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From the December 25, 1927 issue of the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper.
The United States Fuel Company, affiliated with the U. S. Smelting, Refining and Mining Company, is the largest producer of commercial coal in Utah. By commercial coal is meant coal shipped for domestic purposes to the homes, and coal shipped for steam and heating purposes to the railroads and industries. Properties operated by the Company are the King No. 1 and Hiawatha mines at Hiawatha, Utah; the King No. 2 mine at Mohrland, and the Panther mine at Heiner, Utah.
Coal from the King No. 1, King No. 2 and Hiawatha mines is all produced from the same bed of coal extending through Gentry Mountain from Carbon County to Emery County. The mines have been opened from different sides of the mountain into the King-Hiawatha seam. King mine No. 1 and King mine No. 2 are close together, and virtually one operation for the coal is worked from two different openings in such a manner as to bring adjoining workings within two hundred feet of each other. The coal is flat and of great thickness for a bituminous bed, varying from six feet to 25 feet or more in height, and is remarkably free from impurities and layers of rock throughout its great thickness.
Few, if any, other bituminous mines in the United States are being operated in coal of such great extent, thickness and purity.
Coal from these mines is sold under the trade names of "King," "Hiawatha" and "Black Hawk." It is classed by the United States Geological survey as a high grade bituminous coal. On account of its blocky structure, it is extremely hard for a bituminous coal and has no pronounced cleavage, breaking in large lumps rather than flat slabs. These properties of the coal make possible its shipment long distances by railroad with very little breakage. Being very hard and blocky, it stands handling with very little degradation and does not make much fine coal and dust. For this reason it is sold in all states of the Pacific Coast region and is able to compete with coals of other states more favorably located with respect to markets. King coal is used and favorably known from Los Angeles to Alaska.
Panther mine produces Panther coal from the Castle Gate coal bed, which is 6 to 8 feet thick at Panther mine and pitches on a ten per cent grade. The Panther coal is free-burning and gives a hot, long-flame fire.
The mines of the United States Fuel Company are among the most modern and best-equipped in the country. The properties are completely electrified and equipped with machinery and modern devices to mine the coal.
These mines have concrete portals, electric lighted underground workings, powerful fans to carry fresh air underground, electric locomotives and steel cars for haulage, electrically operated cutting machines to mine the coal, and mechanical loading machines. Everything to give the consumer maximum service at lowest costs has been installed.
One of the most interesting of the machines for mining coal is the entry driver installed at King Mine No. 1. This machine cuts the coal out of the solid coal bed, breaks it down onto a conveyor, and loads it into mine cars in a single operation, without the use of explosives. With it the coal is never touched by hand, pick or shovel before it reaches the dealer's yard. Driven by electric motors the machine undercuts the coal with an endless cutting chain like a large chain saw carrying short pick points. At the same time two similar cutting chains cut vertically into the coal bed between the floor and the roof. A powerful ram breaks down the coal between these cuts onto a conveyor and the coal is then carried by the conveyor to be delivered into mine cars and hauled out of the mine. Under favorable conditions this machine will drive forty or fifty feet of entry (tunnel) in an eight-hour shift. In the hard King coal it will do well to make half this progress.
Safety receives first consideration in the mining practices. All blasting to break the coal is done with the men out of the mines. Shots are fired by electricity from the surface, and only permissible powders, having the approval of the United States bureau of mines, are used. Although up to the present time no explosive gas has been detected in any of the mines, they are lighted throughout by electricity and all miners use electric lamps on their caps. No open-flame lights are permitted inside the mines. The mines are thoroughly sprinkled with water applied by men using hose of the garden variety, and coal dust is kept wet so that there is no chance for it to be thrown into the air to cause an explosion. Water sprays are used on cutter-bars of mining machines and trains of coal are sprayed lightly to prevent dust blowing from them along the haulage ways. The mines are rock-dusted with limestone dust fine as flour to dilute the coal dust along roads and air courses to an extent that the combination of coal and rock dust is non-explosive. Rock-dust barriers are installed as a further precaution to act as a barrier to any explosion that might possibly get started.
Operations are carried on by the room and pillar method. In the thick beds the practice generally followed is to drive rooms about seven feet high and twenty feet wide, and follow this by taking 4 to 7 feet of coal from the roof, making the rooms, when completed, 12 to 14 feet high. The remainder of the coal in the roof is taken as the pillars between the rooms are pulled. At the King and Hiawatha mines telephone poles have been used for mine props and a ladder and long pipe is used by the miners in testing the roof. Pillars are extracted by maintaining a systematic line of extraction behind which the roof is allowed to cave after practically all of the coal has been mined out.
All of the United States Fuel Company mines are high in the mountains above the railroads. Coal is lowered from the mines by hoists with steel cables over incline tramways to the tipples.
