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Gold Hill is a small, unincorporated community in far western Tooele County in Utah near the Nevada state line. The town, located near the Deep Creek Mountains, was the center of a mining district that was active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, producing gold, copper, arsenic, and tungsten. Gold Hill was the southern terminus of the Deep Creek Railroad.
Although gold was first discovered at Gold Hill in 1858, settlement didn't begin until 1871, when a smelter was built. As other nearby mines started to fail, Gold Hill began to grow famous in the mining industry. Its ore was among the richest known at the time. After the rich copper and gold mines were worked out, the area enjoyed a resurgence when World War I created a demand for arsenic. Originally called the Western Utah Mine, Gold Hill Mine was created in the 1890s, and expanded with the arrival of the railroad in 1917. Mining ended in 1925, when the market for arsenic collapsed. A smaller period of growth occurred during World War II, after which mining was discontinued. Gold Hill is now nearly a ghost town, with only a few remaining residents.
Jack Dempsey mined there before beginning his boxing career.
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