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Spring Canyon Coal Company

This page was last updated on February 14, 2025.

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Spring Canyon Coal Company (Spring Canyon, Utah)

(Also known in later years as the Sowbelly mine)

The existence of coal in the Spring canyon area was known to the residents of the Helper area many years before any coal seam was developed commercially. Coal was hauled by wagon and team from an opening on the side of the mountain opposite what was called upper town, in Sowbelly Gulch. Wagons were also used to ship coal from another coal seam that showed at the head of Sheya's Canyon, later known as Magazine Canyon. (Madsen, p. 50)

1895
The mine in Sowbelly Gulch was first worked by Teancum Pratt in 1895 when he built a wagon road into a small side canyon to get coal for local residents of the Helper area. That original wagon mine was located "where old town used to be". Pratt became sole owner of the mine in about 1897-1898. (Zehnder, Chuck. A Guide To Carbon County Coal Camps And Ghost Towns, page 20)

February 28, 1911
Union Coal Company was organized on February 28, 1911, and further exploration began. (Zehnder, page 20)

March 2, 1911
The proposed railroad of the Union Coal Company was to run four miles west of Helper, then four miles along the coal fields. (Eastern Utah Advocate, March 2, 1911, "Railroad Out of Helper")

March 9, 1911
The coal company was later incorporated as the Union Coal & Coke Company. (Eastern Utah Advocate, March 9, 1911, "Spring Canyon People Are Now Incorporated")

(In 1912 Jesse Knight and other Provo businessmen began development of 2,000 acres of coal lands located in Spring Canyon, and organized the Spring Canyon Coal Company. The coal company's organization included the construction of a railroad to connect the mine in Spring Canyon with the D&RG at Helper, four miles away. The loading tipple of the Spring Canyon Coal Company was located at the junction of Sowbelly Gulch and the main Spring Canyon, 4.1 miles up Spring Canyon.)

May 16, 1912
Jesse Knight had purchased all of the land needed for the right of way for his new railroad in Spring Canyon. (Coal Index: Eastern Utah Advocate, May 16, 1912, p. 5)

May 30, 1912
Five or six miners were working on developing a six-foot coal vein owned by Jesse Knight. The work was in the charge of ex-sheriff Storrs. (Coal Index: Eastern Utah Advocate, May 30, 1912, p. 5)

June 6, 1912
The coal property in Spring Canyon was purchased by the Knight interests from Utah Fuel Company. (Coal Index: Eastern Utah Advocate, June 6, 1912, p. 5)

The property purchased by Knight from Utah Fuel had been originally filed on by Utah Fuel as stone and timber land, and contained 160 acres. (Coal Index: Eastern Utah Advocate, August 1, 1912, p. 5)

July 11, 1912
Grading for the railroad was begun in mid July, with the work being done by Straw & Welsh of Springville. The railroad would be five miles in length and would be completed within sixty days. (Eastern Utah Advocate, July 11, 1912, citing the Provo Daily Herald of July 3, 1912)

The railroad as built had an average grade of two percent, with one section of three percent. The tipple yard at the new station known as Storrs was almost level. (Higgins: Spring Canyon, p. 10)

July 27, 1912
Spring Canyon Coal Company was incorporated by the "Knight interests" to develop coal mine in Spring Canyon. (Eastern Utah Advocate, August 1, 1912)

Spring Canyon Coal Company was organized by Jesse Knight to furnish coal to his mines and smelter located near Eureka. (Carr: Towns, p. 76)

September 5, 1912
Mr. John Cronin was in charge of the Spring Canyon Railroad and the Eureka Hill Railway, both of which were railroads owned by Jesse Knight. (Coal Index: Eastern Utah Advocate, September 5, 1912, p. 5)

September 5, 1912
Spring Canyon Coal company purchased an 80-ton locomotive. (Coal Index: Eastern Utah Advocate, September 5, 1912, p. 5) (Delivered in January 1913)

(View the roster listing for the Spring Canyon Coal company's locomotive)

