Utah Fuels the West
Utah's coal industry and the railroads that served it
By Don Strack
This page was last updated on July 18, 2002
(Incomplete… research continues)
Early Coal Discoveries
- Coalville
- San Pete (San Pete Valley Ry., narrow gauge)
- Winter Quarters (Utah & Pleasant Valley Ry., narrow gauge)
- Price Townsite
- Helper Townsite
Early Coal Discoveries - Coalville
Coal was first discovered in Utah in Chalk Creek Canyon near Coalville in 1849. (Alexander, p. 235)
The coal in Coalville was worked for a generation, until the discovery of the Castle Gate coal seams diminished the value of Coalville's product. (Jones, p. 23)
Daughters of Utah Pioneers tells this story of early coal discoveries in the Coalville area:
"Thomas Rhodes, pioneer hunter and explorer, discovered coal in the Coalville district by accident. Rhodes was searching for game on a high promontory, known as Skunk's Point, when he came upon a small vein of coal. Using his hunting knife, he cut out samples which he took to President Young. In 1860, two men, Samuel Fletcher and John Muir, were sent to investigate the possibility of working Rhode's discovery. Mr. Muir shot and wounded a deer and while the two men were trailing the animal, they came upon a ten foot outcropping of coal. They immediately reported their findings to the Church leaders, under whose direction the Church Coal Mines were developed in the district. From this time on, hundreds of tons of coal were hauled from Coalville into Salt Lake City by ox-teams. Later other mines were developed in the same locality." (Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 7, p. 74)
The first coal discovered in large, marketable quantities in northern Utah was at the Grass Creek vein near Coalville in 1860, at what was called the Church Mine. The Church Mine was located forty-five miles from Salt Lake City, just missing the $1,000.00 reward that was offered by the Territorial Legislature in 1854 for coal found within forty miles of Salt Lake City. Later, John Spriggs and William Kimball found coal in nearby Chalk Creek Canyon, above Coalville, and also claimed the reward. But they too were located outside of the forty mile limit. (Powell, Labor, p. 9)
The Spriggs & Kimball mine in Chalk Creek Canyon was later worked as the Wasatch Mine, and still later as the Weber Mine, and by 1898 (before the 1899 opening of the Sunnyside mine in Carbon County) was the fourth largest coal mine in the state. (Powell, Labor, p. 9)
(COMMENT: The Wasatch Mine lost its place in the top five mines in Utah with the 1899 development of the Sunnyside mines of Rio Grande Western's Utah Fuel Company in Carbon County.)
Early Coal Discoveries - San Pete
Coal was discovered in Sanpete County by two former Welsh miners in 1854. In 1857 they named the town near the mines Wales, after their homeland. (Alexander, p. 235)
The first commercial venture involving coal mining in Utah was at this same Sanpete County mine. The Wales mine soon became known for its high quality coke, used by many of the new smelters in the territory. The mine benefited from a newly built railroad, completed in 1882, that furnished low-cost transportation for the coal, the coke, and for the residents and farms in the region. The Wales mine remained in operation until about World War One, although direct rail service ended in the 1890s.
