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SALT LAKE CITY — Construction workers at Salt Lake City's new federal courthouse made a fascinating discovery about the city's past.
While removing the last portions of soil and concrete to finish landscaping between the Frank E. Moss Courthouse and the new federal building on the corner of 400 South and West Temple, crews discovered buried bits of the city's history.
Just below the surface, there’s the rocky foundation of an old livery stable, charred evidence of a blacksmith shop, and hints of an old storefront.
The remains offer a clue of how people lived from the late 1800s and into 1905, when the federal courthouse was built.
The building was expanded in 1912 and 1935, pushing artifacts deeper into the background until now.
Remains of a wooden horse trough, broken pieces of glass and rusted tools offer details of a mining assay business in the area.
“We're finding also remnants of silver and copper ore, and some other ore materials in here, as well as slag, which is a byproduct of the process,” archeologist Don Southworth said.
The historians say the bits of history have a tie to Odd Fellows Hall, once a nextdoor neighbor that was physically moved across the street in 2009 as part of the courthouse project.
“They're using this as a chemical bottle somehow because there's residue on the bottom of it,” Southworth said. “The fact that we're finding crucibles that suggest assay business, that's all connected to mining that was making a big impact on the state at the turn of the century.”
The federal government granted time to comb through the area for more information on what was there before it was a courthouse complex.
Select pieces, maybe an assay cup or chemical bottle, will be part of a display at the new courthouse before this site is again covered up.
