Whitewashing the “B”–a Tradition Renewed
Bingham Students Renew Tradition (taken from the Jordan District Website)
Drive up the Old Bingham Highway toward Copperton and you will be witness to one of the longest running traditions of the Salt Lake Valley, one that can be seen from miles around.
For as long as anyone can remember, rocks that form the letter ‘B’ have been painted on the side of the mountain. The ‘B’ stands for Bingham High School, a school with a rich history that traces its roots to the start of mining along the Oquirrh Mountains.
Recently, a group of students, alumni, teachers and administrators renewed the tradition of repainting the ‘B’ on the side of the mountain. A team of nearly 100 people hiked to the ‘B’, cleared sagebrush, then rearranged and whitewashed the rocks that lay on property owned by Rio Tinto at the site of their Kennecott Utah Copper Mine.
This tradition was an annual one, however due to landslides and unstable footing the ‘B’ could not be accessed until this year. The last time Bingham students were able to get access to the ‘B’ was in the fall of 2011.
Student Body Officer Kenzie Dunford helped lead the team to renew the tradition with some help of someone familiar to her and with the project, her father Bryce.
“My dad was a part of the group that worked up here 30 years ago,” she said. “He’s here helping us today.”
Principal Christen Richards-Khong helped direct students as they worked in brigades to reset the rocks and cleared the overgrowth of brush that had overtaken the ‘B’.
“We have seniors, juniors and sophomores here today,” said Richards-Khong. “It’s a school-wide effort.”
Prior to working on the project, students toured the Rio Tinto concentrator facility and learned about copper mining and the history of mining in Copperton.
Scott Crump, excerpt from Bingham High School–The First Hundred Years (1908-2008)
“Although the time of the year (fall replaced spring); modes of transportation (the school bus replaced walking), and methods of whitewashing (white paint superseded the lime whitewash) would change over the 90-year span (whitewashing the B started in 1927), whitewashing the “B” would continue as one of Bingham High’s most enduring traditions. The annual sprucing up of the school’s symbol is just one of the many traditions that have made Bingham High School the school it is today.