The demand for coal in the 1890s was limited by both its short supply and limited number of uses and applications. The local supply in Utah came from Wyoming and two or three mines in the eastern portion of the Utah territory: the Pleasant Valley mines, the Wales mine, and the Coalville mines. A large reserve in Utah was unknown until geologists and engineers were sent into the field in the later years of the decade. Within a few short years, instead of one or two companies controlling the complete supply of coal, namely the Union Pacific and Denver & Rio Grande railroads, several strong and heavily financed corporations became producers and shippers, supplying not only the local demand, but reaching out into the surrounding states of Idaho, Nevada, Montana, and California. (Higgins: Consolidated, pp. 15,16)
Early Coal Discoveries - Winter Quarters
Carbon County has produced ninety percent of all the coal mined in the state of Utah. (Watts: Carbon County, p. 400)
The coal that is mined in Carbon County is a good hard bituminous type that is clean and stands up well to storage and shipping. In many places the mining takes place with 1,500 to 2,000 feet of cover material over the mines themselves, which forces the mines to all be underground. Most of the coal comes out of what is called the Main Coal Horizon formation. This geologic layer varies from 200 to 500 feet thick and contains two, sometimes three, workable coal seams of five to twenty feet thickness. The coal in Spring Canyon is mined out of the Sub Coal Horizon, which is between 100 and 160 feet thick. The seam in this Horizon is usually thin in other parts of the region but becomes thick enough to be workable in the Spring Canyon area. The coal seams themselves are either level or are inclined at ten to twelve feet per one hundred feet of run. The coal in the Sunnyside area was of very good coking quality. The actual mining of the coal throughout the Carbon County region was done by the room and pillar method, meaning that rooms 30 feet by 350 feet are located with pillars of 30 to 50 feet square between them to support the roof of the mine. The coal was mined using both manual and new machine undercutting and blasting methods. The loosened coal was gathered in wooden cars with from one to three ton capacity and hauled over tracks with gauges varying from thirty-six to forty-two inches. The method of propulsion was by both large horses and later by electric locomotives. The larger mines used electrical main haulage locomotives with weights from six to fifteen tons. All of the mines by 1913 had a steam power plant which produced electricity used for hoisting, in-mine rail haulage, and lighting. After being wrested from the ground, the coal was generally graded into four differing grades, with each mine at times differing in the point of division between coal grades. Lump, the largest grade, was anything larger than 8-1/2 inches, domestic lump was anything between 8-1/2 and 4-1/2 inches. Egg was coal between 1-5/8 inches and 4-1/2 inches in size. Nut coal was between 3/8 inch and 1-5/8 inches, pea coal was less than less than 3/8 inch, and dust coal was just that -- dust. (Watts: Carbon County, pp. 401-404)
The first recorded evidence of coal in eastern Utah came from the Gunnsion Expedition in 1853. While surveying a route for the transcontinental railroad, expedition members discovered coal along the eastern slope of the Wasatch Range, near present day Emery. The remoteness of the location, along with the known availability of coal from the Coalville and Wales mines, soon led to the report being forgotten. (Powell, Next Time We Strike, p. 18)
Coal was first discovered in the Wasatch Field, the region of the Wasatch Plateau (along the western edge of what later became Carbon and Emery Counties), in 1874. Mining started in 1875 when the Fairview Coal & Coke Company, organized in May 1874, opened a mine in Coal canyon near the head of Huntington Canyon and established a settlement called Connellsville, after the noted source of coked coal in Pennsylvania. Coking operations were carried on for approximately three years using eleven coke ovens. Wagons were used to haul the coke to Springville, but the cost of transportation, along with the inferior quality of the coke brought a short life to the enterprise. (Powell, Next Time We Strike, p. 18, from Salt Lake Tribune, January 1, 1875)
Fairview Coal Mining & Coke Company was incorporated on May 2, 1874. ("1874-An Eventful Year", Our Pioneer Heritage, Volume 18, 1975, p. 5)
Coal was first discovered on the Wasatch Plateau in 1874 and mining started in 1875 when Fairview Coal & Coke Company opened a mine in Huntington canyon and established a settlement called Connellsville. By 1876 the Fairview company was mining coal from several openings in both Huntington and Coal Canyons and producing coke from eleven coke ovens. A railroad was surveyed from San Pete Valley, up Fairview Canyon, over the ridge and down Huntington Canyon to the Connellsville mine, but the line was never built. The Connellsville mine operated for a few short years, however, the quality of the coke, and the cost of shipping the coal and coke to Springville by wagon was too great and the mine and settlement were both abandoned. (United States Fuel: Thirty Years, p. 5)
