Regardless of what your interests are, Bingham High School offers plenty of clubs for you to join.

The variety of clubs that we enjoy doesn’t come easily, either; it takes years of student engagement and passion. The interests of students in the past were often different than many of the interests that students have today, so naturally, the development of clubs over time has been an evolving process.

While many clubs that you participate in today might not have been found in the original high schools at Bingham Canyon and Copperton, there are a few that have progressed over a number of decades and can still be found today. Bingham High School: The First 100 Years, by Scott Crump, includes comprehensive lists of clubs that were started early in Bingham’s history and can still be seen today. These include the Minerettes, the Drama Club, the band, debate, the Pay Dirt Club, and the Dance Company.

According to Scott Crump, a Bingham High School historian, the Minerettes can be traced all the way back to the second Bingham High School in Bingham City. They began in 1929 as the “Pep Club”, with Marion Russell as the advisor. Crump describes the evolution of the Minerettes from a kind of cheerleading squad to an accomplished drill team, which has won state competitions numerous times since 2004.

The Drama Club, debate, and the band have preserved their original names since they were started at the first Bingham High School location at Bingham Canyon. Much like the other clubs and even sports teams from the period, they were very small and consisted of only a few members.

The Pay Dirt Club is unique in that its members consist of only those who have previously graduated from Bingham High and have succeeded in life. As stated by Crump, the name of the club is derived from the phrase used when a miner struck it rich: they were said to have hit “pay dirt”. Many of those inducted into the club have been important politicians, pioneering medical doctors, successful business people, Olympic and professional athletes, philanthropists, professors, authors, artists, or high-ranking officers in the military. The first inducted member was Ivy Baker Priest, who became Treasurer of the United States. The list of members continues to grow every year.

While many clubs have endured through the ebb and flow of high schoolers, many have not. Albert Lee McCall, Jr., who transferred from Jordan High School to Bingham High School after the Jordan School District changed Bingham’s boundaries, recalls one club in particular from his junior year in 1958. The Prospectors, who were originally called the Miners, were members of the Prospectors’ Club. Scott Crump describes the club as an organization meant to promote more school spirit and a closer association between 11th and 12th grade boys. McCall said that he had been a member, and he remembered that the club had sponsored many activities and events. Members were required to maintain at least a C+ and be approved for membership by at least three-fourths of the existing members. McCall also remembers that almost every young man in the school had been a member, making it an incredibly popular club to promote camaraderie.

Albert Lee McCall also described his membership in another club, one that is still found today: the Key Club. This club was started his junior year, and it was very much like a Lion’s Club for high schoolers. (The Lion’s Club is an international society committed to community service, and most members are business professionals.)

Bingham High School: The First 100 Years also lists a number of fun clubs that students can’t join today, such as the Blue Knights of 1980, the Folk Music Club of 1973, the Posture Parade of 1935, the 1926 Ukulele Club, the 1994 Swedish Fish Club, the Croquet Club of 1996, and even the 2007 Unicycle Club. Although you can’t join those clubs today, you can join some uniquely modern clubs such as those listed on the Bingham website, including the Society of the Enlightened, the Cupcake Club, and the Battle Game Club.

While at first Bingham had a small, typical high school variety of clubs and activities, many of these have evolved into impressive and competitive programs or been replaced by something new that better represented the interests of students. Bingham High School today has a unique and interesting variety of students, all of whom can find their place in one of our awesome student clubs!