October 1912
Spring Canyon Coal Company began shipping its first coal. Several cars of coal, hauled from the mine by wagon, were shipped before the aerial tramway was completed. (Madsen, p. 51)

October 14, 1912
The railroad for Spring Canyon Coal company was nearly complete, and construction crews were building the switches that would connect the five-mile private railroad with D&RGW at Helper. The first coal was to be shipped about January 1st. (Provo Daily Herald, October 14, 1912)

October 26, 1912
The new railroad was essentially complete, with grading, bridging, and laying of rails done in the preceding three months. The railroad was five miles in length. (Coal Age, October 26, 1912, p. 590)

The railroad was completed with 3.8 percent grades and ten degree curves and used 75-pound rails. Two locomotives were used to operate the new line. The roundhouse and water tank was located at the Helper end of the railroad. (Elliott, pp. 112-117)

January 2, 1913
"An entirely new method for conveying coal from the mine to the tipple is being tried out at this mine [Spring Canyon Coal company]. An aerial tramway capable of handling two thousand tons of coal in eight hours is to be made as an economical means for carrying the coal from where it crops out at high points in the canyon to the tipple." (Eastern Utah News Advocate, January 2, 1913)

The aerial cable tramway and mine haulage system at the Spring Canyon mine combined into a unique operation which used the mine cars as buckets on the cable tramway. The tramway buckets were designed to allow two of them to be placed on a suitable truck and run into the mine like a typical mine car. After loading, the two buckets were attached to the tramway cable, conveyed from the upper terminal to the lower terminal at the tipple, and returned to the upper terminal to be sent back to the mine for more coal. (Elliott, W. R. "A Recent Utah Coal‑Mine Development", Coal Age, Volume 4, Number 4, July 26, 1913, pages 114, 115)

The Bleichert aerial tramway of the Spring Canyon Coal Company conveyed the coal from the mine to the tipple at Storrs, located 3,200 feet distant and 350 feet lower. The tramway buckets each had a capacity of 2,400 pounds each and were used in pairs, mounted on a special truck, as mine cars, replacing the old fashioned "pit cars" used at other mines. At the upper terminal of the cable tramway a special transfer station allowed the buckets to be removed from the mine trucks and hung singly from the cable. The buckets traveled to the lower terminal where they were dumped automatically and returned to the upper terminal to again be mounted in pairs to the mine trucks and returned to the mine for reloading with coal. The loaded in pairs on the mine trucks, the cable tramway buckets were hauled between the upper terminal and the mine opening by one of two 15-ton General Electric electric mine locomotives in "trips", or trains of twelve cars, making each trip responsible for moving twenty-eight tons of coal from mine to cable tramway. To gather the loaded mine cars inside the mine, three 6-ton electric locomotives were used. (Salt Lake Mining Review, June 30, 1913, "The Spring Canyon Coal Company"; four-page article, with photos)

January 15, 1913
Spring Canyon Coal Company received its new locomotive. The coal company's railroad was privately owned and six miles long. George A. Storrs, a former Utah County sheriff, was the superintendent of both the railroad and the coal mine. (Eastern Utah Advocate, January 23, 1913)

The new steel tipple for the Spring Canyon mine was under construction during March 1913. This was the third steel tipple in the State of Utah, and the first for a mine not operated by Utah Fuel. (Watts: Carbon County, p. 404)

The new steel tipple was built by the Ottumwa Box Car Loader Company and included two of that company's box car loaders on the outside tracks. (Elliott, p. 116)

The new tipple had a stated capacity of 2,000 tons per day. (Knight, p. 71)

In 1913 the Denver & Rio Grande purchased the railroad property of Spring Canyon Coal Company, from Spring Canyon Junction to Storrs. (LeMassena: Rio Grande, p. 125)

Included in the purchase of the Spring Canyon Coal company's railroad by D&RG, was the Spring Canyon Coal Company's 2-8-0 locomotive. D&RG renumbered it to their road number 958, and later to number 915. The locomotive was retired and dismantled in 1937. (Colorado Railroad Museum: Rio Grande, p. 45, photo on p. 46) (An additional photo is on page 127 of LeMassena's Rio Grande to the Pacific.)

