Hundreds of miners toiled in Mary Ellen Gulch a century ago, turning mountaintops inside out at the headwaters of American Fork Canyon in search of ore bearing precious metals. Many tons of rock had to be dug and milled to yield a single ounce of gold or silver. Compounds bearing other metals were left behind in big piles that spill below dozens of mine openings here. At the former entrance to Live Yankee Mine, buried to keep out the curious, a stream is discharging 50 or so gallons a minute into a gully that leads into the North Fork of the American Fork River.http://www.sltrib.com/news/4344141-155/hazards-of-american-fork-canyons-mining