Explore Utah’s legendary lost and hidden silver mines with the last miner

The Last Miner is a captivating memoir chronicling the final days of mining exploration in Utah’s legendary Little Cottonwood Canyon during the 1950s. Through the eyes of Dick Fluehe, the last living miner to traverse these haunted, silver-laden tunnels, readers are immersed in a forgotten world beneath the internationally renowned Alta and Snowbird ski areas. With a knowledge as deep as the mines themselves, Dick recounts tales of collapsed shafts, gloriously jeweled stopes, and colorful personalities, such as “Swingin’ Door,” “Slick,” and “The Bull,” who lived and died pursuing ore.

Edited by New York Times bestselling author Dan Schilling, The Last Miner offers a unique, firsthand account of the treacherous, adventurous, and humorous lives of mid-century miners. Both thrilling and insightful, this memoir is the mining equivalent of a float down the Mississippi with Mark Twain and an unprecedented insight into the history of American West mining.

After his initial subterranean foray, Richard “Dick” Fluehe continued to explore Alta’s mines even as he worked in the heavy trucking industry over a long career. He lives in Murray, Utah.

Dan Schilling is a New York Times bestselling author and thirty-year special operations veteran of the U.S. military. He and his wife Julie call Alta home.