Trucking Companies

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This page was last updated on September 19, 2025.

Overview

Beginning in the 1930s, trucks had been improved and made powerful enough, allowing them to travel the roads and highways in Utah, transporting coal from the coal mines, and ore and concentrates from the metal mines and mills. After World War II, taking advantage of war surplus heavy duty trucks, the trucking companies expanded and increased the distances they could travel, over the ever-expanding system of paved and improved-gravel roads and highways in Utah.

(The source for most of this information is available online newspapers. Updates will be added and expanded as more information becomes available.)

McFarland & Hullinger

(By the 1960s and 1970s McFarland & Hullinger had grown to include extensive mining and hauling operations in Utah, Colorado, and Arizona, extracting and moving a variety of ore from mine to mill and smelter. This section focuses on the company's operations in Utah.)

McFarland & Hullinger started out in the mining and trucking business in 1936 when the two men became partners in the Hidden Treasure mine in Ophir. The company moved its headquarters to a new building at 80 West Vine Street in Tooele in 1949, then moved again in 1957 into another new building at 915 North Main, also in Tooele.

By 1954 the company had five branches, four in mining or hauling metal-bearing ore, and the fifth branch that was their sand and gravel business, later expanding into asphalt paving. In addition to the mine in Ophir, they had a silver mine in Santa Rosa, California, a uranium mine near Blanding, Utah, and a lease on the dumps in Park City from which they were shipping flux ore to the smelter in Garfield, Utah. (Tooele Transcript Bulletin, December 17, 1954)

(The one thing all of these operations had in common was the company's use of large over-the-road trucks of various dumping configurations. These trucks were used between mines, and mills and smelters directly, or by use of railroads that moved the ore and concentrates from sites where the trucks dumped in rail cars.)

Starting in the mid 1950s and continuing into the 1960s, until about 1966, the McFarland & Hullinger company was involved in the movement of tailings from the mine dumps of the Ontario mine above Park City, down to a truck dump for transloading into Union Pacific rail cars, at the rate of about 30 carloads per week. The material was used by Kennecott as flux ore at its Garfield smelter.

They grew beyond their mining roots and in 1972 when they organized Broken Arrow , Inc., to expand into the environmental disposal business just getting started in western Tooele County, centered around Clive, a rail station on Western Pacific.

The company was organized by F. G. "Fet" McFarland and Sidney K. "Sid" Hullinger. Many of their friends and associates called the company by its informal name, "Mac and Hac," or "Mack and Hack, depending on the source, based on the M&H initials of the company.

McFarland & Hullinger company dates back to 1946 when the company was operating the Cleveland mine in Elko County, Nevada.

In November 1949, F. G. McFarland and S. R. Hullinger (doing business as McFarland & Hullinger) asked the Public Service Commission for permission to become an intrastate "common carrier of all mines and dumps in the Ophir Mining District, to railroad points at St. John and Stockton, Utah, and to smelting and milling points at International, Garfield, Midvale and Bauer, all in Utah, and on return movements to transport any supplies that might be required by the mining companies in the operation of the mines in the Ophir Mining District." The company owned and operated the Ophir Hill mine.

(As a side note, F. G. McFarland's mother, Margaret Orton McFarland, when she passed away in June 1944, had been the Postmistress of Ophir for 26 years, and Ophir town clerk for 20 years. She had been a resident of Ophir for 35 years.)

September 1950
The company leased for operation, the mine of the Cortez Metals company in the Cortez District in Nevada, for a period of 50 years.

September 1954
The company began advertising their services in mine contracting, trucking, diamond drilling, asphalt paving, and in wholesale and retail sale of sand and gravel, asphalt mixes and road base.

October 1955
McFarland & Hullinger joined the uranium boom when they signed a contract with the Homestead Uranium company to develop and operate a mine on the Homestead company's 12 claims in the Rattlesanke area near LaSal in San Juan County, Utah. McFarland & Hullinger would take 75 percent of gross receipts, and Homestead would take 25 percent. The ore body was 52 feet below the surface and was already blocked out.

(In October 1954, Atlas Corporation bought the Hidden Splendor uranium mine near La Sal, Utah. In mid 1956, Atlas Corp. bought a 30 percent interest in the uranium mill being built at Moab, Utah. The Moab mill was completed by October 1956 and had its formal dedication in September 1957.)

(During this period, some of the trucks were lettered for "F&S Trucking" for Fes McFarland and Sid Hullinger.)

November 1955
The company asked the Utah Public Service Commission for permission to haul uranium ore from the Hidden Splendor mine in Grand County, 75 miles to the D&RGW railroad at Green River, Utah, on behalf of the Vitro Uranium company in Salt Lake City.