E. M. Crandall, in an article in the Western Mineral Survey, stated that his father, Martin P. Crandall was the first to discover coal in the Pleasant Valley Coal Fields, in the spring of 1873. Martin P. Crandall was born in 1830 in New York and traveled to Utah with other Mormon pioneers, to Springville, where he died in 1895. While living in Springville, Crandall was a well known contractor and freighter. "While stopping in Thistle Valley, San Pete County, Utah, at a ranch operated by John Sanders, Martin P. Crandall, my father, met some Indians from whom he learned the location of this coal deposit. Upon investigation, he found a large vein of coal, now called Winter Quarters." Crandall took a party of twenty-one men, his two sons, Myron and E. M. Crandall, two yoke of oxen, and a span of black mules, and built a temporary road up to Soldier Summit from the end of a sixteen mile road already put in place by a lumber company to Mill Fork (near today's Castilla crossover on SP/D&RGW). Upon discovery of the coal mine, along with the abundant fish, game, timber and grass, they built a road from the coal mine down to what was later known as Tucker. Two men were left at the mine over the winter of 1873-1874. In the spring of 1874, Crandall interested "Milon" Packard of Springville, and along with Smith & Doremus, engineers from Salt Lake City, built a good wagon road from Springville to Pleasant Valley. In 1876 construction was begun on a narrow gauge railroad. In 1881, the interests of the Martin P. Crandall & Company was sold to George Scofield and George B. Gaus. (Western Mineral Survey, September 30, 1938, from Utah State Historical Society clipping file)
Coal discoveries were made in the Pleasant Valley area in July 1875. The railroad and most of the "leading" mines were owned by "Messrs" Child, Packard, Pritchard, Crandall, and others. After the discovery of the Pleasant Valley coal mine in July 1875, a wagon road was constructed at a cost of $11,000.00. (Deseret News, September 5, 1877)
Commercial development of the coal resource in what is now Carbon County began in 1875 with the organization of the Pleasant Valley Coal Company by Milan O. Packard, M. P. Crandall, and Nephi Packard, all of Springville. At the same time, on December 11, 1875, these same individuals also organized the Utah & Pleasant Valley Railway to build a rail line between Provo and their new mine in Pleasant Valley. (Utah corporation, index number 4301)
During the winter of 1875-1876, John Nelson and Abram Taylor camped at the site of Winter Quarters to stake out a coal mining claim on the area for the Pleasant Valley company. The town and mine were given its name in their honor. (Powell, Labor, p. 14)
(QUESTION: Did the name Winter Quarters come from the continued practice of a party of men spending each winter at the mine, during the three winters of 1873-1874, 1874-1875, and 1875-1876?)
(COMMENT: The Winter Quarters name may have been applied to the camp because of circumstances similar to the Mormon experiences (the San Pete Valley miners were most likely Mormons) on the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, Iowa over the winter of 1846-1847 prior to their leaving for Utah in 1847. That camp on the Missouri River was also called Winter Quarters.)
A wagon road was constructed beginning in the spring of 1876 to move the coal from the Winter Quarters mine and Springville. The first opening for the Winter Quarters mine was made that summer of 1876. The coal was mined and packed by mule down the hillside and loaded onto wagons for the trip into Springville. The Pleasant Valley Coal Company began shipping coal in the fall of 1876, by way of the new wagon road to Springville, the round trip taking four days. At Springville the coal was sold locally for $4 to $5 per ton. (Watts: First Mine, pp. 33-35)
(COMMENT: The mine owners had difficulties finding financial support for the railroad until they could show that it had sufficient traffic to pay its way. To show that the traffic truly existed, it was necessary to develop the coal mine and begin shipping the coal to market by wagon prior to building the railroad.)
Grading for the new railroad line was begun at Springville in April 1877. Warren G. Childs of Ogden was the principle contractor, keeping between 160 and 300 men on the project throughout the summer through early winter 1877. By year's end, the road's construction engineer, J. Fewson Smith, reported that twenty-six miles of grading had been completed. (Reeder, p. 370, from Deseret News, March 28, 1877, May 30, 1877, December 26, 1877, Salt Lake Tribune, June 10, 1877, Salt Lake Herald, December 21, 1877)
The first actual miners for the new mine came in June 1877 from the San Pete Valley area when Peter Moran and fourteen other men of Scottish and Welsh ancestry were hired, possibly because of their previous mining experience from the Wales mine. They worked at the mine for the season, but an early snow storm kept them at the mine camp over the winter of 1877-1878, after which they walked out, north to the railroad construction camp at Clear Creek (later called Tucker). (Watts: First Mine, p. 35)
The railroad was graded sixteen miles by September 1877. (Deseret News, September 5, 1877)
Development work on the new Winter Quarters No. 1 mine began in June 1878, with the prospects of the soon to be completed Utah & Pleasant Valley Railway. Twelve beehive coke ovens were built, but they found that the coal had poor coking qualities. (Watts: First Mine, pp. 35-37)
By mid-1878 the Utah & Pleasant Valley Railway had not yet laid any rail, and was having problems paying the interest on its construction bonds, which meant that it might not be able to complete its line to the mines. It was rescued in October 1878 by Charles W. Scofield, an investor from New York City who had also saved and taken control of both the Bingham Canyon & Camp Floyd Railroad and the Wasatch & Jordan Valley Railroad -- two narrow gauge lines which traversed the Salt Lake Valley between the mining camps of Alta and Bingham Canyon, meeting and connecting with the Utah Southern Railroad at Sandy. (Reeder, p. 372, from Poor's, 1879, p. 923)
(COMMENT: With Scofield's support the Utah & Pleasant Valley was able to complete its line into Pleasant Valley and the coal company's mine there. In return Scofield was given control of the railroad which meant that he and his associates controlled three of the most important rail lines within the state at that time.)
On August 29, 1878 tracklaying began on the Utah & Pleasant Valley line at Springville. (Reeder, p. 370, from Salt Lake Tribune, August 29, 1878)
The construction of the Utah & Pleasant Valley Railway, the "Calico Road", was started on September 7, 1878. (Mendenhall, p. 150)
On September 16, 1878, after a mile and a half of track was laid, using a construction train pulled by horses, the railway company's first locomotive was put on the rails. (Reeder, p. 371, from Salt Lake Tribune, September 17, 1878)
The locomotive was a Porter & Bell 0-6-0, with a four-wheel tender, and had been the American Fork company's second locomotive, purchased in 1874. This first Utah & Pleasant Valley locomotive came from the defunct American Fork Railroad. Charles Scofield bought the rolling stock and rails of the American Fork company and used them in the construction of the Utah & Pleasant Valley. (Pitchard: Scrapbook, p. 26)
The defunct American Fork Railroad, which shut down just two months earlier, in June 1878. (Reeder, p. 208, from Deseret News, June 12, 1878)
During the construction of the new line, coal was loaded from the wagons to the rail cars at the end of track, where ever that might be as construction proceeded up the canyon. By early and mid May 1879 coal was being hauled into Springville by rail. On May 9th, five cars of coal was received at Springville. (Pitchard: Newspaper Notes, Territorial Enquirer, May 10, 1879)
The new line was built using rails that weighed twenty pounds to the yard (compared to today's regular use of one hundred thirty-three pound rails). Coal was hauled in five-ton wooden cars with twelve cars making up a train, sixty tons of coal per trip. (Watts: First Mine, pp. 35,36)
(COMMENT: Today, a single coal car carries 100 tons, nearly twice as much coal.)
The Utah & Pleasant Valley railroad was completed to the mines on November 5, 1879 and it immediately began hauling coal to Springville. (Reeder, p. 371, from "Spanish Fork", in Railway World, November 15, 1879)
The first mention of the Pleasant Valley Coal & Coke Company in the property records was on March 3, 1881 when Alexander A. Atkins sold 198.28 acres to the coal company. The property was in Section 32, T12S, R7E and Section 5, T13S, R7E. (Carbon County Miscellaneous Records Book 3, p. 18)
(COMMENT: A. C. Watts, chief engineer of Utah Fuel, in his article in the March 15, 1913 issue of Coal Age magazine, wrongly stated that the Utah & Pleasant Valley commenced operations between the Pleasant Valley mines and Springville in 1876. This was the date that wagon operations began.)
