Big Cottonwood Canyon played a major role in Utah's mining, timber, and recreation history. Lumber from the canyon was used to build mine facilities and to build and fuel the settlement of Salt Lake Valley, and in the 1850s steam-powered sawmills lined tributaries named Mill A, B, D, E, and F. After the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, silver, gold, lead, zinc, and copper could be transported and sold, and mining towns such as Gold City, Silver Springs, and Argenta flourished during boom times. In 1872, five hundred people lived in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and nearby Argenta, whose name is Latin for silver, had one good hotel and the canyon's only post office. Major mines bore colorful names including Regular Johnson [unintelligible], Maxfield, Prince of Wales, Cardiff, Copper King, Dolly Varden, and Clementine. At the Reed and Benson mine in Cardiff Fork, workers lowered themselves on ropes to the entrance on a steep limestone cliff face, and a 1,580-foot-long tramway linked the tunnel to the wagon road in the gulch. Mining production in Big Cottonwood peaked between 1871 and 1927, with the last great venture in 1955. Large-scale mining later ceased in the canyon, giving way to recreation and watershed uses, while many abandoned mines have been closed because they are dangerous.