Pleasant Valley Coal Mines

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This page was last updated on March 16, 2025.

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Overview

Coal production of the Pleasant Valley Coal Company approximately doubled in five year intervals: in 1882 it mined about 87,500 tons; in 1888, 164,500 tons; in 1893, 315,214 tons; in 1898, 555,000 tons. Production for 1900 was 1,082,000 tons. Coke production showed similar growth: in 1889 (the first year), it produced 760 tons of coke; in 1894, 16,000 tons; and in 1900, 35,200 tons. The projected production for 1901 was about 55,000 tons of coke. (Higgins, Will C. "One of Our Largest Home Industries: The Coal Mines of Carbon County, Utah", The Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 3, number 16 (November 30, 1901), page 19)

Modern era mines include:

Railroad Service To Pleasant Valley Mines

The following mile posts are from the 1892 RGW timetable:

The following mile posts are from the 1926 D&RG timetable:

D&RG's Scofield Branch shipped about 1,400 tons of coal per day in early 1917. (News Advocate, January 18, 1917)

January 17, 1919
Distances from junction with Pleasant Valley Branch, at Colton, to certain mines are as follows:

Scofield Dam

May 19, 1922
Surveyors were at work on the new railroad line in Pleasant Valley to clear the valley for the new Scofield dam and reservoir. (The Sun, May 19, 1922)

June 13, 1924
Construction of the Scofield dam began in June 1924. (The Sun, June 13, 1924)

In 1925 the Denver & Rio Grande Western's Scofield Branch was relocated to allow construction of Horseley dam and associated reservoir, owned by Price River Conservancy District. The Horseley dam was replaced in 1947 by Scofield Dam, which was under construction by the federal Bureau of Reclamation beginning in 1943. The Horseley dam was an earthen design and had always leaked. The owners never filled the Horseley reservoir to its designed capacity for fear that it would fail. When the Scofield dam was completed in 1946, the Army Corps of Engineers stated that the Horseley dam had never properly compacted itself over the preceding twenty-five years. (C. H. Madsen, Carbon County, A History, 1947, pp. 13,14)

(Robert LeMassena states in his book Rio Grande ... to the Pacific!, page 145, states that the first reservoir was known as the Scofield Reservoir.)

In addition to the steady stream of coal traffic coming off the branch, in 1938 a small number of sheep was handled at Scofield. The summer grazing of sheep was an important local industry. In 1938 the operating coal mines included the Clear Creek Mine of Utah Fuel (the heaviest producer), and the Glenn Coal Company, both at Clear Creek, the Klean Heat Coal Company, Money Coal Company, and the Scofield Coal Company, all at Scofield. The Winter Quarters mine of Utah Fuel had discontinued operations in 1933. The ton-miles on the branch, including coal, mail, express, and a small amount of miscellaneous traffic, diminished from a ten-year high in 1928 of 2,426 ton-miles to 1,005 ton-miles in 1932, to 888 ton-miles in 1937. (Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, Report On Branch Lines, 1938)

Winter Quarters Mine

The Winter Quarters coal mine was one mile west of Scofield, Utah, in a canyon later known as Winter Quarters Canyon.

The Winter Quarters coal mine was the first coal mine of the Pleasant Valley group of coal mine. It was discovered in 1875. That same year the Pleasant Valley Coal company was organized. The mine was the destination of the Utah & Pleasant Valley Railroad. The railroad was completed between Springville and the coal mine in 1879 by way of Spanish Fork canyon, replacing a wagon road that was built in 1876. The mine was mined out by the mid 1920s and was closed in 1928.

(Read more about the Winter Quarters coal mine.)

Scofield Coal Mines

There were four active mines immediately east of Scofield, Utah. The largest and best known was the Union Pacific mine. It had direct railroad service.

The other three mines were the Kinney mine, the Monay mine, and the Columbine mine. All were "truck" mines and sold their entire production to local business and schools in Carbon County and other locations in northern Utah (based on ads as far away as Logan).

The Columbine mine was reorganized in 1964 and the improvements included a railroad spur, which apparently was not used often.

(Read more about the four Scofield coal mines)

Utah Mine

(Also Known As The Mud Creek Mine)

(The Utah mine was on the east side of the creek and railroad branch line, in the vicinity between today's Alpine school district camp, and the Skyline mine's loadout. Valley Camp's Belina No. 2 mine was also on the east side of the canyon, but north of the old Utah mine.)

The following comes from A. C. Watts, "Centennial Echos From Carbon County," Daughters of Utah Pioneers,1948.

