Mercur

Mercur is a Tooele County ghost town with an unusually layered mining history — gold was found here as early as 1870 (the town was first called Lewiston), the site was largely abandoned by 1880, then revived after 1891 when Gilbert "Gill" Peyton demonstrated the cyanide gold-extraction process here for the first time successfully in the United States, a method that went on to dominate western gold mining. Mercur peaked around 5,000 residents before a 1902 fire, and by 1930 the town itself was gone. Barrick Gold reopened large-scale mining in 1985, closed it in 1997, and completed reclamation by roughly 2010. That would sound like an opening for collectors, but it isn't: as of 2026, Revival Gold has acquired the mineral and surface interests from Barrick and is actively drilling and advancing the site toward a planned restart of mining around 2028-2029. This is a live, privately held exploration project on patented claims, not an open historic site.

Mercur sits in the Oquirrh Mountains, Tooele County, Utah, reached via Manning Canyon/Mercur Canyon roads southwest of the Salt Lake Valley. UNVERIFIED: whether any public road provides legal approach to the historic town site given current active-claim status.

Not applicable. The known mineralization at Mercur occurs on primarily privately held patented claims, now under active exploration by Revival Gold with mine construction targeted to begin around 2028 — this is not collectible ground.

Mercur is private land — the mineral and surface rights are held by Revival Gold (formerly Barrick's interest), and the district is under active drilling and development toward a planned mine restart. This is a working exploration project, not a public historic site; do not treat it as open for visiting or collecting. A cemetery and scattered historic remains are documented in general references, but access specifics to those weren't confirmed.