1956
By 1956, McFarland & Hullinger, as contract operators and truckers from the Tooele area, had been hauling from Park City area mines "for several years." Work resumed during early April 1957, after a shut down during the winter. Trucks were "hauling the dump at the Ontario mine to the loading platform in the Union Pacific yards." (Park Record, December 13, 1956; April 11, 1957)

January 1956
Frank Hatt transferred his "Certificate of Convenience" to McFarland & Hullinger, "to operate as a common carrier by motor vehicle" for the transportation of uranium, vanadium, manganese and other ores and concentrates, over regular routes within a 175 mile radius of Green River, Utah, to any and all points within that area. Also, to transport as backhaul to the mines any and all supplies and materials that can be hauled in dump trucks (powder, caps, drill steel, groceries, small amounts of lumber, nails, diesel fuel,oil and gasoline barrels) and which do not require special equipment. There was to be no pickup or delivery of any items that fall under the description of general commodities.

(The branch office of McFarland & Hullinger opened it office in Green River, Utah, in 1956, and moved to Moab in 1958.)

1957
In May 1957 McFarland & Hullinger moved into their own newly completed and purpose-built office at 915 North Main Street in Tooele. They had previously been in rented space at 80 West Vine Street, in downtown Tooele.

1958
McFarland & Hullinger Mining company closed its Ophir Hill mine on October 1, 1958.

1960
During early January 1960, McFarland and Hullinger were using three 15-ton trucks to haul the waste dumps from the Daly No. 2 mine above the Ontario, along Park City's Main Street to be loaded into Union Pacific railroad cars and shipment to Kennecott Copper for use as flux ore. The trucks were making six trips each day and had started up again after stopping in August. During the week between January 7th and the 14th, the trucks loaded 19 rail cars. (Park Record, January 7, 1960; January 14, 1960)

McFarland & Hullinger continued loading Union Pacific cars through July 1960, when 30 cars were loaded in one week, a rate that continued into November when 30 cars per week was also being loaded. The trucks usually stopped during the winter months due to bad roads, but as spring arrived, the trucks would resume hauling sand and flux ores to be dumped into the cars of Union Pacific and shipped to Kennecott's smelter at Garfield, and the International smelter at Tooele. (Park Record, and the Salt Lake Tribune, various issues throughout the 1960s, under the irregular heading "Shipping, Sales At Park Mines")

1962
McFarland & Hullinger were hauling 100 tons daily from their lease of the Ophir mine to the Midvale smelter. Both the mine and smelter were owned by United States Smelting Refining & Mining. (Salt lake Tribune, November 24, 1962)

1967
"Wortley Co. and McFarland & Hullinger have moved large tonnages of fluxing ore to Kennecott's Garfield smelter in recent years from the old dumps of the Daly West and Ontario mines. These ores contain all five metals." "During the last decade, the only major producer has been the Ophir Unit of U. S. Smelting Refining & Mining Co., operated by McFarland & Hullinger of Tooele." ("Utah's Mining Industry" published in 1967 by the Utah Mining Association)

1972
McFarland & Hullinger were working under a contract from American Coal company to move coal from the Deseret Mine in Emery County, to the unit train loadout in South Price, Utah.

1979
In December 1979, McFarland & Hullinger received permission from the Utah Public Service Commission to transport salt by motor carrier between points in Utah.

1980
An advertisement in the Moab, Utah, newspaper in August 1980 stated that the company offered "complete hauling and mining service covering a five state area. Interstate and intrastate." Offices were in Gateway, Colorado, and headquarters in Tooele, Utah.

1981
In an article in the Moab newspaper on January 8, 1981, McFarland & Hullinger were congratulated on their 25th year hauling ore in the Moab area. This coincides with the company's shipping uranium ore from Atlas Corporation's Hidden Splendor uranium mine near La Sal, Utah, and the September 1956 opening of the Atlas uranium processing mill in Moab. The Moab office was under the management of F. G. McFarland's oldest son, Fayette Park McFarland, also known as "Fet" like his father.

The largest ore hauling company in Moab is McFarland & Hullinger, commonly dubbed "Mack 'n Hack". The company is headquartered in Tooele, with five branch offices in Utah, Arizona and Colorado.

McFarland & Hullinger was originally formed in 1934. Ore hauling operations began in Green River in 1956. The Moab branch office serves customers in New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona. The office is licensed to operate in Wyoming, but does little hauling there.

Most of the customers using the local office are within a 165-mile radius of Moab.

McFarland & Hullinger hauls ore for a large number of mines, ranging in size from Atlas Minerals to small, independent outfits. The company also provides front-end loaders to small operators, used to load ore at the mines. Although the firm primarily hauls uranium ore, its trucks also transport salt, coal, sand, gravel and asphalt.

The Moab office includes a complete shop, where all mechanical work is done, with the exception of bodywork. The shop has facilities for everything from engine rebuilds to welding. Six mechanics and one greaseman are employed at the shop.

At one time, the local office employed as many as 70 workers. However, the slumping uranium market has caused a reduction in the workforce. At the present time, the Moab office employs 35 drivers, operating a similar number of trucks. In the past, the firm ran two shifts on a regular basis. This has now been reduced to one shift. The company runs a regular five-day week, with occasional weekend jobs.

