and the concrete foundations of the school and the LDS ward.

A visitor in August 2020 found a few remnants of the original town and, at the old Robinson townsite, ruins and shacks among occupied homes, with the fire station still standing. The National Map's aerial view below shows the same picture: a loose grid of lanes with houses on some lots and sagebrush on the rest, and the mine roads climbing the hill above.

The old USGS sheets in the historic maps below tell the story in names. The 1885 survey, at 1:250,000, marks Diamond City, Silver City, Homansville and Tintic but does not label Mammoth. The 1979 Lynndyl sheet labels Mammoth between Eureka and Silver City, off US 6 near Tintic Junction. The Sanborn plans above show the buildings and streets at much closer scale.

  • Frame houses, 1890s–1910
  • Fire station (c. 1930)
  • Mammoth Supply store (c. 1926)
  • Mine office (c. 1928) and residence
  • Boarding house (c. 1875)
  • Mine surface plant
  • Gold Chain trestle remnant
  • Farrell Mill site (1895)
  • Tintic hospital site and marker
  • School and LDS ward foundations
USGS topographic map of Mammoth, with Ajax Avenue, Sioux Avenue, Underwood Drive and Main Street, and Diamond Pass to the southeast
USGS The National Map, topo. The town grid between Ajax and Sioux avenues; Main Street and Underwood Drive climb toward the mine. Diamond Pass is to the southeast.
Aerial view of Mammoth: scattered houses along a grid of dirt lanes in a sagebrush canyon, with juniper-covered slopes above
Aerial imagery, same area. Houses on some lots, sagebrush on the rest, and roads climbing the slope above.

Historic maps

Mammoth on USGS maps, 1885–1979

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Mammoth, 1885
Sevier Desert sheet, 1885, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

These routes end in lower Mammoth near Ajax Avenue and Midway Street; they do not establish public access to every lane or the mine. Eureka is the nearest town. From Salt Lake City the route runs down I-15 to Lehi, then Redwood Road along the west shore of Utah Lake and US 6 southwest toward Eureka. The turnoff for Mammoth leaves US 6 about two and a half miles south of Eureka's Main Street.

USGS topographic map between Eureka, Mammoth and Silver City with the route from Eureka drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From Railroad Street in Eureka4.2 miabout 11 min
  1. From Railroad Street, go left, then slight right on Maccey Street and left on McCrystal Street to Main Street.0.4 mi
  2. Turn left on Main Street, US 6, and follow it southwest out of Eureka.2.4 mi
  3. Turn left off US 6 onto the road into Mammoth. Keep straight, then bear left on Ajax Avenue and turn right on Midway Street.1.4 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • A March 2019 trip report says the road into Mammoth is paved and fine for a 2WD car, and ends at a No Trespassing sign on the way up to the mine. The National Register inventory also called Main Street paved. Neither source establishes present road conditions or permission to enter.
  • People live here. Road ownership and visitor access have not been verified. Do not enter yards, buildings, posted roads or mine workings.
  • Old shafts and workings cover the hill above town. Stay out of them.
  • After the June 2026 Cherry Fire, KSL reported on July 3 that the Hiskey, Cherry Creek and Elberta Slant roads south and west of town were closed until further notice under BLM and Forest Service orders. We have not established whether those orders remain in force. Check agency notices before considering back roads.
  • Bring supplies; current visitor services in Mammoth have not been confirmed. Eureka City lists the Tintic Mining Museum and the Gas Hole convenience store. The museum opens by appointment: the city's page lists society members to call, and says the Gas Hole store across the street will call one for you if you have no signal.
  • Winters are cold at 6,400 feet, with possible snow.

Photos

Mammoth in photos and plans

Visitor reports

Been to Mammoth?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Mammoth

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Utah index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Mammoth": fact sheet fields (county, roads, climate, best time, remains, population).
  2. Wikipedia, "Mammoth, Utah", retrieved October 2026: setting, the 1870 discovery, drinking water at ten cents a gallon, peak population, school and hotels, incorporation and disincorporation dates, the 1930 population, the historic district listing, coordinates and GNIS elevation.
  3. National Register of Historic Places nomination, "Mammoth Historic District" (National Park Service, listed March 14, 1979): the inventory of about 35 residents, acreage, the share of buildings from 1892–1910, and the inventory of houses, fire station, store, mine buildings, hospital site, mill site and foundations.
  4. UtahRails.net, "Tintic, Mammoth Mine and Mill", updated March 4, 2026: the February 1870 organization, Crismon and the McIntyres, the 1883 English syndicate, the mill dated to 1894, the East Tintic Railway, 1898 gold and silver output, 1930s carloads, the May 1958 shipment and the 1929 disincorporation.
  5. Western Mining History, "Mammoth Utah": the 1890 post office, the 1910 figures of about 2,800 people and 350 houses, the mill dated to December 1893, the 1912 decline and the 1973 post office closure.
  6. Beyond Nevada Expeditions, "Mammoth", visited August 8, 2020: the February 26, 1870 claim, the 1891 railroad, the 1892 population, Robinson and its hotel, the 1910 merger and population of 1,828, the 1912 fire, the 1925 ruling, the 1926 and 1928 fires, post office dates, and the ruins and occupied homes seen in 2020.
  7. JacobBarlow.com, "Mammoth Fire Station", December 25, 2022: the August 1912 volunteer fire department and its 1930 renaming as the Juab County Fire Department.
  8. KSL, "Juab County evacuations ordered after 2 new fires merge into 20,000-acre blaze", June 26, 2026; "Utah wildfire evacuees return home as wildfires rage on", June 28, 2026; and "Iron, Cherry fires close to full containment", July 3, 2026: the Cherry Fire, the evacuation and return of Mammoth's residents, and the road closures.
  9. The Salt Lake Tribune, "Juab County fire forces evacuations, burns home", July 8, 2020: the Mammoth Fire that burned one home.
  10. Ivanhoe Electric, "Ivanhoe Electric Initiates Diamond Drilling at the Tintic Copper-Gold Project in Mammoth, Utah", November 22, 2022, and its exploration update of February 22, 2024: the private mining claims and the drilling below the Mammoth Mine, where a breccia pipe was mined from the 1870s to the 1930s.
  11. dyeclan.com, "Mammoth Mine, Mammoth, Utah", trip of March 30, 2019: the paved 2WD road and the No Trespassing sign.
  12. Eureka City, "Tintic Historical Society", read October 20, 2026: museum visits by appointment, the members to call and the Gas Hole store.
  13. Library of Congress, Sanborn map of Mammoth, September 1898 and May 1908, via Wikimedia Commons: the streets, buildings, water and fire notes read off the sheets.
  14. Coordinates: Wikipedia (from USGS GNIS). Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits