Ophir was named for the nearby canyon and mining district, where gold was discovered in the 1860s. The mining district was named for the biblical Ophir, from where King Solomon brought back gold to Israel. General Patrick Connor’s soldiers discovered some rather primitive Indian silver mines. Some people think that’s the reason the General brought his California volunteers to Utah. Not to oversee the Mormon and Indian inhabitants and maintain order, but to open up, and profit from the rumored mineral deposits throughout the territory. As the soldiers were checking out settlements in Rush Valley, west of Ophir Utah, they discovered that some of the Indians were using homemade rifle slugs made of silver and lead. And they owned ornaments made of the same minerals. In 1865, the General and his men discovered the source to be some crude mines, dug by the Indians in East Canyon in the Oquirrh Mountains. The south end of the same mountains are still being mined today at the Bingham Canyon Mine. Some small-scale mining occurred until the big boom hit in 1870. A town sprung up. And the population exploded. Within weeks, miners had taken more than $1 million in silver from the mine.

By the end of the century, more than $13 million of silver had been dug from more than 3,000 claims. Today Ophir is a living ghost town.