To increase haulage, McFarland & Hullinger began using double trailers, which have become a familiar site on Moab's Main Street. They attempt to maintain legal weight loads, but this can be difficult, as the Moab office has no scales, and trucks are loaded by estimate.

The three axle trailers are a fairly recent development, designed to reduce weight loads on individual axles. When the trailer is empty, two of the axles can be raised, lifting the tires from the road. When loaded, the axles are lowered, distributing the weight. Weight distribution is important, as highway engineers estimate that a heavily-loaded truck has the same impact on the pavement as about one million passenger cars.

With two trailers, the gross legal weight of each unit is 116,000 lbs., representing a payload of 38 tons. With a single trailer, the gross weight is 84,000 to 88,000 lbs., with a payload of 24-38 tons. The truck alone [with a single dump body] has a payload capacity of 13-14 tons. Each rig represents a sizable investment, as a new tractor with two trailers costs about $115,000.

As the trucks are frequently used to pick up loads at remote mines, the drivers have to drop one or both trailers, to navigate safely on the rough roads. Johnston emphasized that safety is a prime consideration in the company's operation. He stated that the firm enjoys an excellent safety record, due in part to a regular schedule of maintenance and repair.

(Fayette Gordon "Fet" McFarland passed away on November 6, 1985 at age 81.)

(Sidney Robert "Sid" Hullinger passed away on August 25, 1986 at age 74.)

Broken Arrow

The first reference in available online newspapers to Broken Arrow, Inc. is in December 1966, with the company located in Gunnison, Utah.

Although research has not yet identified the actual timeline, Broken Arrow apparently bought the McFarland & Hullinger company upon the deaths of F. G. McFarland in 1985 and Sid Hullinger in 1986.

In March 1989 Broken Arrow had a contract to expand USPCI's Grassy Mountain Facility, located north of I-80, about 11 miles northwest of the Clive exit. Khosrow Semnani established the Grassy Mountain hazardous waste disposal site in the late 1970s, and sold the Grassy Mountain facility to waste-management giant USPCI in 1981. Between 1988 and 1995 USPCI was a subsidiary of Union Pacific Railroad, and 1995 was sold to Laidlaw Environmental Services.

1997
In December 1997, McFarland & Hullinger, and their affiliated companies, Broken Arrow and Utah Fabrication, moved to Lakepoint, Utah, in facilities formerly occupied by USPCI/Laidlaw.

2000
By October 2000, the McFarland & Hullinger company was owned by Broken Arrow, a general contracting company that specializes in excavation and commercial and industrial building. Broken Arrow is owned by Steve Bunn and Jim Groscost, employing 275 persons. By this time, the McFarland & Hullinger company was advertising regularly, selling top soil, and sand and gravel.

The company motto was "We Can Mine It; We Can Haul it."

By November 2000, Sid Hullinger, the older Sid Hullinger's son, was vice president of both Broken Arrow and McFarland & Hullinger Trucking, which had the original contract to haul radioactive waste to what would become the Envirocare site in the late 1980s.

(The disposal site at Clive became active for radioactive waste in July 1985 when the the removal began of the radioactive waste from the Vitro site in the center of Salt Lake Valley. Preparation of the site began in March 1985.)

2003
Broken Arrow had planned to sever its relationship with Envirocare at the end of 2003. When the change was announced in February 2003, Stephen Bunn was CEO of Broken Arrow, which had been Envirocare's movement and placement contractor for landfill materials at Envirocare's Clive site for 14 years, since 1988-1989 when Envirocare took over the Clive facility. The change was announced in late February 2003 when Broken Arrow and the former president of Envirocare planned to open a competing facility adjacent to Envirocare. Cedar Mountain Environmental was the name of the planned facility, and was to be located on land already owned by Broken Arrow. The concept of a competing facility was put on indefinite hold in early September 2003 due to delays in the approval process. Although the competing facility was not approved, Envirocare signed with a different contractor to replace Broken Arrow.

In 2008, Broken Arrow/McFarland & Hullinger unknowingly became involved in a fraud created by Al McKee and his Ophir Mineral and Aggregate Group (OMAG) when McKee, saying that he was affiliated with Broken Arrow, began his promotion scheme that included his Tintic Southern Railroad leasing UP's Tintic Branch to serve his pie-in-the-sky business park to be located in Elberta in the Goshen Valley. Broken Arrow/McFarland & Hullinger very soon made it clear in the press that they had no association with McKee. McKee's fraud came to a head in 2016 when Union Pacific filed charges of theft and trespass for McKee's unauthorized removal and sale of seven miles of their branch line.

(Watch a YouTube video about Broken Arrow's Great Salt Lake salt operations, posted in July 2025)

(Visit the Broken Arrow website)

Savage Brothers Trucking

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