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
(This is a work in progress; research continues.)
Mohrland
U. S. Fuel's Mohrland Mine — The coal mine in Cedar Creek Canyon.
- Castle Valley Coal Company
- Castle Valley Railway
The name Mohrland was selected for the townsite at the Cedar Creek mine of the Castle Valley Coal Company, assembled from the last names of the coal company's organizers: M-O-H-R-land; James H. Mays, Walter C. Orem, Moroni Heiner, and Winsor V. Rice. (Thompson, page 101)
The first coal mine in Cedar Creek canyon was opened in 1906 by the Howard brothers, William and Erin. The Howard brothers lost their original mine to a faulty filing of their claim. The same mine was filed on by Samuel, Ulysses and Ernest Grange, and their friend, Albert Gardner. William Howard and his son, Ernest, filed on a nearby forty acre claim and opened a second mine. The coal was hauled by wagon out of the seventeen-foot high coal seam. Two years after the filing, both mines were purchased by James H. Mays, Moroni Heiner, Walter C. Orem, and Windsor C. Rice. (Zehnder, page 36)
The "Old Marshall Mine" was purchased by James H. Mays and Moroni Heiner, and the Castle Valley Coal Company was organized to develop the mine as a commercial venture. The mine was located in Cedar Creek Canyon and was originally a wagon mine operated by William Marshall and Erin Howard, of Huntington. The mine had been the source of coal for the local market for about fifteen to twenty years. (Higgins: Castle Valley, page 15)
The mine was purchased from its owner-operator, Erin Howard. (Sun Advocate & Helper Journal, January 2, 1975, page 2)
(RESEARCH: Find out exactly who filed the first coal claim in Cedar Creek Canyon, William Marshall, the Howard brothers, or the Grange brothers, and who sold the claim to Mays and Heiner. Look at contemporary newspaper accounts, and look at tax and land ownership records for Emery County, in beautiful, downtown Castle Dale, Utah.)
During 1908 coal was first developed in Cedar Creek Canyon, just south of Miller Creek Canyon and just over the county line into Emery County. During late 1908, Mays, Orem & Company had been shipping coal from their Cedar Creek Mine by wagon to Price, and announced that they may build a railroad during 1909 to connect with the then under-construction Southern Utah line. (Eastern Utah Advocate, December 17, 1908, page 8)
On July 12, 1909 the Castle Valley Coal Company organized and incorporated in Wyoming on July 19, 1909 to develop the new coal lands in Cedar Creek canyon. The corporation filed in Utah on August 9, 1909. (Utah corporation, index number 7854)
The holdings of the new corporation consisted of 4,000 acres of coal lands located in Emery County, about two miles south of the line with Carbon County, along with 1,200 acres of ranch land and future town site, and the entire flow of Cedar Creek. The company was organized by James H. Mays, Moroni Heiner, A. J. Orem, Walter C. Orem, and Windsor V. Rice, James G, Berryhill, and W. W. Armstrong. (Higgins: Castle Valley, page 15)
On July 20, 1909 James H. Mays, of Castle Valley Coal, for the amount of $125,000.00, purchased a half interest in Southern Utah Railroad line and telephone line between Price and a junction to be built near Miller Creek Canyon, to be called Castle Junction. The Castle Valley Railroad was not in existence but was contemplated upon the agreement and would be incorporated as soon as convenient. The Southern Utah line was only graded at the time. The $125,000 purchase price was to be paid in five installments, with the last installment of $25,000.00, scheduled to be due on upon actual completion of the new joint line, projected to be on October 1, 1910. The joint track was to be built to include two side tracks with the capacity of at least twenty cars each. Each railroad was to operate its own trains over the joint track at its own expense. (Carbon County Miscellaneous Records Book 3-B, p. 33-37)
James G. Berryhill was apparently the major financial force behind the organization of the Castle Valley Coal Company, and was a millionaire many times over. (Eastern Utah Advocate, July 22, 1909)
The Castle Valley Coal Company began development of its Cedar Creek Canyon mine during October 1909. (Higgins: Castle Valley, page 15)
The Castle Valley Coal Company acquired the Monson Ranch for the location of its townsite that was to be adjacent to its new mine in Cedar Creek Canyon. The ranch property was needed for its valuable water rights. Surveying for the new town site and mine began during the last week of July 1909. (Eastern Utah Advocate, July 29, 1909)
On August 10, 1909 the Castle Valley Railroad was incorporated by the owners of the Castle Valley Coal Company to build a forty-mile railroad from Price to their mines in Cedar Creek canyon. All shares in the railroad, except for qualifying shares, were owned by the Castle Valley Coal Company. (Utah corporation, index number 7906)
By late August 1909, the Castle Valley line had been surveyed. (Eastern Utah Advocate, August 26, 1909)
During early October 1909 the Castle Valley Railroad began construction of its new line. The grading work was contracted to the Ely Construction Company of Springville, managed by C. L. Crandall, with work beginning on October 4th, just as the Ely company was finishing the grading to the adjoining Southern Utah railroad. The first phase of grading kept twenty-five teams busy, with wages for teams being five dollars for nine hours of work. Laborers received two and two and quarter dollars per day. If "Americans" were not available, foreigners would be hired. Work was being rushed to complete the grading before the ground froze. The site for the coal company's tipple and new townsite was selected in late September 1909 by James G. Berryhill, of Des Moines, a director of the coal company who was on site at the time, along with J. K. Seifert, a consulting engineer from Chicago. The original name of the townsite was to be Connellsville, after the noted town in Pennsylvania. The original name of the railroad was the Utah & Southwestern. (Eastern Utah Advocate, October 7, 1909, "Cedar Creek Railroad Graders Are Working")