March 13, 1913
"Jesse Knight's new coal company in Carbon county is now producing considerable coal." (News-Advocate, March 13, 1913)

(Ads for coal dealers selling Spring Canyon Coal began appearing in Salt Lake City, Ogden and Provo newspapers on February 19, 1913)

March 15, 1913
"At the Winter Quarters mine of the Utah Fuel Co., in the Pleasant Valley district, the first steel tipple and screening plant was built in the winter of 1909-1910. At the Castle Gate mine of the same company the second steel tipple and screening plant was built in the summer of 1912, while the third installation of this kind is being erected by the Spring Canyon Coal Co." (A. C. Watts, "Coal Mining in Carbon County, Utah," in Coal Age, March 15, 1913, page 404)

May 1913
The first coal was shipped from the tipple of Spring Canyon Coal company. (Jesse William Knight, "The Jesse Knight Family: Jesse Knight, His Forebears and Family," 1941, page 70)

June 30, 1913
The Spring Canyon Coal company's mine was shipping 600 tons per day, with production expected to reach 1,000 tons by August. Fifty percent was lump coal, twenty-five percent was nut coal, fifteen percent was pea coal, and the final ten percent was made up of slack coal. (Salt Lake Mining Review, June 30, 1913, "The Spring Canyon Coal Company"; four-page article, with photos)

July 26, 1913
"The tipple building, which is steel construction throughout, was built by Ottumwa Box Car Loader Co., and is equipped with shaker screens which permit the standard separation, common to the district, to be made." "Two box car loaders are installed adjacent to the outside track, permitting the loading of lump and nut, or run-of-mine into cars upon either track." (W. R. Gibson, "A Recent Utah Coal Mine Development," Coal Age, July 26, 1913, page 112)

January 1914
Spring Canyon mine was shipping 20 carloads per day. (Zehnder, page 20)

December 3, 1914
Spring Canyon Coal at Storrs was producing 1,000 tons per day. (Coal Index: Carbon County News, December 3, 1914)

July 30, 1914
The Spring Canyon company added two separate four by thirty foot coal picking tables, for nut and lump coal, located at right angles to the shaking screen. These picking tables loaded nut and lump coal directly into the railroad cars, and required an addition to the south side of the tipple. (Salt Lake Mining Review, July 30, 1914)

July 30, 1918
The Spring Canyon Coal Company was in the process of building a surface tramway that was to be in service about October 1st. (Salt Lake Mining Review, July 30, 1918)

April 1919
The Spring Canyon Coal Company completed a new surface tramway to replace their aerial tramway. (Madsen, p. 51)

March 14, 1921
Jesse Knight died on March 14, 1921. He had organized the Knight Investment Company in 1906 as a holding company to manage all of his business and financial interests. (Knight, pp. 65,93)

September 1921
Shipments began over the Utah Railway's Spring Canyon Branch in September 1921. (Utah Railway: Coal Mines)

December 27, 1922
The Knight Investment Company sold the Spring Canyon Coal Company to James B. Smith and his associates of San Francisco, California. Smith had been actively selling coal from the Spring Canyon mine to commercial and industrial customers along the West Coast through his company, King Coal in San Francisco, and its subsidiary in Salt Lake City, Knight Fuel Company. (Salt Lake Tribune, December 28, 1922)

"Monthly production is about 60,000 tons, and 340 men are employed. King Coal Co., one of the largest distributing agencies on Pacific coast, has been taking most of the production." (Wall Street Journal, January 6, 1923)

Mr. Smith and his associates, with Smith as president, still owned the mine in 1940. (Knight, p. 72)

April 17, 1924
Spring Canyon Coal company contracted with Link-Belt of Chicago for a large capacity steel tipple. The new tipple would include cleaning and drying for fine coal sizes. Construction was to start as soon as possible. (Coal Age magazine, April 17, 1924)