In the year 1880 the Pleasant Valley Coal Company opened up Mud Creek Mine now known as Utah Mine. Operations were suspended before development work had greatly extended, but again in 1883 they were resumed under protest from Bishop Williams, lessor of Winter Quarters mine. His assertion was that it was an infringement on his lease and the market could not take care of the production of both mines. By that time the available production of Winter Quarters had increased to from 250 to 300 tons and Bishop Williams argued that his lease was quite capable of supplying the demand.

In spite of the asseveration of Bishop Williams the Utah Mine was developed until the year 1885 at which time the Pleasant Valley Coal Company took over the working of Winter Quarters, under the supervision of W. C. Sharp, and again shut down Utah Mine.

The first large mine in what is now Carbon County (created in 1894), was the Mud Creek Mine in Pleasant Valley, opened in 1878. The Mud Creek mine was located three miles south of Scofield and the same mine was later owned by the Pleasant Valley Coal Company as the Utah Mine. (United States Fuel: Thirty Years, page 6)

October 11, 1885
"Coal consumers will be pleased to learn that that the Mud Creek mine has been abandoned on account of the inferior quality of the coal. The company spent many thousands of dollars on that mine and now it is moving its buildings and improvements from there to this place." (Salt Lake Herald, October 11, 1885)

July 17, 1899
"Scofield. July 17. - Work has begun in earnest, at the Mud Creek coal mine of the Pleasant Valley company. A camp has been started and about twenty men are now employed driving an entry 10x12 and one 7x10 feet into the hill at that point, which is six miles from the Scofield depot. The surveyors are about done with the work of surveying for the branch road to be built to the mine and dirt will soon move on the extension. Contractor Deal was here Friday evening and on Saturday looked over the ground. About 1600 feet of grading is to be done outside of this at Winter Quarters for sidetracks." (Salt Lake Tribune, July 19, 1899)

March 6, 1907
"New Mine For U.F.C. - Mud Creek Workings Will Be Reopened and Coal Dug - Scofield. March 5. - The Utah Fuel company is contemplating the opening of a new mine, or rather reopening an old mine. The claim known as the "Mud Creek mine," which has been idle for the last twenty years, and which never was worked to any extent, will in the near future be opened for operation. As noon as weather will permit a spur will be made to connect with the property there." (Salt Lake Herald, March 6, 1907)

The Mud Creek mine, renamed the Utah Mine in 1907, was first opened "twenty years ago" (in 1887) but never developed. During spring of 1907, Utah Fuel was about to re-open the mine. (Eastern Utah Advocate, April 25, 1907)

April 29, 1907
"Opening Coal Mine. - Scofield, April 29. - Preparations are now being made to open up the Mud Creek mine, which is to be known in the future as the "Utah" mine. A carload of material, such as mine cars and rails and accessories was brought down Friday. Work will be pushed, as a good deal of storage coal is to be shipped the coming summer." (Ogden Morning Examiner, May 1, 1907)

By June 1907 rails and ties were being re-laid to the mine. (Eastern Utah Advocate, June 6, 1907)

June 27, 1907
"Roylance & Reynolds, contractors, have started work at the new Utah mine, and are now grading a place for the spur and other necessary room. They expect a month's work here." (Eastern Utah Advocate, June 27, 1907)

September 6, 1907
"The old Mud Creek mine has also been opened up and coal is now being shipped daily from there." (Deseret News, September 6, 1907)

By October 1907 the Utah Mine was producing fifty tons per day. (Eastern Utah Advocate, October 3, 1907)

(The Eastern Utah Advocate in its June 20, 1907 issue, page 7, states that the Union Pacific mine was formerly the Mud Creek mine and in 1907 was called the Utah Mine.)

April 20, 1911
"Representative Anthon Madsen was in Price last Monday between trains. 'The closing down of the Union Pacific mines, is scarcely noticeable among the business men of the camp, because of the fact that the Mud Creek mine of the Utah Fuel company practically fills the gap.' At Mud Creek about two hundred men are working and most of these go back and forth from Scofield." (Eastern Utah Advocate, April 20, 1911)

During 1914 the Utah mine of Utah Fuel Company produced 86,000 tons of coal, one-third to one-fourth of the totals for Utah Fuel's other three mines, Castle Gate, Winter Quarters, and Clear Creek, and one-ninth that of the Sunnyside mine. (Gibbs, C. H. "The Coal Industry of Utah", The Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 17, number 19 (January 15, 1915), page 62)

"The Utah mine of the Utah Fuel Co. is the oldest mine in the district. This mine, which was formerly called the Mud Creek mine, is on the east side of Pleasant Valley about 3 miles south of Scofield and is opened on the Castlegate "A" coal bed. The mouth of the mine is at tipple height above the railroad, and in 1923 the coal, which was then being mined for railroad use, was dumped from the mine cars without screening into railroad cars. This mine was idle for many years after it was opened, and the workings are less-extensive than those of the other old mines of the district. The mine crosses an intricate network of faults, most of which are of relatively small displacement." (USGS Bulletin 819, "The Wasatch Plateau Coal Field, Utah," Spieker, 1931)

(The last reference in available online newspapers, showing that the Utah mine was participating in the overall production of Utah Fuel company, was in December 1933. Later references covered various reunions of miners and residents of the area.)

