Utah Fuels the West
Utah's coal industry and the railroads that served it
Carbon County Railway Mines
By Don Strack
This page was last updated on November 17, 2007.
(Incomplete… research continues)
Additional Sources:
Columbia Steel Corp. and the Columbia Mine
By September 1919, Utah Coal & Coke Company had been incorporated in Nevada as the coal mining subsidiary of Columbia Steel Corporation. Its coal property was to be known as the Columbia Mine and was located on 4,000 acres four miles south of Sunnyside, Utah, in Water Canyon. A railroad spur line was to be built. (Coal Index: The Sun, September 26, 1919, p. 6)
The coal mine at Columbia was developed from a coal seam located high on the cliffs above the later location of the mine. The mine opening was at a low level tunnel that was driven 1,400 feet into the cliff to reach the coal seam as it dipped into the cliffs. The loaded mine cars were lowered by cable hoist down a 3,400 foot tramway from the mine opening to the tipple, where the coal was crushed for use in the coke by-product ovens at the Ironton iron mill of the Columbia Steel Corporation. (Madsen, p. 35)
In 1922 the Columbia Steel Corporation began building its iron manufacturing plant at Ironton, near Springville. To assure a supply of iron ore, they began developing their own iron mine in Iron County in southwestern Utah, and proposed to build the Iron County Railway to operate between the iron mines near Cedar City and the Union Pacific's Los Angeles & Salt Lake subsidiary at Lund. This railroad was not completed because in 1923 Union Pacific built its own Cedar City Branch instead.
To ensure a ready supply of coal, Columbia Steel organized the Carbon County Railway. This second railroad came from the start in 1922 of Columbia's development of its coal property south of Sunnyside, to furnish coking coal for its new iron plant at Ironton, near Springville. The Carbon County Railway was incorporated on July 28, 1922 by Columbia Steel interests specifically to transport coal and coke from their coal mine to their Ironton iron mill. (see also Carbon County Railway History)
Columbia Steel was in 1922-1923 a small rolling-mill and open-hearth operation relying on scrap steel with principal operations in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Columbia Steel wanted compete as an integrated steel maker with Bethlehem Steel, which was expanding its presence on the West Coast using very low-cost steel shipped at very low cost in company ships through the Panama Canal. Columbia built the Columbia Works at Ironton, Utah (immediately south of Provo) to provide pig iron to its open hearth furnaces at Pittsburg, Calif. on the West Coast. The Columbia Works at Ironton, Utah was not a steel mill as it had no provision to make steel. It consisted of byproduct coke ovens, a single blast furnace of medium size, a pig machine, and ancillary support — it never had an open hearth or a rolling mill of any kind.
The Columbia mine was operated for the purpose of supplying coking coal to the Columbia Steel Company's by-product coking plant and blast furnace, located at Ironton, near Provo, Utah. (Reynolds, p. 236)
The Columbia mine began shipping coal in late July 1923. (Coal Index: The Sun, July 13, 1923, p. 1, "about to begin")
First coal was shipped from the Columbia Mine in mid September 1923. There were 200 miners working. (Coal Index: The Sun, September 14, 1923)
In 1937 the Columbia Mine was declared "captive" due to its providing coal only to the company (Columbia Steel Corporation) that owned it. (Coal Index: Sun Advocate, May 27, 1937, p. 8)
The United States Steel Corporation was given the approval of the Interstate Commerce Commission on December 8, 1942 to acquire control of eleven railroads through its various subsidiaries. The application had been made to the Interstate Commerce Commission on November 11, 1942. Included in that total of eleven railroads was the Carbon County Railway, owned by the Columbia Steel Company subsidiary. (ICC Finance Docket 14014)
There were 500 coke ovens installed at the Columbia Mine between November 1942 and January 1943. (Coal Index: Sun Advocate, November 26, p. 11)
The Columbia Mine was shipping 400 tons per day. (Coal Index: Sun Advocate, December 17, 1942)
Five hundred beehive coke ovens were constructed at Columbia by the War Department to increase the coke capacity. A blast furnace for making pig iron was moved from Illinois to Ironton, but the war was almost over by the time that the blast furnace went into operation, therefore both the beehive coke ovens and the blast furnace were only in operation a short time. It was reported that the construction of the beehive coke ovens at Columbia cost $3 million and the movement and installation of the blast furnace cost $9 million. Kaiser purchased both the beehive coke ovens and the blast furnace from the War Assets Administration. (Gibson: Kaiser, p. 261)
By mid March 1946 the Columbia mine was producing 1,385 tons per day. (Coal Index: Sun Advocate, March 21, 1946, p. 13)
The coal mine at Columbia, the original mine served by the railroad, was closed on May 31, 1967, leaving the new-in-1943 Horse Canyon mine as the sole source of traffic for the railroad. An earlier source of traffic, other than the Columbia mine was the Bookcliff mine, which was later closed. (Duning, p. 70)
The Ironton iron mill was shutdown in 1962.
