Peerless Coal Company

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Overview

The Peerless Coal Company was one of six major coal mining companies located in Spring Canyon, Carbon County, Utah. It was the fifth company of the six companies that developed their coal properties beginning in 1912.

Between 1912 and 1922, Spring Canyon became the focus of the next coal mining boom in Carbon County. The companies included the Spring Canyon Coal Company at Spring Canyon (originally called Storrs), the Standard Coal Company at Standardville in 1912, the Liberty Fuel Company at Latuda in 1914, the Carbon Coal Company at Rains in 1915, the Peerless Coal Company at Peerless in 1917, and the Mutual Coal Company at Mutual in 1921.

(Read more about the coal mines in Spring Canyon, Carbon County, Utah)

The coal mines were located adjacent to the railroad branch line that was built by the coal companies. The first to be completed, in late 1912, was the railroad of the Spring Canyon company, to Storrs, about four miles from the junction with the D&RG's tracks. Then in October 1913, the Standard company completed a one-mile extension from the Spring Canyon mine to its mine at Standardville. The Carbon company built its railroad in 1915 by construction of an almost two mile extension from Standardville to its own mine at Rains, bringing the branch line to approximately seven miles in length. When the Liberty company began shipping coal from its new mine at Latuda, about a half mile down canyon from the Carbon mine, it was over the Carbon company's tracks, which were operated by D&RG, as was the other trackage in the canyon. The Peerless began shipping coal from its mine in 1917, located about a half mile down canyon from the Spring Canyon company.

The Peerless coal mine was among the many coal mines in the Spring Canyon region. Beginning at Spring Canyon Junction where D&RGW's Spring Canyon Branch connected with its mainline near Helper, the Peerless company's mine was in the lowest part of the canyon, and the branch progressed up-canyon to the upper most part of the canyon at Rains. The following list shows the order of the mines, based on the mile post numbers of the railroad branch line.

The D&RGW branch serving Spring Canyon was built by D&RG for the benefit of the coal companies, with the cost of construction for the branch and various extensions being paid to D&RG by the coal companies in the form of fuel for its locomotives. Ownership of each segment of the branch passed to D&RGW on the date that the construction costs had been equalized, and D&RG assumed formal ownership.

The following comes from C. H. Madsen, Carbon County: A History, 1947

This community is located three miles west of Helper. Its elevation is 6,000 feet. Peerless was the first mine developed in the Spring Canyon district.

In the year 1915, an Ogden concern discovered a small tract of land, 440 acres, high up on the cliffs above Helper, and evidently been overlooked or rejected by the Spring Canyon Coal Company and the Utah Fuel Company as mining property. The owners did not wish to operate a mine but were eager to obtain a purchaser. Prospective buyers were wary of this property. Its location and cover might make it a "white elephant" in the mining game, However, the Sweet brothers, Charles and William, took an option on the property and following·developmental work, sold it to two mining men, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Murdock of Salt Lake City.

Development of the mine followed in rapid strides. A tramway was constructed to convey the coal from the steep mountain side to the tipple and shipments of coal were started about 1917. We were informed by a reliable source that during the boom years of coal mining, from 1917 to 1921, that a bonded indebtedness of $400,000 against the property was cleared and that in 1920, it was free from outstanding obligations.

Reports were current in the earlier thirties that the Peerless coal was practically exhausted, but they are still working the mine. During the years of its greatest activity, under the direction of Superintendent Robert Howard, the Peerless mine employed 150 workers. At that time there were about thirty residences, an office, a post office, a fine club house, and a school at this camp.

Map

Spring Canyon Coal Mines -- A Google Map of the coal mines in Spring Canyon, west of Helper; also shows D&RGW's Spring Canyon Branch, and Utah Railway Spring Canyon Branch.

Peerless Coal Company (Peerless)

Peerless was the first mine and townsite encountered when traveling up Spring canyon. The mine and townsite lays on the north (right) as one proceeds west, up Spring canyon.

