Spring Canyon Coal Mines

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This page was last updated on February 11, 2025.

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Overview

This narrative for the Spring Canyon region is presented in the order of location on the D&RGW's Spring Canyon Branch, from the lowest part of the canyon (Peerless Coal Company) to the upper most part of the canyon (Mutual), followed by a narrative for the general railroad development for the canyon.

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. The dates given for when D&RG "bought" the branch may actually be the date that the construction costs had been equalized, and D&RG assumed formal ownership.

The existence of coal in the Spring Canyon area was known for many years prior to its first fully commercial operation. Coal was mined, and hauled by wagon, from an opening in Magazine Canyon (originally called Sheya's canyon), and from an opening opposite the upper part of Spring Canyon town. (Gibson: Spring Canyon, p. 222)

Coal mining in the canyon actually started prior to 1912 when two wagon mines, one operated by the Shey (or Sheya) Brothers and the other by George Sawyer, began producing a small amounts of coal for local consumption in the Helper and Price region. (Sun Advocate & Helper Journal, January 2, 1975, p. 4)

During the next ten years, from 1912 to 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.

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.

"Distances from Spring Canyon Junction to certain mines on the Spring Canyon Branch are as follows: Peerless, 3.5 miles; Storrs (Spring Canyon Mine), 4.1 miles; Standardville (Standard Mine) 5.1 miles; Latuda (Liberty Mine), 6.3 miles; Rains (Carbon Mine), 6.7 miles." (Letter, January 17, 1919, D&RG Railroad general superintendent of Utah Lines, to Utah Public Service Commission)

George Storrs wrote in his autobiography that Jesse Knight loaned him the $675,000 needed to build the railroad branch to the Storrs coal mine (later the Spring Canyon Coal Co.), along with the mine, the houses and the hotel. (Steve Horsfield, email dated January 16, 2014)

The Spring Canyon district was home to over 800 (actually over 2,000) miners, mine company officials, store owners, and their families. Each of the six mining camps (Peerless, Spring Canyon, Standardville, Latuda, Rains, and Mutual) had its own post office and identity. Each town had its own grade school, with Latuda being selected as the location of the single junior high. (Sun Advocate & Helper Journal, January 2, 1975, p. 4)

The mines remained in production until the late 1940s -- in 1946 the total production for the Canyon area was thirty million tons. Most of the mines were abandoned in the mid-1950s. (Carr: Towns, p. 76-79)

The Spring Canyon mines received a new attention with the development of the coal resources in the early 1970s by McCulloch Oil Company's Braztah subsidiary. The development began in the vicinity at the Spring Canyon Fuel Company mines and was to be by truck haulage to a coal preparation plant located at Castle Gate on the D&RGW mainline. (Sun Advocate & Helper Journal, January 2, 1975, p. 3)

By 1975 almost 43 million tons had been extracted from the several mines located in the canyon. (Sun Advocate & Helper Journal, January 2, 1975, p. 3)

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)

(Unless noted, the following comes from "The Peerless Coal Mines, 1916-1953" by A. Philip Cederlof, 1975, Utah State Historical Society, MSS A 2202)

Peerless is the first mine and townsite that one encounters in Spring canyon. It lays on the north (right) as one proceeds west, up Spring canyon.

In 1915 mine developers from Ogden discovered a 440-acre tract of potential coal lands in Spring canyon that had apparently been overlooked by the Spring Canyon Coal Company and the Utah Fuel Company. Prospective buyers were leery of the property due to its location and characteristics, thinking that it might be a "white elephant". (Madsen, C. H., editor and compiler. Carbon County: A History, 1947, page 47)

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 Crystal Coal Company mentioned above was organized in December 1914 by a group of investors from Ogden, Morgan and Coalville. 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 mine was to be in production by September 1915, and was located adjacent to the Knight Spring Canyon property. 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. After the sale of its coal property in 1917, the Crystal Coal Company was involuntarily dissolved in March 1918. - Ogden Standard Examiner, December 28, 1914; Salt Lake Herald, May 28, 1915; January 10, 1916; Sun Advocate, January 14, 1916; Salt Lake Herald, February 10, 1916; Salt Lake Tribune, March 25, 1918)

(There was an earlier Crystal Coal Company organized in November 1907. It was involuntarily dissolved in April 1910, along with thousands of other corporations due to non-payment of its state license fees.)

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

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)

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.)

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 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 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.

January 17, 1919
Peerless was located 3.5 miles up Spring canyon. The Peerless began shipping coal from its mine, located at mile post 3.5, down canyon from the Spring Canyon company, in 1917. (Letter, January 17, 1919, D&RG Railroad general superintendent of Utah Lines, to Utah Public Service Commission)

New Peerless Coal Mine

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 Peerless mine. Operations were moved to a new mine near Castle Gate at Lynn on the D&RG. Development of the new mine did not progress and the original mine at Peerless was reopened on September 12, 1930, with small scale shipments solely over the Utah Railway beginning in October 1930. Operations at the new mine at Lynn were discontinued on June 1, 1931 due to physical and financial difficulties. 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 New Peerless mine was located adjacent to the Royal mine in Price River canyon. The new Price canyon mine 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.)