Skyline Mine

The following comes from the Skyline Mine files at the Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining; Permit C0070005:

The three Skyline mines are located in Eccles Canyon, 2.8 miles south of Scofield, then 2.7 miles up the canyon. A conveyor belt parallels the road in the canyon from the mine to the railroad loadout at the mouth of Eccles Canyon.

The Skyline No. 1 mine was opened by Coastal States Energy in 1982.

In 1996, all of the Coastal States mines in Utah were sold to Canyon Fuel Company, a newly created joint venture owned by Arco Coal (65%) and Itochu of Japan (35%), was the result of the merger of four coal mines in Utah controlled by Coastal States Energy, including Soldier Creek Coal Company (controlled by Coastal States since 1993); Sage Point Coal Company (controlled by Coastal States since 1993); Southern Utah Fuel Company (controlled by Coastal States since 1973); and Skyline Coal Company (controlled by Coastal States since 1978).

In 1998, Arco Coal sold its 65 percent interest in Canyon Fuel to Arch Coal, and in 2004 Arch Coal became sole owner of Canyon Fuel after buying Itochu's 35 per cent interest.

Arch Coal sold its Canyon Fuel subsidiary to Bowie Resource Partners in 2013, and in 2018, Bowie chnaged its name to Wolverine Fuels.

(Read more about the Skyline Mine)

Clear Creek Mine

(The incorporation papers for the Carbon County Railway of 1899, Utah corporation number 2749, shows as its route "from main of Rio Grande Western at or near Scofield Station, south to Clear Creek, ex Mud Creek".)

The Clear Creek Mine at the head of Pleasant Valley was opened in 1899. (United States Fuel: Thirty Years, page 6)

June 19, 1899
Mud Creek changed to Clear Creek. "Change Station Names -- Mud Creek Becomes Clear Creek and Latter is Tucker -- Several changes will soon be made in the names of stations on the Rio Grande Western. Clear Creek will bear the name Tucker and Mud Creek will be changed to Clear Creek. The Sunnyside station on the main line will be abolished and Mounds will be the main station in the neighborhood. The name Sunnyside will be given to the terminus of the new line in Whitmore canyon." (Salt Lake Tribune, June 19, 1899)

October 1, 1899
RGW has completed the extension from Scofield to Clear Creek, ""which point was reached yesterday." (Salt Lake Tribune, October 1, 1899)

Clear Creek was first a logging camp, built to supply timbers for the Winter Quarters mine. A coal seam was discovered and a mine was developed. (Zehnder, Chuck. A Guide To Carbon County Coal Camps And Ghost Towns, 1984, page 6)

The Carbon County Railway (of 1899), in addition to its line from Mounds to Sunnyside in the eastern part of the county, also built the present six-mile D&RGW branch south from Scofield to the Clear Creek Mine of the Utah Fuel Company. (Utah corporation, index number 2749, projected to be seven miles long.)

During late 1901 the Clear Creek mine used twenty Clydesdale horses to move the mined coal from the extreme interiors to the mine opening. Most other camps used mules for this work. The Clear Creek mine was the highest of all of Utah's coal mines, at an elevation of 8,200 feet. (Higgins, Will C. "One of Our Largest Home Industries: The Coal Mines of Carbon County, Utah", The Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 3, number 16 (November 30, 1901), page 19)

March 28, 1908
The mines at Clear Creek and Winter Quarters were producing about 2,000 tons per day, working three days per week. (Eastern Utah Advocate, March 26, 1908)

The number of miners working at the Clear Creek mine reached its peak of 450 in 1908. (C. H. Madsen, Carbon County, A History, 1947, page 33)

Production in 1908 was 2,000 tons per day. (Zehnder, Chuck. A Guide To Carbon County Coal Camps And Ghost Towns, 1984, page 6)

April 15, 1909
The Clear Creek and Winter Quarters mines were producing 1,800 tons per day. (Eastern Utah Advocate, April 15, 1909)