No other coal company in the Pacific coast or intermountain region has up-to-date screening and preparation facilities equal to the combined tipple capacity of the U. S. mines for the production of high-grade bituminous coal. Small sizes are produced in sufficient quantity to take care of every order as received in the spring, while in the winter the large King lump, the hardest and blockiest coal mined in Utah, can be produced in any amount necessary to meet customer's requirements promptly.
At Hiawatha mine is a new large all-steel and concrete tipple costing over two hundred thousand dollars. This tipple is equipped with a Marcus horizontal screen and picking table, loading booms, and a re-screening plant, using Hummer electrically-vibrated screens. This tipple embodies the latest ideas of coal preparation.
The tipple at King Mine No. 1 is a large all-steel structure, probably the largest in Utah. It is designed to make any desired preparation. King No. 2 and Panther tipples are substantial structures equipped with shaking screens, loading booms, and facilities for inspecting and picking the coal.
At all of the tipples the coal is inspected, hand-picked of impurities, and loaded into railroad cars with loading booms to prevent breakage or fines in the coal.
Coal of any size to meet customer's requirements can be prepared at the United States Fuel Company screening plants. The sizes in common use and their trade names follow:
Name of Product -- Size Round Hole Screen:
Large Lump -- Over 8-Inch.
Domestic Lump, California Lump or Stove -- Through 8-inch over 3-inch.
Nut -- Through 3-inch over 1-5/8-inch.
Screened Slack -- Through 1-5/8-inch over 1/4-inch.
Slack -- Through 1-5/8-inch.
Dust -- Through 1/4-inch.
All of the United States Fuel Company mines are served directly by the Utah Railway, familiarly known as the Utah Coal Route, connecting with the Union Pacific System and the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad at Provo. Prompt shipments are thereby assured to all points in the intermountain and Pacific coast regions.
When in full operation, one thousand men are employed, and the payroll amounts to nearly two million dollars a year. Wages paid at the United States Fuel Company properties compare favorably with any mining district in the country. Work is on an eight-hour basis, at rates of pay ranging from a minimum of $7.00 for common labor outside of the mines. Miners are paid by the ton of coal loaded in the mines and earn from $8.00 to $16.00 or more a day, or from $200.00 to $400.00 a month when steadily employed.
The United States Fuel Company towns of Hiawatha, Mohrland and Helper are known in mining circles of the country for their excellence. A description written by a government expert in welfare work in a publication of the American Institute of Mining Engineers follows:
"The town of Hiawatha, maintained by the United States Fuel Company, has been cited by visitors from all parts of the country as one of the most modern and best laid out coal camps for its size to be found anywhere In the United States.
"This camp of attractive and well-constructed homes, boarding-houses, amusement hall and company offices was exceptionally well planned. One of the finest public school buildings and teachers' dormitories in the state is located at Hiawatha. The company has also erected two churches in the town for the benefit of the community religious welfare.
"The amusement building is exceptionally large and complete in its accommodations. A new departure by this company is the diversion of all profits derived from the bowling alleys, pool tables, dance hall, motion picture theatre and rent of lodge rooms to community social and welfare purposes.
"Hiawatha has an excellent supply of pure water from protected mountain springs and a well-constructed sewer system drains the town.
"A recent very successful venture of the company, which is novel to mining camps of the western part of the United States at least, is the establishment of a dairy farm to supply milk, butter and ice cream to the several camps operated by the United States Fuel Company in Carbon county. This dairy farm is one of the most modern in Utah. It has a herd of forty registered Holstein cows and excellently constructed, well lighted and sanitarily maintained stables and dairy buildings. The equipment includes milking machines, coolers, sterilizers and a refrigerating plant. The farm is not conducted with a view to profit but to supply clean and wholesome milk and milk products to employees at approximately cost."
Resident doctors and surgeons live at Hiawatha, West Hiawatha and Mohrland, and the doctor's office is open every day at the smaller town of Heiner. Probably the most complete and adequate hospital to be found in any town of similar size in Utah is maintained at Hiawatha, under the supervision of a surgeon and a trained nurse. The medical care is directed by a chief surgeon in Salt Lake City, who attends serious cases personally at one of the large Salt Lake City hospitals.
The United States Fuel Company mines are developed and equipped to produce 2,000,000 tons a year and have a potential capacity considerably in excess of that. The largest output was made in 1920 when 1,548,000 tons were mined, which was over one-fourth of the coal produced in Utah that year. In recent years the output has been limited by competition with the enormous crude oil production of California.
King, Hiawatha, Black Hawk and Panther coals of the U. S. Company find a wide market throughout the seven states of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Utah, and occasionally Alaska. The coals are low in ash and moisture, extremely low in sulphur, and have a high heat value of 13,000 b.t.u. or more. They are high-volatile and generally non-coking. These coals supply the great smelters of Salt Lake valley, the mining properties, sugar factories, cement plants, flour mills, railroads and .various industries, and last but not least the home fires burning for many thousand families of the west.
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