Mercur

Mercur is a ghost town in Tooele County, Utah, with a notable place in American mining history. Sitting at roughly 2,042 meters in elevation, it earned its distinction in 1891 as the location where the cyanide process of gold extraction was first used successfully in the United States — a method that went on to become the standard in the industry worldwide.

The nearby Mercur Gold Mine saw renewed life when Barrick Gold reopened it in 1985, though operations ceased again by 1997. A reclamation and restoration project tied to that modern mining era was scheduled to run through 2010, meaning much of what visitors encounter today reflects that remediation work rather than preserved 19th-century townsite remains.

Visitors drawn by the area's history should go in with realistic expectations — this is a remote, high-elevation site where the physical footprint of the original town is largely gone. The setting itself, and the layered story of gold extraction that unfolded here over more than a century, make it a destination for history-minded travelers and photographers rather than those seeking intact ruins.