George Tyng came to American Fork Canyon in October of 1901 to check out a report of great deposits of precious minerals to be found right on the surface. He and his two sons, Francis and Charles, started prospecting on Miller Hill the next spring. After two years, they had found no significant deposits.
George's luck would change when his mine foreman, Jack Howes, made a strike with his pick into a "Mother Load." For the next two years George and his boys mined the Wyoming Tunnel, as it became known, and retrieved a fortune in gold, silver, lead, and zinc.
On the fateful snowy day of January 19, 1906 an avalanche swept down the slope above George's office and carried him to his cold death. He is buried on the knoll just below his two-story boarding house where he used to sit in the evenings gazing across the scenic mountainous peaks pondering his sweetheart, Elena, still living in Texas with his third son and his potential wealth.