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)

(Read more about the New Peerless mine)

The original Peerless company went bankrupt in 1931. Later a reorganized Peerless 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, basically as a small, family run operation.

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.

One of the principle leasers of the "Old" Peerless mine, Robert Howard of the company Howard & Turner, passed away on March 7, 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." "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."

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, 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)

Spring Canyon Coal Company (Spring Canyon)

(Read more about the Spring Canyon Coal Company coal mine at Spring Canyon, at the mouth of Sowbelly Gulch)

Standard Coal Company (Standardville)

(Read more about the Standard Coal Company coal mine at Standardville in Spring Canyon)

Maple Creek Mine

Maple Creek Coal Company was incorporated on June 10, 1926. The corporation was "suspended" on March 15, 1955. (Utah corporation, index number 17501)

The Maple Creek mine was opened in 1927 on a known but undeveloped coal seam located up a small side canyon. In September 1927 construction started on the tipple for the Maple Creek Coal Company. First coal was shipped on February 15, 1928. Production capacity of the tipple was about 150 to 200 tons per day. Coal was hauled to the tipple from the mine down as 3,500 foot tramway. Most of the miners lived in Standardville. In April 1931 a fire destroyed the tipple, destroying the dump, motor, and scales. The mine was not reopened. (Zehnder, page 19)

April 26, 1931
"Fire Destroys Carbon Coal Mine Tipple -- Fire of unknown origin almost entirely destroyed the tipple of the Maple Creek Coal company's mine, located above Standardville, about 3 a. m. Saturday, causing damage estimated at between $4000 and $5000. When the blaze was discovered by workmen, it had gained a big start, and efforts to extinguish the flames by means of dirt and what little water was available were useless. Virtually all of the structure, which was of wood, was ravaged by the flames, and the dump, motor and scales used for weighing coal mere all rendered useless. The shakers were the only part of the tipple saved. As a result of the fire, operations at the mine will be held up considerably. According to E. N. Radcliff, chief clerk, fifty men are employed by the Maple Creek company." (Salt Lake Tribune, April 26, 1931)

The Maple Creek mine was located between Standardville and Latuda, located on the south side of the canyon. (Gibson: Spring Canyon, p. 231)

In 1948 the Maple Creek mine was being operated by the Pacific Coal Company. (Reynolds, p. 265)

In 1951 the Maple Creek mine at Maple Creek was being operated by the Hudson Coal Company. The same company also operated the Sweet mine at Union in Gordon Creek Canyon. (D&RGW: Traffic Circular 36-E, p.)

Liberty Fuel Company (Latuda)

August 1, 1917
Francisco Latuda and Charles Picco, both of Trinidad, Colorado, paid $39,948.25 to the U. S. Land Office in Salt Lake City for approximately 326 acres of coal lands on August 1, 1917. (Utah State Historical Society clipping file: Eastern Utah Advocate, August 2, 1917)

The mine was prospected by Charles Leger, John Forrester and Frank Gentry for Frank Latuda at about the same time that L. F. Rains was locating his Carbon Fuels property. These same three men also did the preliminary work of the first opening of the mine. (Gibson: Spring Canyon, p. 229)

Latuda first developed the mine in 1914 at an opening much higher on the south canyon wall. The mined coal was moved down to the canyon floor using a tramway. In 1917 he opened the Liberty mine closer to the canyon floor. (Carr, Towns, p. 78)

The Liberty Fuel coal company was organized by Frank Latuda and Frank Cameron in 1917. (Madsen, p. 45)

In 1917 the Liberty Fuel Company began shipping coal. (Parker, D. J. "Safety Conditions In Liberty Mine, Liberty Fuel Co., Latuda, Utah", United States Department of the Interior, United States Bureau of Mines Information Circular 6812, page 2)

The first shipment of coal was loaded into railroad cars from a temporary tipple in January 1918. (Madsen, p. 45)

About a year and a half after its 1917 opening, Liberty Fuel Company replaced its temporary bar-screen screening plant located at the base of the tramway with a small, wooden processing plant and tipple that spanned three railroad tracks. The temporary plant had been installed due to the difficulty of obtaining proper coal screening equipment caused by shortages from World War One. The new processing plant was completed with screening equipment to produce three separate sizes of coal: eight-inch regular lump; six-inch domestic lump, and three-inch run of mine. The mining process of machine undercutting the coal face and blasting of the face to produce loose coal, and loading that loose coal through mechanical rather than manual means, produced at times very large, sometimes, enormous pieces of coal. The first step in the processing of the "run-of-mine" coal was to pass it over a adjustable "cracker" that broke the pieces into sizes smaller, between eight inches and twenty-one inches. During the winter season there was a market for lumps larger than eight inches, but in the remainder of the year there was little demand for what was called 8-inch plus coal. In the winter season, coal was marketed as regular lump, domestic lump, and 3-inch minus sizes. In the off-season, coal was generally sized as lump 8-inch minus, 3-inch minus and slack (less than 1-5/8 inch). The three sizes were loaded directly in railroad cars at the Liberty tipple. Slack coal was conveyed to a separate storage bin for screening out of the dust, or fines, and similar rail car loading. (Parker, D. J. "Safety Conditions In Liberty Mine, Liberty Fuel Co., Latuda, Utah", pages 2-4)