June 4, 1925
The new tipple for the Spring Canyon Coal company was expected to be completed by July 1st. The old tipple had already been dismantled and removed. The new tipple would make the Spring Canyon Coal company's mine one of the best in the state. (Coal Age magazine, June 4, 1925)

June 11, 1925
"Storrs, 700 strong, will come down to Price next Monday and celebrate the completion of the Spring Canyon Coal company's new steel tipple and changing of the camp's name from 'Storrs' to 'Spring Canyon'. The celebration is for company employees only and is being put on by the Commercial club." (Sun Advocate, June 11, 1925, "next Monday" was June 15th)

June 13, 1925
The town of Storrs changed its name to Spring Canyon after permission was received from "postal authorities some two weeks ago." The town's population was 1,100 people. Spring Canyon Coal Company shipped 166,000 tons in 1924, an average of 554 tons per day for a 300 day year. (Salt Lake Tribune, June 13, 1925)

June 30, 1925
Spring Canyon Coal Company completed a new tipple. (Salt Lake Mining Review, June 30, 1925, p. 18)

July 9, 1925
"What is said to be the largest and best coal tipple at any mining camp west of the Mississippi River, has just been completed by the Spring Canyon Coal Co. at its property at Storrs. The big structure cost $200,000 and has a maximum capacity of 4,000 tons per eight-hour day. The new tipple has five loading tracks. An extension type Manierre box-car loader enables the loading of box cars on three tracks at the same time. There are five loading booms which are said to be the latest word in tipple construction. There is also a complete plant for re-screening the small sizes of coal, and in connection with this, there is a "spiralizing" plant for taking the impurities out of the re-screened coal, Three hundred twenty-five tons of steel, exclusive of machinery, was used in the tipple. The camp of Storrs is henceforth to be known as Spring Canyon." (Coal Age magazine, July 9, 1925)

October 1, 1929
The Royal Coal Company was sold to James B. Smith and his associates in San Francisco, the group that also owned the Spring Canyon Coal Company. The sale took place on September 30th, and became effective on October 1st. Smith and his associates had purchased control of the Spring Canyon Coal company less than seven years before, on December 27, 1922. S. F. Baliff was president and general manager of Royal Coal, and he would retain a block of shares in the company and remain on the company's board of directors. James B. Smith would become the company's new president. Baliff and H.H. Rolapp had purchased control of the Royal Coal company from Frank N. Cameron, who had opened the mine 20 years before. The Royal Coal company would remain separate from the Spring Canyon Coal company, but the two companies would share a common management. (Salt Lake Tribune, October 2, 1929)

By 1940 the Spring Canyon mine was ranked as the fourth largest producer in the state. (Knight, p. 71)

April 25, 1941
Spring Canyon Coal, Standard Coal, and Royal Coal companies were shown as being under joint management. The subject of the news story was that more than 1000 miners across Carbon County had been on strike since March 31st, and that they would be returning to work on April 25th. (Salt Lake Tribune, April 25, 1941)

In 1943, Leonard E. Adams was made president of the newly combined Spring Canyon Coal company, and the the Standard Coal company, and the Royal Coal company. In 1936, he had been elected as vice president of the Spring Canyon Coal company. He began his career In 1913 when he took a position as manager of the Spring Canyon Stores company, and in 1926 he became general sales manager for all of the Spring Canyon Coal company. (Deseret News, July 9, 1959, as shown in his obituary. He was born in November 1883 and died at age 85.)

Spring Canyon Coal, Standard Coal, and Royal Coal all shared the same owners and managers. In the November 1944 issue of Coal Age magazine, Leonard E. Adams is shown as having been promoted to president and general manager of all three companies. Previously he had been vice president. (Coal Age, November 1944, Volume 49, Number 11)

June 1945
The following comes from the Condensed Mining Handbook of Utah, June 1945.