When the Denver & Rio Grande Railway changed its destination from El Paso to Salt Lake City in 1880 it soon found that the only practical and construction-cost effective route open to it from the east was by way of the Price River Canyon. To accomplish all of the construction in the territory of Utah, a new company by the name of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway was organized in July 1881. To shorten the construction time needed to reach Salt Lake City the D&RGW made a deal with C. W. Scofield to take over his three railroads - the Utah & Pleasant Valley to shorten the line and the Wasatch & Jordan Valley and Bingham Canyon & Camp Floyd lines to provide it with ready sources of traffic when it got to Salt lake City. The three Scofield lines were purchased in December 1881 and the Rio Grande's rails reached Salt Lake City in June 1882. (Reeder, p. 387, from D&RG ICC valuation reports, pp. 806,896,901)
The corporately-combined Bingham Canyon & Camp Floyd, and Wasatch & Jordan Valley lines were acquired by D&RGW interests on September 1, 1881, and the Utah & Pleasant Valley line was purchased at a foreclosure sale in June 1882. The chief engineer of the D&RGW, Micah T. Burgess, was making surveys east of Clear Creek (later Tucker) toward Colorado as early as the summer of 1881. Rumors persisted that D&RGW was either interested in, or had purchased control of the Scofield roads as early as October 1880, although formal possession did not occur until June 14, 1882 upon completion of the D&RGW tracks into Salt Lake City. The Utah lines, called the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway, connected with the Colorado lines, called the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, on March 30, 1883, with the actual traffic beginning on April 1st. In April 1882, the D&RG had formally leased the D&RGW. (Wilson, pp. 71-76)
(COMMENT: The Utah & Pleasant Valley had been completed in late 1879 by building up the South Fork of Soldier Creek from its station called Clear Creek (later called Tucker), crossing into Pleasant Valley through the use of a unique double switchback. This was a difficult and expensive route for operation, and to overcome these operating difficulties, after it purchased control of the Utah & Pleasant Valley in June 1882, the Denver & Rio Grande built an easier route.)
On October 27, 1882 the Price River & Pleasant Valley Railway was incorporated, to build a 25-mile railroad up Fish Creek, from its confluence with the White River which forms the Price River at today's Colton, to the coal mines at the head of Pleasant Valley. (Utah corporation, index number 163, 4316)
The Price River & Pleasant Valley's principle organizer was William F. Colton, an associate of William Palmer in other railroads in Utah, and for whom today's Colton station (formerly Pleasant Valley Junction, and earlier, Fish Creek) is named. The construction of the new line, without using the Price River & Pleasant Valley Railway as the actual instrument of construction, was completed on November 23, 1882 and placed into operation as Rio Grande's Pleasant Valley Branch, replacing the old Utah & Pleasant Valley line between Clear Creek (later Tucker) and the Pleasant Valley mines. (Pitchard: Newspaper Notes, Salt Lake Daily Tribune, October 18, 1882, "rail to be laid in two weeks"; November 15, 1882, "new line to be done in few days"; November 19, 1882, "laying of rail completed"; November 23, 1882, "into operation today")
The operation officially of the new D&RGW Pleasant Valley Branch began on December 1, 1882. The new line connected with the old Utah & Pleasant Valley line at a point about two and a half miles north of Scofield. Upon completion of the D&RGW line between Pleasant Valley Junction and the Utah/Colorado line on April 8, 1883, Pleasant Valley Junction became one of two division terminals in Utah and was the location of an eleven-stall brick roundhouse. (Madsen, pp. 14, 15)
(COMMENT: The other division terminal was at Green River.)
Pleasant Valley Junction was abandoned as a division terminal with the completion of the new division terminal at Helper in 1891 or 1892. (Madsen, p. 15)
The new line between Clear Creek over Soldier Summit to Pleasant Valley Junction, completed on August 1, 1882, had an easier grade, and didn't have the double switchbacks of the old Utah & Pleasant Valley line, allowing larger cars to be used. The number of cars in each train stayed at twelve, but larger cars were used, with capacity increased from five tons to ten tons, giving each train a capacity of about 145 tons compared to the previous 60 tons. (Watts: First Mine, p. 36)
William F. Colton was president and treasurer of Pleasant Valley Coal Company during late 1901. (Higgins: Industries, p. 20)
(COMMENT: Pleasant Valley Junction was later renamed to Colton, after William F. Colton.)
The Price River was named after William Price, a Mormon bishop from Goshen, Utah, who was exploring the region during the summer of 1869 and named the convergence of Fish Creek and the White River (at today's Colton) after himself. He continued his exploration and followed his namesake river past the famous Castle Gate rock formation as far east as today's Wellington. (Madsen, p. 8)
Price townsite was surveyed and laid out in November 1882. (Reynolds, p. 85)
The new D&RGW rail line between Pleasant Valley Junction and the Utah-Colorado line, through Castle Gate and Price, was completed on April 8, 1883. (Madsen, p. 14)
The first frame structure in Price, a dry goods store, was built by Frederick Grames, who was also the town's first postmaster when the post office was established on August 30, 1883. The stock of dry goods for the store was purchased from a contractor of the D&RG. (Reynolds, p. 85)
The railroad station at Price was originally called Castle Valley, and the name was changed to Price in January 1884. (Pitchard: Newspaper Notes, Salt Lake Daily Tribune, January 13, 1884)
(COMMENT: The first Mormon congregation (called a branch, and if larger, a ward) was established on November 20, 1882, taking the name "Price River Branch" from the river that was furnishing their irrigation water. In January 1884, the railroad merely changed the name of the railroad station to match the name of the town, which was being called Price, shortening the full name of the Mormon ward.)