The coal lands of the Peerless Coal Company were first owned by the Crystal Coal Company in 1914-1917. The land was sold to William H. Sweet and Charles N. Sweet on August 15, 1917, who bought it in the name of the Peerless Coal Company. The Sweets developed the Peerless property, including the construction a gravity tramway and a tipple on the canyon floor at the railroad spur. In 1917 the property was sold to the Peerless Coal Company, organized by the Sweets, along with James Murdoch and Ezra Thompson, both of Salt Lake City. Thompson was a former mayor of Salt Lake City.

The Peerless company had been organized by James Murdoch and Ezra Thompson, a former Salt Lake City mayor. The coal mined by the Peerless company was hard to wrest from the ground because of the split seams and burned portions of the coal seam. The fortunes of the Peerless company varied, with a coal boom coming because of World War One. The mine closed at least once in the 1930s, and was only opened again after new mining technology came along which reduced the cost of mining. (Senulus, John. An unpublished manuscript completed in support of the mine reclamation and clean up program.)

As development proceeded, burned coal was encountered and the estimates of mineable coal in the already thin seams was reduced sharply from the original 310 acres. The mine's owners feared that the returns would not cover their initial $300,000.00 investment. The boom that stemmed from World War One allowed the debt to be paid and a small profit was recovered. This profit was used to develop the New Peerless property near Castle Gate, beginning in the mid 1920s. By the end of operations in 1930, just 97 acres had been mined.

Crystal Coal Company

December 1914
The Crystal Coal Company was organized in December 1914 by a group of investors from Ogden, Morgan and Coalville. The articles of incorporation were filed Wyoming on December 28th. The property described in the articles of incorporation included 434 acres in Carbon County, three miles from Helper and a mile from the D&RG mainline. The company was reorganized and re-incorporated in Ogden in June 1915. The mine was to be in production by September 1915, and was located adjacent to the Knight Spring Canyon property. (Ogden Standard Examiner, December 28, 1914; Salt Lake Telegram, December 29, 1914; Deseret News, December 29, 1914; Salt Lake Herald, May 28, 1915; The Sun, June 11, 1915)

The property had been located in 1912 by some of the original organizers of 1914. The initial plans called for an electric tram to be built, 2.7 miles long, downgrade along its entire length, to connect the mine with the main line of the D&RG. A tipple had been built, and the mine was in limited production by February 1916. (Salt Lake Herald, January 10, 1916; The Sun, January 14, 1916; Salt Lake Herald, February 10, 1916)

February 2, 1917
"Crystal Coal company, an Ogden concern with the Brownings at its head, was to have opened this year on a large scale, but will do nothing now until next spring. Its properties are reached by the Denver and Rio Grande, a short distance west of Helper, and comprises some six hundred acres. When work begins something like $1,000,000 will be spent before anything is sent to market. The coal is of the same excellent quality as that sent out from Castle Gate, Storrs, Cameron, Standardville and Rains." (The Sun, February 2, 1917)

July 27, 1917
The following comes from the July 27, 1917 issue of The Sun newspaper.

One of the biggest coal land deals pulled off the present year in Carbon county is the sale during the past week of four hundred and forty acres of patented property belonging to the Crystal Coal company to F. A Sweet and associates of Salt Lake City. The Crystal Coal company has been in the control since its organization of several of several Ogden people.

While the price paid for the property is not made public, The Sun has it from reliable sources that the consideration is close to two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. There are three big veins of coal underlying this acreage that is said to be of as fine grade as any in its neighborhood.

The holdings of the news owners are to pass to the Peerless Coa1 company, it is said, soon to be organized, and which is figuring on a townsite just below the camp of Storrs in Spring Canyon. Considerable money has been Spent by the Crystal people in development for about three years.

F. A. Sweet, one of the leading spirits of the Peerless, is president of the Standard Coal company near by.

August 15, 1917
The following comes from the August 16, 1917 issue of the Deseret News newspaper, "yesterday."