In late October 1909, the Castle Valley ordered a new locomotive. By that time, about two miles of line had been graded by the Ely Construction company. A sawmill had been installed at Cedar Creek to cut ties for the railroad and timbers for the mine. (Eastern Utah Advocate, October 28, 1909, "Order Is Placed For New Engine")
Tracklaying began about a month later at the connection with the Southern Utah's line at Castle Junction, near the mouth of Miller Creek Canyon. The laborers working for the Ely firm consisted mostly of about equal numbers of Japanese, Greeks, Italians, and Austrians obtained from the labor agencies at Salt Lake City, Ogden and elsewhere. There were rumors that the coal company would purchase more coal lands south of Cedar Creek, and that the railroad would be extended to Huntington and further south. (Eastern Utah Advocate, November 25, 1909, "Pushing Work On New Road")
On January 3, 1910 the Castle Valley Railroad's first locomotive, with road number 1, arrived at Price and was sent on to Helper to be "limbered up". The line was projected to be complete by early February. Upon arrival at Price, the locomotive was sent to D&RG's shop at Helper to be made ready for service. The eight miles of line had been graded, but tracklaying had not yet begun. The rails were all available and on the ground, waiting only for the arrival of tools for work to begin. Work had been severely delayed due to extreme cold weather. (Eastern Utah Advocate, January 6, 1910)
Castle Valley number 1 was a Lima 2-8-0 and was a duplicate to Southern Utah's number 100, which had arrived just ten weeks before. (Eastern Utah Advocate, March 24, 1910)
(The Castle Valley's 2-8-0 was later renumbered from number 1 to number 101 to be in the same road number series as the Southern Utah's locomotive.)
By mid February 1910 the rails of the Castle Valley line had reached the midway point between Castle Junction, where the eight-mile Castle Valley line left the Southern Utah line, and its terminal at Mohrland. (Eastern Utah Advocate, February 17, 1910)
On February 27, 1910 the Castle Valley Railroad operated its first train from Mohrland. (Eastern Utah Advocate, March 17, 1910)
On April 20, 1910 the Ely Construction Company filed a lien against the Castle Valley Railroad for right-of-way construction work commencing on October 19, 1909 and completed on February 23, 1910. Wages for workmen included: $5.40 per day for a man and a single team; $8.50 per day for a man and two teams; $2.00 per day for laborers, for a nine hour day; $3.50 per day for a foreman, for a nine hour day; $175.00 per month for the superintendent; $125.00 per month for the walking boss; and $0.25 per day for each cart. (Carbon County Miscellaneous Records Book 3-B, page 89)
The lien by Ely Construction was in the amount of $9,280.17. (Eastern Utah Advocate, April 28, 1910)
In mid September, A. L. and George Fullmer of Orangeville filed a lien against the Castle Valley line in the amount of $7,470.67. (Eastern Utah Advocate, September 22, 1910)
(The Fullmer brothers may have acted as a subcontractor to the Ely Construction company in the construction of the Castle Valley line between Miller Creek and Cedar Creek.)
The production of the Castle Valley Coal Company during mid 1911 was about 500 tons daily, increasing to about 1,000 tons per day by September 1, 1911. The coal was mined with machine undercutters and hauled from the mine in four-ton wooden and steel mine cars, using three Goodman 12-ton and one Goodman 6-ton electric locomotives in the mine haulage. After leaving the mine, the loaded mine cars were lowered to the tipple at Mohrland through the use of a 7,000 foot, four-foot gauge, double-track gravity tramway, which had a maximum downward grade of nine percent. The Castle Valley mine was noted for not needing timbering within the mine, as was the Hiawatha mine, an advantage of the particular hardness of the coal produced by the two mines. The coal at the Castle Valley mine came from three different veins, located one above the other, with all three veins totaling sixty-three feet thick in veins of from seven to twenty-three feet thick. (Higgins: Castle Valley, pages 15-18)
In December 1910, Castle Valley Coal was producing about 600 tons per day. (Coal Index: Eastern Utah Advocate, December 1, 1910, page 1)
By October 1911, Castle Valley Coal was shipping 800 tons per day. (Coal Index: Eastern Utah Advocate, October 12, 1911, page 3)
In January 1912, James H. Mays purchased the Orem interests in the Castle Valley Coal Company and the Castle Valley Railroad. (Salt Lake Mining Review, January 15, 1912, page 23)
April 1912
Castle Valley Coal Company increased its capital stock from $5 million to $7.5 million, in part to provide funding for a new coal loading facility at its Mohrland mine. (Coal Age, April 11, 1912, page 1026)
In July 1912 Castle Valley Coal Company installed a new Jeffery tipple and three boxcar loaders at Mohrland. (Coal Index: Eastern Utah Advocate, July 18, 1912, page 5)
As early as July 1914, the coal from the Mohrland mine was referred to as "King" coal, when the coal from the Castle Valley, Consolidated, and Black Hawk mines were called out as King, Hiawatha, and Black Hawk coal. (Salt Lake Mining Review, July 30, 1914, page 32)
Recent Events
1991
U. S. Fuel continued to load coal at Mohrland as late as April 1991, with Utah Railway operating trains over its Mohrland Branch to be loaded at the mine.
1996
In Don Marson's article "The Utah Railway" in the December 1996 issue of Pacific RailNews, he mentions that the Mohrland loadout was still active, loading 200,000 tons per year, destined for the Southwest Portland Cement plant at Victorville, California.
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