Eureka Hill Railroad
Compiled by Don Strack
(including research by Sam Bass, Stan Jennings, and George Pitchard)
This page was last updated on May 25, 2004.
Eureka Hill Railroad Index Page (this page)
Eureka Hill Locomotives
Eureka Hill Rolling Stock
Eureka Hill Railroad Timeline
Eureka Hill Railroad, General Information
See also a summary of Utah corporate information.
The Eureka Hill Railroad Company was incorporated in Salt Lake for the purpose of building a branch railroad line, five miles in length, from Silver City, Utah, to Godiva mountain. The capital stock is $50,000, fully paid, and the officers and directors are C. W. Nibley, president; J. William Knight, vice-president; Bela Kadish, secretary; John Pingree, treasurer; David Eccles and Jesse Knight. (Salt Lake Mining Review, February 15, 1907)
From Poor's 1929 Railroad Manual, p.1695 (U of U Library, done October 8, 1981):
EUREKA HILL RY.-Incorporated in 1907 in Utah. Mileage operated, Silver City, Utah, to Colorado Shaft No. 4, 7 miles. Equipment: Locomotives, 3; freight cars, 46. Common stock outstanding $50,000. Funded debt, none.
Income Account, year ended Dec. 31, 1927. Operating revenues, $17,847; operating expenses, $16,755; surplus for year, $1,092
Balance Sheet, Dec. 31, 1927. Capital stock, $50,000; current liabilities, $26,522; unadjusted credits, $230,916 total, $307,439. Contra: Investment in road and equipment, $299,714; cash, $1,353; other current assets, $2,198; deferred assets, $50; deficit, $4,123 -- total, $307,439.
Officers: O. Raymond Knight, Pres.; J. Wm. Knight, V-P.; R. E. Allen, Sec & Treas. Directors: The foregoing and W. Lester Mangum, Amanda M. Knight. General Office, Provo, Utah.
While the Articles of Incorporation of the Eureka Hill Railway Co. do show David Eccles (and C. W. Nibley) as holding one share of the stock at that time (i.e., 1907), this likely did not last long, as subsequent reports to the I. R. S. show 495 of the 500 shares as held by Knight Investment Co., with one share each to Jesse (Pres.), his wife Amanda (as Director), son J. W. (as V.P. & Director), son-in-law W. L. Mangum (as Sec.-Treas. & Director), and son-in-law R. E. Allen (as Director); this is 1917, specifically, and was the same in 1918 and in 1919. Definitely a family affair, which by 1929 was even more closely held, as the entire board of directors and corporate officer staff was composed of three people -- J. W. Knight, Amanda Knight, and R. E. Allen, as Pres., V.P., and Sec.-Treas., respectively. (Email, George Pitchard to Stan Jennings, July 9, 2002)
Permission to discontinue service and abandon the entire railroad was formally given the the Utah State Public Utilities Commission on December 10, 1928. Following is a summary of the railroad, as provided as part of Utah Public Utilities Commission Case 1070:
The railroad is 8.5 miles long and serves the Dragon Mine, the Iron Blossom Mine, the Colorado Mine, and the Sioux Mine, all in the Tintic Mining District. All the mines in the district are closed, except for the Sioux and the Iron Blossom, which are occupied mainly with exploration and development work. The district's ore reserves have been depleted since 1922.
The railroad was offered to the Tintic Standard Mining Company, but they refused the offer, even with very easy terms.
The railroad was leased to Werritt & Simpson in September 1927. Their operation for the past year has been at a loss and in September 1928 they gave notice that they wanted to give up the lease. The last day of operation was on September 25, 1928.
On September 29th the railroad notified the Commission that they were closed down, but the Commission told them that they must make formal application.
The railroad is entirely owned by the Knight Investment Company, with J. W. Knight as president and general manager.
Notice of the railroad ending service and operation was published in the Eureka Reporter on November 29, 1928.