When the Crystal Coal company disposed of its properties in Carbon county to the Peerless Coal company, a coal transaction of state-wide importance was consummated yesterday. The consideration is reported to have been $200,000, the property being one of the richest coal deposits in Utah. The Peerless Coal company is a newly organized concern composed of Salt Lake and Ogden capitalists. (The amount was later reported in numerous sources as being $300,000.)

The coal lands which are situated near Helper, were originally taken up from the government about four years ago, by several Ogden and Morgan county men. When they had established title to the property they organized the Crystal Coal company.

After the sale of its coal property to the Peerless company in 1917, the Crystal Coal Company was involuntarily dissolved in March 1918 due to non-payment of its state license fee. (Salt Lake Tribune, March 25, 1918)

(There was an earlier Crystal Coal Company organized in November 1907, to mine coal from 80 acres of coal land at Hales, on RGW's Scofield Branch. There was no further reference after January 1908. It was involuntarily dissolved in April 1910, along with thousands of other corporations due to non-payment of its state license fees.)

Peerless Coal Company

The first superintendent of the Peerless Coal company was Robert Howard, a former state coal mine inspector.

August 1917
The 440 acres that composed the land of the Peerless mine were sold on August 8, 1917 by the Ogden owners to a group of capitalists headed by C. N. Sweet in Salt Lake City. The group organized the Peerless Coal Company, with C. N. Sweet as president, James C. Murdoch, as vice president, W. H. Sweet, as secretary-treasurer. Other officers include Ezra Thompson, L. H. Thompson, both of Salt Lake, C. M. Croft and W. I. Norton, both of Ogden. The Peerless company was to be filed as a corporation "probably today". (News-Advocate, August 10, 1917)

Low Coal

The coal seam worked by the Peerless mine was the same as that at the Spring Canyon mine, but did not exceed four feet in thickness. (Gibson, Arthur E. "In The Coal Fields Of Eastern Utah, Carbon And Emery Counties, Spring Canyon District, Carbon County", Centennial Echos from Carbon County, page 231)

The coal seam worked by the original Peerless company was the Castle Gate A seam, which was about twelve feet thick at the Peerless company's location, but its mineable area was found to be smaller. The original Peerless operation mined the A seam, from 1917 to 1930.

There was a Castle Gate B seam, about eight feet thick, located above the A seam, and two sub seams, No. 2 and No. 3, located below the A seam. The No. 3 seam was found to not mineable due to impurities and an uneven floor.

At the Peerless location, the No. 2 sub seam was what was called "low coal", any coal seam less than four feet, and generally considered to uneconomical to work because of the difficulty of a miner not being able to stand up in the seam while mining and loading the coal. The No. 2 sub seam varied from forty-two inches to twenty-seven inches thick.

In 1917 the Peerless Coal Company developed its mine in Spring canyon, using tramway to deliver coal to railroad on canyon floor. (Carr, Stephen L. A Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns, page 76)

September 15, 1917
The yards and tipple of Peerless Coal Company were under construction. (Salt Lake Mining Review, September 15, 1917)

September 27, 1917
The contracts for the construction of the tramway, tipple, and other improvements were let in September 1917 to Ely Construction Company and Wasatch Grading Company. The tramway was to be a gravity tramway and 3,700 feet long. The company consisted of C. N. Sweet, W. H. Sweet, Ezra Thompson, J. D. Murdoch, I. W. Boyer, Lawrence Green, and Leon Sweet, all of whom were "prominent business and mining men in Salt Lake." (News-Advocate, September 27, 1917)

November 23, 1917
"At Crystal in Spring Canyon a tramway thirty-five hundred feet in length is being built for the Crystal Coal company. A force of seventy-five men and teams is employed in surface - work yard improvements and the like. The Reynolds-Ely Construction company of Springville has the contract." (The Sun, November 23, 1917)

November 30, 1917
Peerless Coal's railroad tipple yard was half completed. The company expected to be shipping coal by late January 1918. (Salt Lake Mining Review, November 30, 1917)

