LIFE and LABOR AMONG the IMMIGRANTS of BINGHAM CANYON by Helen Zeese Papanikolas
Immigrants and Bingham's terrain produced a unique life among mining towns. T h e long, winding Main Street reached for the cramped houses on the mountainsides and made them part of it. Talk, shouts, and oaths were heard in many languages outside the saloons, boardinghouses, candy stores, theaters, and dance halls. T h e first of Bingham's immigrants were the young Irishmen fleeing the potato famine. They worked 10 hours a day on small claims, usually belonging to others, and lived in boardinghouses where they rivaled each other in boxing matches, wood cutting, and other feats of strength. 1 By 1870 the 276 inhabitants of Bingham were mostly Irish who resented the incoming English, the "Cousin Jacks" as they called them. 2 Saloons were many and prosperous, and traveling vaudeville acts were the high point in the miners' lives. Mrs. Papanikolas is a resident of Salt Lake City and former contributor to the Quarterly. Beatrice Spendlove, "A History of Bingham Canyon, U t a h " (Master's thesis, University of U t a h , 1937), 114. 2 Salt Lake Tribune, July 6, 1947. 1
