The Tooele Valley Railroad Complex, 35 N. Broadway in

Tooele, Utah Tooele ( ) is a city in Tooele County in the U.S. state of Utah. The population was 35,742 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Tooele County. Located approximately 40 minutes southwest of Salt Lake City, Tooele is known for Tooele Arm ...

, dates from 1909. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1984. The complex is currently operated as the Tooele Valley Museum and Historic Park (formerly Tooele Valley Railroad Museum and prior to that as the Tooele County Museum). Opened in 1983, the museum is operated by the city and features preserved

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

s, equipment and artifacts from the

Tooele Valley Railway The Tooele Valley Railway was a railroad founded in 1908, and owned by the Anaconda Copper corporation. The line ran from a connection with the Union Pacific Railroad and the Western Pacific Railroad at Warner Station on the western edge of Tooe ...

International Smelting and Refining Company The International Smelting and Refining Company was a subsidiary of Anaconda Copper that operated primarily out of the International Smelter near Tooele, Utah. The International Smelter began operation in 1910 as a copper producer handling ores f ...

, and other railroad & mining artifacts. The complex is significant for its historic role in conversion of Tooele from a farming-based to an industrial town. The railroad depot was the headquarters of the

; and is the most significant surviving artifact with association to the

smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron, copper, silver, tin, lead and zin ...

east of Tooele that operated from 1910 to 1972. and The listing included three

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

and four

contributing objects In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distr ...

References

External links

Tooele Valley Railroad Museum
- Tooele City Parks & Recreation Rail infrastructure on the National Register of Historic Places in Utah National Register of Historic Places in Tooele County, Utah 1909 establishments in Utah Buildings and structures in Tooele County, Utah Museums in Tooele County, Utah Railroad museums in Utah Mining museums in Utah {{TooeleCountyUT-NRHP-stub