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PARK CITY — So what does Park City's historic mining heritage have to do with the "Running of Balls" fundraiser held during the community's annual Miners' Day celebration on Labor Day?
"It doesn't," said Corrie Forsling, secretary of the Park City Rotary Club that is behind the event modeled after the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain — except that nearly 10,000 bright yellow golf balls sold for $5 each, or five for $20, replace the wild animals.
But then Forsling squinted at the tower where the balls were waiting to be dropped.
"It looks like a mine shaft," she said. "Maybe that's the connection."
Thousands of locals, along with some tourists, crowded along the temporary track laid down Park City's Main Street to watch the golf balls whiz by in the hopes the balls they'd bought were fast enough to win prizes including ski passes.
"It was cool because you could see them coming down super fast," Iliana Wallack, 11, of Phoenix, said. She said it was even more exciting from her finish-line vantage point to see a group of high school students running just ahead of the balls.
One of the runners, Park City High School senior Skylar Jackenthal, 17, described the experience as scary. She said she participated because she is on the board of the school's Rotary-affiliated Interact Club.
"This is the biggest fundraiser of the year. How we help out our community is we put ourselves in danger," Jackenthal said. "Ten thousand golf balls chasing high schoolers down a track seems pretty scary."
Longtime residents said the Miners' Day celebration, which also included a 5K race and a community parade, serves to bring together a community better known for high-end ski resorts and celebrities attending the Sundance Film Festival.
"It feels like more of our town," John Perry, a Park City resident for more than 20 years, said as he sat with one of his children on a blanket spread on the sidewalk. "I don't know that it celebrates our heritage as much as the town coming out."
Two-year old Reny Black just nodded from beneath a pink hat when asked how she liked the "Running of the Balls" event, looking a little sleepy after spending time in the midday September sun.
Her mother, Megan Black, said this was first time the Park City family joined the festivities.
"We had fun," she said, maneuvering herself and Reny through the crowds looking for a spot to settle in and watch the parade. "The kids like it. I think they liked sitting there and pushing the balls down."
Nine-year-old Knight Prior was also attending his first Miners' Day celebration, but he was up his hometown's history, thanks to a family visit to the Park City Museum exhibit showcasing its silver mining past.
"At first it was a mining town. Then a ghost town. Now, it's a ski resort," he explained from one of his family's folding chairs set up on the sidewalk near the finish line.
Once the event was over, it didn't take long for volunteers to shovel the balls into bins and break down the track so the parade could start, featuring fire trucks with flashing lights, politicians, cheerleaders, the Park City High School band and local businesses.
John Tall of Draper nudged his children, Jude, 4, and Pyper, 2, to the curb to pose with a police officer on a motorcycle. He said the family was spending the holiday in Park City and had just heard about the parade.
Jude needed a little prompting to talk about the parade.
"Would you say it was amazing?" John Tall asked.
"Yeah," the boy answered, before spotting a group of beauty pageant winners wearing sparkling crowns passing by and excitedly pointing them out from his perch on his father's shoulders.
