While Park City Museum’s temporary exhibits feature national artifacts from the likes of the Smithsonian, as well as locally curated topics, its permanent exhibits are the ones that let guests truly delve into Park City’s rich history.From its debut in 1984 to 2009, the museum operated with a very small footprint — only 1,200 square feet. But when the Olympics came to town in 2002, “the world discovered Park City and how fascinating its history is,” said Morgan Pierce, executive director of Park City Museum. That led to a focus on museum expansion.Curators had already been amassing collections from locals and historians; they just didn’t have the space to showcase them. So, after a $9 million fundraising campaign to expand the old City Hall building, the museum reopened in 2009 with 12,000 square feet, 10,000 of which are dedicated to the permanent exhibits.Now, the museum is one of Park City’s most popular indoor attractions. Visitors learn about the town’s mining days, its criminals and millionaires, the Great Fire of 1898, what life was like 100 years ago and how it transitioned from a mining to a ski town.Centerpieces include the Kimball Brothers Stagecoach, which transported both mail and people up and down the canyon; the Skier’s Subway, which features an original car from the mining days; the original jail, located in the basement of the historic City Hall; and the Mega Mine, which replicates the workings above and underground at a local mine.The Kimball Brothers stagecoach is one of the centerpieces of the Park City Museum’s permanent exhibits. Credit: Park Record file photo by Tanzi PropstThe museum attracts more than 130,000 visitors annually, and one of their favorite exhibits, according to Courtney Titus, curator of collections and exhibitions, is the Mega Mine, a scale model of one of Park City’s silver mines.It depicts 1,000 feet of underground workingsthrough an amalgamation of historic structures from various mines in town. The two-story-tall structure includes a mill, Cornish pump and aerial tramway.Downstairs, visitors get a taste of miners’ dark and dangerous work as they learn how ore becomes silver and even “earn their pay” by drilling into a rock face. Throughout the exhibit, interactive, push-button displays talk about the hundreds of miles of tunnels that still exist under the very ground that people ski and hike today.“There are more than 1,200 miles of tunnels from over 300 mining companies,” Pierce said. “Some shafts went as deep as 3,000 feet.”The two-story Ontario Mine wall, one of the displays in Park City Museum’s permanent exhibit, shows the inner workings of the mine. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park RecordBar Talk, located in the Tozer Gallery, is another hit. Visitors saddle up to the bar and watch videos of old-timers’ stories.“A television screen is built into the back of the bar, so you can imagine you’re talking to the bartender … (and hear) about how rough and tumble Park City was before skiing took over,” Pierce said. The Muckers & Millionaires exhibit explores the differences in economic classes’ clothing, housing and entertainment and tells stories of the colorful characters who helped shape the town.Similarly, the Living in Park City exhibit lets visitors experience life 100 or more years ago. They can pop into the local post office, check out the neighborhood market and help connect calls through the telephone company. Meanwhile, From Around the World portrays how early settlers came to Park City. It features the Kimball Stagecoach, which descended through various family lines until one local donated it to the museum. Visitors can also climb aboard a recreated railcar and watch a film about how Park City became part of the Frontier West. Curators have procured some of the objects in the Smith & Brim display, located in the From the Around the World exhibit, from a local antiques dealer, but they originally sat right across the street from the museum, at 515 Main St., where the Smith & Brim store was located.“The eye-catching electric MEATS sign was installed on the front of their building in 1916,” Titus said.The original territorial jail brings to life stories about people who were jailed, like three prisoners who escaped their cells in 1905. Frank Carroll, Jerry Murphy and Pat Conway loosened the mortar above the rocks with a knife, removed the stones and crawled out.Carroll was serving 40 days for stealing a watch, Conway 25 days for drunkenness and Murphy, who had escaped from jail three times prior, was serving an unexpired term for drunkenness.“One of the most infamous characters in Park City’s history is, of course, Black Jack Murphy,” Titus said. “He was an outlaw who murdered Matt Brennan for his mining claim. He was locked up in the county jail, but an angry mob took justice into their own hands and lynched him on a Park City telegraph pole. Visitors can learn about him and other criminals in the mug book interactive in the jail.”Skiers Subway Theater allows people to sit in an original mine cart. It’s named the Skier Subway because one child who rode in the mine cartsaid it’s just like riding a subway in New York.Treasure Mountain Resort (now Park City Mountain) utilized the Skier’s Subway from 1965 to 1967. Skiers rode more than 3 miles through the west end of the Spiro Tunnel, up to Thaynes chairlift.Now, visitors load up to watch a film depicting the town’s evolution from mining to skiing. An original gondola cabin from Treasure Mountain Resort also hangs from the ceiling. At the time, the ski gondola was the world’s longest.The fire department maintained a fire truck from 1926 and gave it to the museum; now it has returned to its original home in the historic 1901 Fire Tower.And, speaking of fires, visitors can listen to Park Record editor Sam Raddon report on the Great Fire of 1898, which caused more than $1 million in damage and displaced 500 residents.“We tell a story about Park City that a lot of visitors are unaware of,” Pierce said, adding that, while most people think of the area as a world-class ski destination, “we were a mining town for much longer than we have been a skiing town.”For information about Park City Museum and its exhibits, visit parkcityhistory.org.The post Park City Museum’s permanent exhibits bring local history to life appeared first on Park Record.