The top of the Snowbird Tram in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah is on Hidden Mountain at 11,000 feet. The bottom of the lowest lift is at 7,760 feet. Snowbird is located on 2,500 acres, one mile down the Canyon from Alta, Utah, one of the most famous ski resorts in the world. The mountains around Snowbird average approximately 500 inches of low-density, "dry" Utah powder annually, caused in part by the ideal geography and a phenomenon called Lake Effect from the Great Salt Lake to west, Little Cottonwood Canyon powder is known worldwide. Little Cottonwood Canyon is U shaped from ancient glacier action. The heights of the Canyon are such that there are snow banks and small ice fields year round. Silver was found in the mountains back in 1869 causing a mining boom that produced more than $3.8 million in silver. During the mining phase, 8,000 people lived and worked in Little Cottonwood Canyon, which had two smelters, 138 homes, hotels, boarding houses, stores and even a railroad. The entire town was later destroyed by a series of avalanches.