Coal shipments from the Peerless mine began over the D&RG in 1918. Shipments began over Utah Railway's Spring Canyon Branch in September 1921, after the construction of the Utah Terminal Railway. (Utah Railway. Coal Mines Tributary To Utah Railway, Revised May 1, 1944)

April 15, 1918
Peerless Coal Company was to go into production about April 15, 1918. The company president was C. N. Sweet. (Salt Lake Mining Review, March 15, 1918)

Coal was delivered from the Peerless mine down a 16 to 22 degree gravity tramway in "trips" of six loaded mine cars to the Peerless tipple.

May 15, 1918
The first ad appeared for "Peerless Coal." (Salt Lake Mining Review, May 15, 1918)

May 31, 1918
"Recent transfer of a big controlling block of stock in Peerless Coal company to Ezra Thompson and James D. Murdock of Salt Lake City puts these two gentlemen in charge of that corporation's affairs. The first carload of coal to be shipped from the Spring Canyon property, opened up last August by C. N. Sweet and W. H. Sweet, got into Zion last Monday. Production will be continuous as the mine is now in full operation and it is expected that within ten days the output will he vastly increased. The new owners say that for the first few days the mine will ship one car daily. Seventy-five miners are at work and the organization of the sales department has been completed. Already twenty modern homes are in course of construction at Peerless and more buildings and other structures will he erected as soon as possible. The town will he built from the ground up on the latest and most approved plans for sanitation, convenience and permanence. Since the organization of the company last summer, Thompson and Murdock have been large stock holders, the final transfer of control taking place two weeks ago." (The Sun, May 31, 1918)

June 30, 1918
"The Peerless Coal Company has been reorganized with Ezra Thompson as president, James D. Murdock, secretary and treasurer; W. H. Sweet, vice president, and J. H. White as sales manager. The company has been shipping mine-run of coal since May 28th, but is now marketing screened coal. The daily output, at the present time, is about 400 tons." (Salt Lake Mining Review, June 30, 1918)

April 1930
In 1930 the Peerless mine in Spring Canyon was permanently closed and operations began at the New Peerless Mine in Price Canyon. (Ax-I-Dent-Ax, April 1930, page 23)

July 1930
The Peerless Coal Company discontinued operations at the Peerless mine due to depletion of the mine in July 1930, at which time the D&RG removed its tracks to the original Peerless mine. (Utah Railway. Coal Mines Tributary To Utah Railway, Revised May 1, 1944)

New Peerless (1929-1937)

Due to the depletion of the mineable coal at the original mine in Spring Canyon, the Peerless company obtained new leases for reserves in Price Canyon near Castle Gate, and began development of a new mine.

The New Peerless mine was located adjacent to the Royal mine in Price River canyon. The new mine in Price canyon was in operation from about 1929 until June 1931, when it was closed due to financial problems. The Peerless Coal Company remained in operation until about 1932, leasing its original Spring canyon property to the former superintendent, for a royalty of twenty-five cents per ton of coal mined. The coal mined was taken by mining the pillars and allowing the rooms to collapse.

(Stephen Carr, in Ghost Towns, page 76, and United States Bureau of Mines Information Circular 6277, page 4, both wrongly state that the Peerless Coal began development of a new mine at Rolapp, in Price canyon in 1938. This was likely a simple typographical error, since the date was 1928.)

(Read more about the New Peerless mine)

Peerless Bankrupt (1931)

Development of the new mine at New Peerless did not progress and the original mine at Peerless in Spring Canyon was reopened on September 12, 1930, with small scale shipments solely over the Utah Railway beginning in October 1930. The original Peerless mine was leased to Howard & Turner in August 1931, with shipments over the Utah Railway beginning in September 1931. In May 1932 the Peerless Sales Company took over the Peerless mine, with the bulk of shipments from the mine being made by truck. (Utah Railway. Coal Mines Tributary To Utah Railway, Revised May 1, 1944)

The original Peerless mine was taken over by a new company by the name of Peerless Sales Company, a reorganization of the Peerless Coal Company. The mine was purchased from the old company for $16,000.00. The new company intended to mine the low coal in the sub seams, with operations beginning in May 1932.