In April 1947, the Spring Canyon, Standard and Royal coal mines were shown as being at the same address, 818 Newhouse Building, and therefore under common ownership. The companies were shown with the following active mines, which had been ordered to close by the federal Bureau of Mines due to safety concerns. Royal No. 2, Standard 1, 2, and 2-1/2, and Spring Canyon 1, 2 2-1/2, and 4. (Provo Daily Herald, April 3, 1947)

(The first reference to 818 Newhouse Building being the Spring Canyon Coal company's location was in September 1945.)

In 1954 Spring Canyon Coal shut down much of its Spring Canyon operation, and in 1970 the original Spring Canyon mine was closed. By that time, the mine was owned by Spring Canyon Fuel Company, which also worked seven other mines, including the Standardville mine. They also owned the Royal Coal Company near Castle Gate. Leonard E. Adams was the president and general manager of the combined Spring Canyon, Standardville, and Royal properties. (Sun Advocate & Helper Journal, January 2, 1975)

By 1954 the mining crew at Spring Canyon was a skeleton force and most residents of the town had left. The mine was closed in 1969 and the town abandoned. In 1975 the town was bulldozed, leaving only parts of the tipple trestle. (Zehnder, page 21)

(Information about the Standard Coal mine at Standardville, and the Royal Coal mine at Royal, redirects here after the sale in October 1958)

October 3, 1958
Control of the Spring Canyon Coal company, the Standard Coal company, and the Royal Coal company was sold to the Van Horn Gas and Oil company of California. On April 15, 1958, the mine had closed because of lack of coal orders, but a planned re-opening on July 15, 1958 was delayed by a strike by miners after the company stated that each miner would must have a physical examination prior to returning to work. The strike continued after an arbitrator found in favor of the coal company. The company was sold to undisclosed investors in late September 1958, and the new owners closed the Royal mine. (Deseret News, September 25, 1958; Sun Advocate, October 2, 1958; Deseret News, October 3, 1958; June 1, 1959)

(This "group of San Francisco stockholders" was not the same as the previous group of San Francisco stockholders that had held controlling interest in the Spring Canyon Coal company since 1922.)

(E. L. Van Horn was the principal owner of the Van Horn Gas and Oil company.)

October 5, 1958
The Spring Canyon Coal mine was closed indefinitely and the 140 miners had their jobs abolished. The miners had not worked since April 15th, but at that time the closure was to be temporary. The new owners "took control a week ago." On October 4th the miners were told that they no longer had jobs. (Salt Lake Tribune, October 5, 1958)

(It is unclear if this "mine" was just the Spring Canyon mine, or if the closure included all three properties: the Spring Canyon Coal mine, the Standard Coal mine, and the Royal Coal mine. The three properties may have been interconnected by underground passages by this time.)

June 1, 1959
The new owners of the Spring Canyon Coal mine, the Standard Coal mine, and the Royal Coal mine announced that the Royal mine was to remain open and could handle the limited business the new company had. (Deseret News, June 1, 1959)

June 1, 1960
It was reported that the Royal mine was to "remain closed until the fall." (Deseret News, June 1, 1960)

1962
The Royal mine was closed by the Spring Canyon company in 1962. During its fifty-seven years of operation (1905 to 1962), the mine produced 7,101,000 tons of coal, or about 124,000 tons per year (413 tons per day for a 300 day year). (Sun-Advocate & Helper Journal, January 2, 1975, p. 3)

Various online newspaper ads show that the Spring Canyon Coal company was actively selling coal on the local market as late as 1964.

January 2, 1964
Firemen were called to the "Spring Canyon Coal company's tipple at Standardville." This news item suggests that both the Royal tipple was closed, and the Spring Canyon tipple at Sowbelly was also closed, with the coal of the combined companies being shipped from the Standard Coal tipple. (Helper Journal, January 2, 1964)

February 27, 1964
The Spring Canyon and Royal coal mines were still active in 1964. "Spring Canyon Coal Company has announced that Ernest O'Green, longtime Carbon County resident, has been appointed vice president of operations. He succeeds Douglas Hileman, Price, who resigned February 15. Mr. Hileman resigned to accept a position in Salt Lake City with the U. S. Bureau of Mines. Mr. O'Green, a veteran of over 30 years in the coal mining industry, has been associated with the Spring Canyon and Royal coal mines for over 20 years. During the past six years he has been superintendent of the Spring Canyon mine under Mr. Hileman." (Sun Advocate, February 27, 1964)