George Pitchard found in the annual volume of the "Statistics of Railway" of the federal Interstate Commerce Commission, for the year ending December 31, 1931, a reference to the Eureka Hill Railroad:
Eureka Hill Railroad; Operating road; Independent; 7.0 miles of line, no comment on ownership noted.
In the ICC "Statistics of Railway" for the year ending December 31, 1932, Pitchard found that the Eureka Hill Railroad had been moved to the list of "Changes" for the year:
Eureka Hill Railroad; Road abandoned.
However, with this information in hand, that the road had apparently been abandoned during 1932, George Pitchard did not find any mention of the fact in the Eureka paper.
Information presented in Utah - Resources and Activities (Salt Lake City Department of Public Instruction, 1933), page 387, states that the road was "not operating at present."
George Pitchard found that the Utah State Board of Equalization, for the year 1934, had assessed the Eureka Hill Railroad at $2,550.00, covering $1,500.00, for all three locomotives, $1,000.00 for 20 flat cars and ore cars, and $50.00 for two cabooses.
In his thesis "The History and Economics of Utah Railroads" in 1947, page 80, David Johnson states that the corporation was dissolved on January 26, 1937.
In an email to Stan Jennings dated July 25, 2002, George Pitchard writes about the end of operations on the Eureka Hill:
From still-extant paperwork, it is certain that the railroad was operated in 1930 - under lease - and there is an item in the Eureka Reporter, January 29, 1931, that notes two carloads of ore came down from the Dragon Consolidated to Silver City via the Eureka Hill railway, the name of the railroad occurring in the said item. As to when the line came up---while it is possible indeed that the yard tracks were still in place in 1942, I'll bet against the larger part of the line still being intact at that date, for two reasons: one, an item in the Eureka Reporter, April 30, 1936, noting a road being built/rebuilt from Eureka through Knightsville to the Iron Blossom, which also says "The road will be constructed on the old Eureka Hill railroad bed." The second part of my reasoning is that if the line was not scrapped until 1942, when every scrap of metal was being eagerly sought, would they have left behind several tons of tie plates and spikes??? That they did leave them behind was clearly evident to myself and Sam Goodwin, when he and I walked a large part of the then-accessible grade some years back, and noted very long stretches of ties complete with tie plates and hordes of spikes, lacking only the rail for being 'complete' railroad.
One may speculate, based on the wording of the 1936 newspaper item, that at least at the upper end of the line the track/rail was already gone by that time, or one would expect a clearer reference to it being taken up to make the road at that time. I also have reason to suspect that the railroad was not transferred to International Smelting & Refining in 1926 because at March 25, 1936, 496 of the 500 shares of Eureka Hill Railway stock were owned outright by the Knight Investment Company, the remaining four shares being those legally required to be held by directors and officers - all Knight family members, of course.
Bill Morris, an old-timer in Eureka who is still sharp as a tack, thinks the track wasn't taken up in 1932 as has been reported. He thinks it was later in the decade, or possibly in the early 40's. My feeling is that the track may have been abandoned in place up to the Iron Blossom Tunnel and removed from there to the Beck #2 shaft in 1935 or 1936 when the county was reported to be building a road on the grade. By 1936, the mines on the northern end of the Iron Blossom ore run, the Colorado and the Beck, were mined out, so there was no reason to leave the track in place. The Iron Blossom still had the potential of finding new ore reserves at the time, so leaving the track in place to that point makes sense. The Shays and, I presume, the steel hoppers were scrapped in Silver City in 1942 during the big scrap drive at the beginning of WWII. This is from Mr. June McNulty who was raised in Silver City, and as a boy watched them being cut up. (Email, Sam Bass to Don Strack, October 26, 2003)
I. E. Diehl, editor of the Mammoth Record, wrote an unpublished history of the Tintic Mining District, which included a chapter on railroads. Unfortunately, he died before he could finish the book. In that chapter, he states, "The road (Eureka Hill RR) was abandoned and in 1937 the rails were torn up and removed to Bingham." (Email, Sam Bass to Don Strack, March 29, 2004)