In 1909 the Clear Creek mine ranked second only to Sunnyside in its production. The coal was remarkably clean and hard and was known as the premier domestic coal at the time. (Harrington, Daniel. "Utah as a Coal-Producing State", The Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 11, number 23 (March 15, 1910), page 22)

June 11, 1914
The Clear Creek mine and the Winter Quarters mine planned to increase the production to four days per week. The Sunnyside mine had never been lower than six days per week. (Eastern Utah Advocate, June 11, 1914)

Mechanical mining came to the Clear Creek mine in 1912, with the associated increase in production. (Zehnder, Chuck. A Guide To Carbon County Coal Camps And Ghost Towns, 1984, page 6)

September 15, 1914
Utah Fuel constructed a new opening for the Clear Creek mine in late 1914, east of the original 1899 opening. Two new tunnels were being driven and were 2,000 feet long by mid September. (Salt Lake Mining Review, September 15, 1914, page 24)

The new tunnels for the Clear Creek mine were driven at a rate of 303 feet per month, and by late 1914 had struck a virgin area of coal in the same Clear Creek coal vein across a faulted zone from the earlier opening. (Gibbs, C. H. "The Coal Industry of Utah", The Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 17, number 19 (January 15, 1915), page 62)

March 20, 1925
The Clear Creek and Winter Quarters mines were leased to the Littlejohn Brothers and Bishop T. J. Parmley to keep them open. (The Sun, March 20, 1925)

November 1930
Utah Fuel completed a new steel tipple at Clear Creek, equipped with shaker screens and loading booms. The new tipple had a daily capacity of 1,500 tons. "A feature of the design is a rescreening plant to treat minus 3-in. coal on high-speed shakers." (Coal Age magazine, November 1930, page 689)

By 1931, production at the Clear Creek mine had been reduced, although production per man had been increased by "the inauguration of better facilities." (C. H. Madsen, Carbon County, A History, 1947, page 31)

Production at Clear Creek was reduced to just 5,000 tons for the entire month of December 1931. By the mid 1950s the mine was shut down. (Zehnder, Chuck. A Guide To Carbon County Coal Camps And Ghost Towns, 1984, page 6)

Clear Creek Mine in Coal Age

The underground mining methods of the Utah Fuel company's Clear Creek mine were the subject of a two-page article in Coal Age magazine, September 1944, Volume 49, Issue 9, page 90. The article included a few photos of the underground operations, and a diagram of the mine workings.

(Link to two page article in Coal Age magazine at Archive.org)

The Clear Creek mine was included with other Utah Fuel Company mines when Utah Fuel was sold to Kaiser Steel in 1950.

Kaiser sold Utah Fuel Company to Independent Coal and Coke in December 1951.

Independent Coal and Coke sold the Utah Fuel mines to North American Coal Company in 1968.

(Read more about Utah Fuel Company)

Valley Camp of Utah (later White Oak)

The Valley Camp coal mine was opened in 1975, as a subsidiary of Quaker State Oil company. In 1993 the mine was sold to the White Oak Mining & Construction company, which operated the mine until it was sold to Lodestar Energy, Inc., in 1999. The mine was still known as the White Oak mine. Mining activity ended in 2001 after the known reserves were mined out. Coal shipments continued until 2003, shipping from stockpiles at the surface facilities.

Reclamation of the mine site began in late 2004, and was completed in November 2005.

(Read more about the Valley Camp - White Oak coal mine.)

Other Pleasant Valley Coal Mines

In December 1899 Utah Coal & Coke Company sold part of its property in Sections 10 and 11, T12S, R7E, near Hale, the future site of the Scofield dam, to the Peoples Coal Company. (Carbon County Miscellaneous Book 3, page 368) (This sale shows that Utah Coal & Coke was an active company in 1899, and may have been the predecessor to Utah Fuel.)

Railroads

The first railroad into Pleasant Valley was the Utah & Pleasant Valley Railway, completed in November 1879, replacing a wagon road completed in 1876. D&RGW bought the Utah & Pleasant Valley line in 1881, and in 1882, completed a new route that entered the valley from the east, rather than over the ridge, the route completed by the U&PV. This new route, completed in November 1882, the new line became D&RGW's Pleasant Valley Branch, and remains in service today (2013) as Union Pacific's Pleasant Valley Branch.

Utah & Pleasant Valley Railway 1875-1881 -- Information about the narrow gauge line built between Springville and the coal mines at Winter Quarters, by way of Spanish Fork Canyon; sold to D&RGW in 1882.

More Information

Doeling, "Central Utah Coal Fields"

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