(COMMENT: C. H. Madsen, page 14, states that a station called Castle Valley still existed as late as December 31, 1887, and that it was between Price and Castle Gate. In 1883 Castle Valley was the only station in the twenty-two miles between Castle Gate (today's mile post 630.4) and Farnham (later mile post 608.7, now retired). The 1890 RGW timetable No. 1 shows Castle Gate at mile post (from Ogden) 147.7, and Farnham at mile post 169.3, with Helper at mile post 151.5 and Price at mile post 158.5.)
Carbon County was created by an act of the Utah Territorial legislature on March 8, 1894. The new county was made up portions of the northern part of Emery County. (Madsen, p. 2)
The D&RGW station at Helper was originally just a spur, called Pratt's Siding, after Teacum Pratt, an 1880 settler to the area who had surveyed the townsite and sold the land to the railroad in 1883. The first parcels of land for Helper yard were sold to the railroad in 1891, with one of the parcels being purchased from the Helper Townsite Company. The first depot at Helper was actually an old boxcar, but a new depot, together with a railroad hotel for the crews, a locomotive coaling facility, and a roundhouse were completed sometime before June 1892. The name Helper was chosen by Rio Grande's general superintendent Arthur E. Welby because it described the new yard's function, being the terminal where helper locomotives were added to trains to move them over Soldier Summit. There had been an effort by locals to name the new town after Welby but Mr. Welby preferred the name Helper instead. (Madsen, pp. 15,19)
(COMMENT: The station called Helper existed before 1891, and was shown in the June 1890 RGW timetable No.1, at mile post (from Ogden) 151.5.)
In 1930 the new engine facilities were built at Helper, after the new facilities at Soldier Summit were closed. (Madsen, pp. 21,22)
(COMMENT: According to the Eastern Utah Advocate's August 12, 1909 issue, Arthur E. Welby died on August 8, 1909. Stocking's history of the Welby township, page 2, states that in commemoration of Welby, in 1909 the station originally called Garfield Junction was changed to Welby. Garfield Junction was where the Garfield Beach Extension, built in 1905 to serve the Magna copper mills and Garfield copper smelter, connected with the Bingham Branch in the center of Salt Lake Valley.)
On May 16, 1889 the Rio Grande Western Railway was incorporated as a reorganization of D&RGW to finance the conversion of the 395 miles in Utah from narrow gauge to standard gauge. (Utah corporation, index number 565)
Between July 12, 1884 and mid 1901, the Rio Grande Western was independent of the Denver & Rio Grande. (Wilson, p. 95)
By November 1890 RGW's line between Ogden and Grand Junction was converted to standard gauge. The work was done in segments, through the use of an outside, third rail, progressing throughout the winter, spring and summer of 1890. The first standard gauge through train between Ogden and the Utah-Colorado line was operated on November 14, 1890. The inside, narrow gauge rail was pretty much removed from most remaining areas by late February 1891. (Pitchard: Newspaper Notes, citing Salt Lake Herald, December 15, 1889 (Provo to Castle Gate); March 8, 1890 (Ogden to Salt Lake City); March 11, 1890 (Pleasant Valley Junction to Winter Quarters mine); October 22, 1890 (Bingham Junction to Bingham); November 14, 1890 (Ogden to Denver through train); February 15, 1891 (third rail removed); June 10, 1891 (Bingham Junction to Wasatch); July 10, 1891 (Sevier Branch))
(QUESTION: When was the Salt Lake City to Provo segment completed? When was the Thistle to Manti segment completed? When was the Castle Gate to Utah-Colorado line segment completed?)
The standard gauging of the Ogden to Grand Junction line was completed on June 10, 1890. (Wilson, p. 94)
