Copper Mines at Bingham, Utah
About Copper Mines at Bingham, Utah
J. Searle Dawley’s Edison actuality looks down on Bingham Canyon and the copper workings six years after open-cut mining began. The surviving fragment, a little over a minute, includes the slope neighborhood called Highland Boy, where Italian and eastern European miners lived. The issued film was about 120 meters, roughly six minutes. The rest is missing.
Cast & crew
More about Copper Mines at Bingham, Utah
Dawley directed the 1912 Edison short. A local dating of the release is October 1912. Thomas A. Edison, Inc. is the copyright claimant on the Library of Congress description (registration MP 5). The original length cited with the film is 120 meters.
Themes
Background
By 1912 Bingham was already an open pit and a set of immigrant neighborhoods stacked on the hills. Highland Boy was one of them.
Making
Edison sent a camera to the canyon rather than rebuilding a mine in New Jersey. The surviving piece is a view and a street of miners’ houses, not a staged story.
Look
The fragment opens on a high view of the town and the cut, then drops to Highland Boy.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
Incomplete. About one minute and six seconds survive from a film of about 120 meters. The missing footage has not turned up.
Notes
- Open-cut work at Bingham had started about 1906. The panorama is six years into that cut.
- Highland Boy sat on the northwest slope of Carr Fork. The fragment shows that side of the canyon.
- What circulates is about one minute and six seconds.
- The Library of Congress holds the copyright description in the Motion Picture Copyright Descriptions Collection.
Scenes
- A high angle takes in the pit, the bridge, and the town.
- The camera reaches the houses at Highland Boy.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-copper-mines-at-bingham-utah)