The reorganized Peerless Sales company began operations in the low coal subseams at the original mine, using new mechanical mining technology. Renewed production in the original mine was still limited due to the costs of mining the low seams. The reorganized Peerless remained in operation from about 1932 to 1953, as a small, family-run operation.

One of the principle leasers of the reactivated Peerless mine, Robert Howard of the company Howard & Turner, passed away on March 7, 1932. (Helper Journal, March 10, 1932)

"Turner, the surviving partner, decided to stay in the business and to try to buy Old Peerless from the Company. This meant opening the low seams. He decided to incorporate and to take in Ezra P. Thompson on an equal basis. Peerless Sales Company was incorporated with 100 shares of no-par stock of which Turner had 40 shares, Ezra Thompson 40 shares, Mrs. Howard 10 shares, and Jack Jones 10 shares. Jack was Mine Foreman and was very valuable to the organization." (Cederlof, A. Philip, "The Peerless Coal Mines, 1916-1953," 1975)

"The corporation went ahead. They paid Peerless Coal Co. $16,000, for the property. Turner decided to work the bottom seam. The top sub seam (30 ft. above) was only 42 inches thick, often a few inches lower. The efficiency and comfort of the men drop off increasingly as you go below four feet in height of seam. Costs of mining in all categories go up, other natural conditions being equal. Further, the use of conventional high capacity machinery is limited. But the lower seam had problems. It had a 2 inches to 4 inches rock band in it." (Cederlof, A. Philip, "The Peerless Coal Mines, 1916-1953," 1975)

August 16, 1932
The newly organized Peerless Coal Sales Company was awarded a lease of 160 acres of federal coal land. "The lease calls for an expenditure of $12,000 during the first three years, a royalty of 10 cents per ton, and a minimum production of 10,000 tons a year beginning the fourth year." (Deseret News, August 16, 1932)

In 1939, the Peerless mine purchased a second hand Ottumwa Box Car loader and continued to mine the low, twenty-seven inch seams.

Mining continued from the low seams at the Spring Canyon mine, with operations gradually declining, until March 1953, at which time the mine was completely closed and all assets liquidated. The original Peerless mine had produced 1,500,000 tons from the A seam between 1917 and 1930, and from 1931-1932. The New Peerless produced 100,000 tons from the Price canyon property between 1929 and 1931. Mining of the low seams at the original Spring canyon mine from 1932 to 1953 produced 1,900,000 tons.

In 1954 Peerless Coal closed mine in Spring Canyon. (Carr, Stephen L. "A Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns," 1972, page 76)

September 30, 1954
The Peerless Coal held its four-day liquidation sale at the site of the company's tipple and office, four miles up Spring Canyon. (Sun Advocate, September 30, 1954)

(After 1954, and through to 1968, the only references in available online newspapers to the Peerless company was in various obituaries of former workers, and employee reunions. There was no reference during 1969 and 1970.)

August 26, 1971
Carbon Fuel Company was sold to Braztah Corporation of California. James Diamanti, president of Carbon Fuel reported that his company had recently purchased the properties of the Royal Coal company and Peerless Coal company, as well as a major portion of the Spring Canyon Coal and the Standard Coal properties. The purpose of the sale to Braztah was to provide needed capital for Carbon Fuel to expand its operations, thereby reducing its costs in answer to the new Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety regulations. (Sun Advocate, August 26, 1971)

Sources

Online digital newspapers at Newspapers.com

"The Peerless Coal Mines, 1916-1953" by A. Philip Cederlof, 1975, Utah State Historical Society, MSS A 2202

More Information

"The Peerless Coal Mines" - Philip Cederlof's article in the Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 53, Number 4, 1985 (PDF; 23 pages; 6.9MB)

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