Geneva Mine
During 1942 the Defense Plant Corporation constructed a six mile spur from the Columbia Mine, at the end of the Carbon County Railway, to new Geneva Mine in Horse Canyon. The new mine was developed to furnish coking coal for the new Geneva Steel Mill, near Orem. (Malaby, p. 260)
The new mine was built with a stated capacity of 8,500 (850?) tons per day, with 6,500 (650?) tons being the daily requirement for the new steel mill. The surplus production was used by railroads and west coast ships as part of the general war effort. Ground was broken in spring 1942 at the new mine and initial underground work at the coal seam began in October 1942. (Madsen, p. 38)
The tipple at the Geneva mine was completed in January 1944. (Coal Index: Sun Advocate, January 27, 1944, p. 2)
Utah Coal Producers Association asked that the output of the new Geneva mine be restricted to the needs of the new steel mill. Not all coal from the Geneva was suitable for coke. (Coal Index: Sun Advocate, November 1, 1945, p. 1)
Geneva mine produced 3,000 tons per day. The mine was on standby due to complaints of private industry that they were competing with the U. S. government. Surplus coal was then sold to the U. S. treasury for export. (Coal Index: Sun Advocate, April 18, 1946, p. 16)
In about June 1946 the Geneva mine was sold to U. S. Steel, who planned to increase mine production. (Coal Index: Sun Advocate, June 20, 1946, p. 3) On December 31, 1946 the Carbon County Railway bought the spur to the Geneva mine. (Malaby, p. 260)
United States Steel Corporation completed its Wellington coal preparation plant in March 1958. The plant was located along the D&RGW mainline one and a half miles south of Wellington. The plant blended the coal from U. S. Steel's Sunnyside, Utah, and Somerset, Colorado mines to produce a better quality of coal for coking at the Geneva steel plant, by washing the coal to reduce its ash and sulphur content. The plant was built on a 1,500 acre site and processed all the coal mined in Utah and Colorado by the coal properties of Columbia-Geneva Steel Division, United States Steel Corporation. (see also Wellington Coal Wash Plant)
Improvements to the Geneva mine during 1957 included a new 8,700 foot rock tunnel driven to intersect the coal seam at a point 5,000 feet down the pitch from the surface coal outcrop. The tunnel was nine feet high and thirteen feet wide. The tunnel was driven by W. W. Clyde of Springville, Utah, and was half completed by mid November 1957. (Salt Lake Tribune, November 10, 1957)
Plans were made by United States Steel to close the Geneva Mine as early as March 1981. Operations were suspended "temporarily" in October 1982 and in January 1984, operations came to an end. The property was sold to Kaiser Steel Corporation in November 1984, but in February 1987, Kaiser Coal Corporation as successor to Kaiser Steel, declared bankruptcy.
In April 1990 the Horse Canyon mine was sold to Intermountain Power Agency and its partner Andalex Resources, as a potential source of fuel for the Intermountain Power Project near Delta. In October 1990 IPA demolished the coal loadout and the mine-to-loadout conveyor as part of its general cleanup of the mine property, leaving only the mine administration building, shops, and locker room.
In September 2000, the Horse Canyon mine was sold to UtahAmerican Energy Incorporated (UEI), a subsidiary of Murray Energy. As of early 2007, UEI continues to hold the Horse Canyon mine for a potential reopening of the mine.
As early as 1998, the permitting process started to begin development of the adjacent Lila Canyon Tract, located south of Horse Canyon. Under UEI ownership the permitting process has continued with hopes to begin actual mine development during late 2007 or 2008. UEI has stated that they plan on a daily capacity of 13,000 tons, delivering coal to a loadout facility served by a new spur to be built from Union Pacific's former D&RGW mainline, just three miles away.
To address environmental concerns and to preserve the scenic beauty of the Book Cliffs, UEI plans on constructing the loadout facility out in the valley, with long underground horizontal shafts reaching under the foot of the cliffs and into the coal seam. Ventilation shafts are planned to be on top of the cliffs, well away from any encroaching scenic vista.
In a request to delay the permitting process to allow further study of endangered organisms in the soil, an environmental group asked a federal judge to delay the development work by UtahAmerican Energy on the Lila Canyon mine. The proposed mine was described as:
The Lila Canyon mine, located on the west slope of the Book Cliffs, south of Price, is one of the last high-quality coal reserves in the state, UtahAmerican said. It is in an area identified as having potential wilderness characteristics, but is not a congressionally designated wilderness area. Like other Utah mines, the Lila Canyon coal seam reaches depths of 2,500 feet, but there would only be longwall mining done underground, not retreat mining - the type of mining done at Crandall Canyon where coal supports are cut away causing a roof to fall. The Bureau of Land Management estimates there are 27 million tons of coal that could be recovered in the mine's first phase and UtahAmerican project manager Jay Marshall said there could be up to 52 million tons recoverable in later phases. Marshall said the company wants to start clearing the land to build the surface facilities at the entrance of the mine, but it would likely be January before work could start and take at least 18 months to complete. If the surface work doesn't begin before February, restrictions to protect eagles, antelope and bighorn sheep habitat would push the start back to July. Ray Petersen, public lands director for Emery County, said in an affidavit that the mine would help the "desperate economic situation in Emery County." Lila would employ 220 miners when it is fully operational, although just a few dozen would do the preparatory work. The company would pay about 9 percent in royalties on the mined coal, half of which would go to state, with 40 percent of that going to Emery County. (Salt Lake Tribune, November 16, 2007)