October 6, 1965
"Peabody Coal Co. currently buys substantial amounts of coal from U.S. Fuel Co. in Emery County and from Spring Canyon Coal Co.'s mine in Carbon County for delivery to Nevada Power Co.'s power plant in Moapa, Nev." (Salt Lake Tribune, October 6, 1965)

March 31, 1966
"A 19-man layoff was effected by the Spring Canyon Coal Company last week leaving 40 men working at that operation. This layoff was termed by a company spokesman as 'seasonal.'" (Sun Advocate, March 31, 1966)

February 22, 1968
"Two Coal Firms Lay Off 64 Men - That perennial harbinger of spring in Carbon County, the mine layoffs, made its appearance last week as two of the coal mines terminated the employment of 64 men, 33 by the Spring Canyon Coal Co. and 31 by the United States Fuel Co. (Hiawatha). Spokesmen for both companies said the usual seasonal lag in coal orders necessitated the cutbacks." (Sun Advocate, February 22, 1968)

February 26, 1970
"That perennial harbinger of spring, lay-offs in the commercial coal mining industry... Spring Canyon Coal Company handed separation notices to 25 men last week in a cut-hack of the work force at its operation, two outside employees and 23 inside men." (Sun Advocate, February 26, 1970)

April 4, 1970
The following comes from the April 4, 1970 issue of the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper.

December 30, 1971
Spring Canyon Coal company, and its Standard Coal Division and Royal Coal Division, were advertised as owing Carbon County over $11,000 in back taxes. (Sun Advocate, December 30, 1971, "Public Notices")

(Research suggests that Carbon Fuel took ownership of the mines and coal reserves of the three Spring Canyon properties as a result of paying the back taxes. More research is needed.)

Carbon Fuel bought the properties of the Spring Canyon Coal company, which included the Spring Canyon Coal mine, the Standard Coal mine, and the Royal Coal mine. The Standard Coal company's mine was inactive at the time and Carbon Fuel bought the leases to the coal reserves, along with the leases of the coal reserves of the Spring Canyon Coal company. Carbon Fuel, and its coal reserves in Spring Canyon and its operating mine in Hardscrabble Canyon, were sold in 1971 to McCulloch Oil Corporation, which renamed Carbon Fuel to Braztah.

(Read more about the Spring Canyon Coal, Standard Coal, and Royal Coal coal mines and coal reserves after they were sold to Carbon Fuel, and within the same year, to McCulloch Oil)

The former Standard Coal company mine office remained open until the early months of 1974. By that summer the office had closed and the two families still living in Standardville had left. (Zehnder, page 22)

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)

(Read more about the Spring Canyon coal mines after the sale to McCulloch Oil)

May 23, 1974
McCulloch Oil Corporation contracted with O'Brien Salvage company of Spanish Fork to dismantle the steel tipple and rail car loading facility at the Standard Coal company coal mine at Standardville. The salvage company was to salvage all metal, poles, railroad rails and ties, and copper wire at the tipple and the entire town site. The work started on May 6th, and was to be completed by November. "When asked about the condition of the tipple, Mr. Hall [salvage company foreman] said it could have been reopened at any time because the equipment was still operable. Electricity at the townsite was turned off Monday [May 20th] and crews immediately salvaged all copper wire and transformers on the utility poles, Mr. Hall said. The main reason the firm contracted to salvage the items at the townsite was because of the demand for metal." (Helper Journal, May 23, 1974)

Reclamation of the Spring Canyon mine in Sowbelly Gulch started in 1993 and continued through 1999. Phase I reclamation bond release was approved for Sowbelly in February 2001; Phase II bond release was on June 5, 2003. Final Phase III bond release was approved on July 15, 2014. The former Carbon Fuel mine in Sowbelly Gulch has been fully reclaimed. (Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining, Permit C0070004)

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