Alta, Utah

History

Alta has been important to the development of skiing in Utah. Alta was founded about 1865 to house miners from the Emma mine, the Flagstaff mine, and other silver mines in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Sensationally rich silver ore in the Emma mine enabled its owners to sell the mine at an inflated price to British investors in 1871. The subsequent exhaustion of the Emma ore body led to the recall of the American ambassador to Great Britain, who was a director of the company, and to Congressional hearings in Washington DC on the transaction.

An alleged incident that occurred in the town in 1873 was adapted by Rod Serling for the episode entitled "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" of his television series The Twilight Zone. The legend was also used as the basis for an episode of Death Valley Days, entitled “Miracle at Boot Hill” (S10 E10).

An 1878 fire and an 1885 avalanche destroyed most of the original mining town, though some mining activity persisted into the 20th century. By the 1930s, only one resident, George Watson, remained in the town. Facing back taxes on mining claims that he owned, Watson donated much of his land in Alta to the U.S. Forest Service, stipulating that the land be used to construct a ski area. In 1935, Norwegian skiing legend Alf Engen was hired to help develop the area, and Alta opened its first ski lift in 1938. By the end of the twentieth century, up to 7,000 people per day could be found on the Alta slopes, and traffic in the Little Cottonwood Canyon was nearing gridlock proportions.

Today, Alta is a small town centered around the Alta Ski Area.

During the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent government-mandated economic restrictions, Alta briefly gained national attention when it was the only ski resort included in a detailed study of disease-transmission probabilities. The university-based study concluded that buses to the site could be made safe, traveling on ski lifts was safe, and queueing at ski lifts was safe. However, no amount of compensating factors could make indoor-dining at restaurants acceptably safe, and locker rooms could only be considered safe if occupants used "quiet voices".

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 4.1 square miles (10.5 km2), of which 0.25% is water.

At 8950 ft, Alta is one of the highest cities in Utah and one of the highest in America.

Demographics

As of the 2010 United States census, there were 386 people in 156 households in the town. The racial makeup of the town was 93 percent white and 4 percent Hispanic or Latino.

The population was 67 percent male and 33 percent female. The population was 4.7 percent under the age of 18, and 2.6 percent was 65 or older.

Climate

Alta experiences a high altitude humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), which borders on a subalpine climate (Dfc), due to its high elevation. Due to its proximity to the Great Salt Lake, the town receives very heavy snows, averaging over 507 in per year. During the very wet season of 1982/1983, Alta received as much as 900 in of snow, leading to record flooding of Wasatch streams as the snow melted during May and June that year. Alta's total precipitation of 108.54 in during 1983 is a record for a calendar year in any state of the Mountain West.

|Jan record high F = 59 |Feb record high F = 58 |Mar record high F = 65 |Apr record high F = 69 |May record high F = 76 |Jun record high F = 82 |Jul record high F = 94 |Aug record high F = 84 |Sep record high F = 86 |Oct record high F = 85 |Nov record high F = 64 |Dec record high F = 59

|Jan avg record high F = 47.8 |Feb avg record high F = 46.5 |Mar avg record high F = 52.6 |Apr avg record high F = 58.3 |May avg record high F = 67.6 |Jun avg record high F = 75.8 |Jul avg record high F = 80.5 |Aug avg record high F = 78.6 |Sep avg record high F = 73.9 |Oct avg record high F = 65.3 |Nov avg record high F = 54.7 |Dec avg record high F = 46.9 |year avg record high F = 81.0

|Jan avg record low F = -3.1 |Feb avg record low F = -1.5 |Mar avg record low F = 3.3 |Apr avg record low F = 9.1 |May avg record low F = 18.2 |Jun avg record low F = 28.3 |Jul avg record low F = 39.5 |Aug avg record low F = 38.6 |Sep avg record low F = 25.3 |Oct avg record low F = 13.6 |Nov avg record low F = 1.0 |Dec avg record low F = -3.7 |year avg record low F = -7.2

|Jan record low F = -26 |Feb record low F = -19 |Mar record low F = -8 |Apr record low F = 1 |May record low F = 10 |Jun record low F = 20 |Jul record low F = 31 |Aug record low F = 30 |Sep record low F = 16 |Oct record low F = -4 |Nov record low F = -16 |Dec record low F = -25

|Jan snow depth inch = 87.3 |Feb snow depth inch = 101.6 |Mar snow depth inch = 107.5 |Apr snow depth inch = 99.6 |May snow depth inch = 66.7 |Jun snow depth inch = 17.8 |Jul snow depth inch = 0.7 |Aug snow depth inch = 0.0 |Sep snow depth inch = 2.7 |Oct snow depth inch = 15.3 |Nov snow depth inch = 36.4 |Dec snow depth inch = 60.6 |year snow depth inch = 115.3

|access-date = January 26, 2023 |access-date = January 26, 2023

References

References

1. "Town of Alta Town Council".
2. "2019 US Gazetteer Files". US Census Bureau.
4. "US Census website". US Census Bureau.
5. (25 October 2007). "US Board on Geographic Names". [[United States Geological Survey]].
6. (17 January 2020). "The 11 Unspoken Rules of Powder Skiing". Outdoor Magazine.
7. "Emma Mine". mineswindles.com.
8. (1955). "The Infamous Emma Mine: A British Interest in the Little Cottonwood District, Utah Territory". Utah Historical Quarterly, Vol. 23.
9. Dan Plazak, ''A Hole in the Ground with a Liar at the Top'', Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2006, {{ISBN. 978-0-87480-840-7, pp. 39-77.
10. (2000-03-31). "'Resurrecting' Utah's biggest April Fools' hoaxes".
11. [https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85058130/1885-02-15/ed-1/?sp=12&q=Alta Latest Alta Horror] ''Salt Lake Herald'' 1885-Feb-15 p12
12. (17 January 2021). "Governor considers gondola to solve canyon gridlock". Deseret News.
13. (18 November 2020). "How Will Covid-19 Change Utah's Ski Season?". ABC4 News, Salt Lake City UT.
14. (16 December 2020). "Alta Mayor calls for quiet after study at resort shows how loud talking can spread coronavirus". Salt Lake Tribune.
15. "Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov.
16. "US Census website". US Census Bureau.
17. "Archived copy".
18. "Utah Battles Floods, Mud"; in ''[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]]''; June 3, 1983; p. 30
19. [http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/noaa_documents/NWS/NWS_WR/TM_NWS_WR_28rev2nd.pdf "Weather Extremes"]