In 1926 the Liberty mine, along with the Kenilworth mine of Independent Coal & Coke, were the first mines to use mechanical loading inside the mine. (Gibson: Spring Canyon, p. 229)

February 16, 1927
The town of Latuda was victim of at least two snow slides on February 16, 1927. The snow slides resulted in the deaths of at least two persons, Gus Goodart, the mine foreman, and Moroni Mower, the barn boss. (Madsen, p. 45)

(These snow slides may have destroyed the tipple completed in 1920, resulting in the construction of the new tipple in 1927-1928.)

In 1927 a steel tipple was completed. (Gibson: Spring Canyon, p. 229)

In 1928 the Liberty Fuel built a "modern" four track steel tipple, which produced four differing grades of coal: 8-inch lump; Stove (three to eight inches); Nut (1-5/8 to 3 inches); and slack. The three larger sizes were loaded directly in rail cars at the tipple. The slack (less than 1-5/8 inch) was conveyed 200 feet away to be re-screened into market pea coal (less than 3/8 inch) and market slack and dust (or fines) for separate loading bins. Dust coal was loaded directly into railroad cars. The new tipple was capable of loading either open-top cars or boxcars. Boxcars at the Liberty mine were loaded using a Mannierre extension-type boxcar loader which extended into the boxcar interior and loaded any coal size onto the floor at either end of the car. (Parker, D. J. "Safety Conditions In Liberty Mine, Liberty Fuel Co., Latuda, Utah", pages 2-4)

November 1932
Liberty Fuel company installed a reversible conveyor system with scrapers to move slack coal from the screening plant, to a storage pile 400 feet away. The conveyor-scraper system allowed the slack coal to be moved for storage, and returned to the loadout to be loaded to railroad cars. (Coal Age magazine, November 1932, page 414)

During 1934 the daily production of the Liberty mine amounted to 1,600 tons. About a third was slack coal, another third was stove coal, and the last third was split between lump and nut coal. (Parker, p. 5)

November 1934
From U. S. Bureau of Mines Information Circular 6812, "Safety Conditions in Liberty Mine, Liberty Fuel Company, Latuda, Utah," November 1934:

(The underground mining methods of the Liberty Fuel company's coal mine at Latuda was the subject of a three-page article in Coal Age magazine, January 1939)

In 1942 a coal cleaning method was introduced that used a combination of air and sand, and was the only one of its kind in the west. (Gibson: Spring Canyon, p. 229)

By the mid 1940s, the mine was producing 1,000 tons per day, with all of the coal being mined and hauled mechanically. (Gibson: Spring Canyon, p. 229)

In 1954 Liberty Fuel shut down much of its operation. (Carr: Towns, p. 78)

In 1966 Liberty Fuel closed its mine. (Carr: Towns, p. 78)

In 1966 the mining company blasted the mine entrance shut. (Zehnder, page 25)

Carbon Fuel Company (Rains)

Rains was located 6.7 miles up Spring Canyon. The railroad was 1.8 miles long, extending from the end of the railroad of the Standard Coal Company at Standardville, owned by Carbon Fuel Company, and operated and maintained by D&RG. The railroad also served the Liberty Fuel Company at Latuda, 0.4 mile down canyon.

March 13, 1913
Leon Felix Rains of Los Angeles filed an application to purchase coal lands on March 12, 1913. (Coal Index: Eastern Utah Advocate, March 13, 1913, p. 2)

September 14, 1915
"The articles of incorporation of the Carbon Fuel company were filed with the secretary of state the first part of the week." L. F. Rains was president. (Salt Lake Telegram, September 14, 1915; News-Advocate [Price], September 17, 1915)

In 1915 the Carbon Fuel Company began the development of a coal mine at upper end of Spring Canyon. The town site for the workers was called Rains, to honor L. F. Rains, the developer of the coal mine and former general manager of the Standard Coal Company. The coal property was organized by Rains in 1914. The coal seam at the Rains mine was eighteen feet thick and was an excellent producer from the start. Shortly after the mine was opened, a school, a boarding house, a bath house, and a store were opened in the new town of Rains. (Senulus, p. 1)

October 30, 1915
Carbon Fuel's railroad was to be in operation in early November 1915. Coal shipments were to start on November 10th. (Salt Lake Mining Review, October 30, 1915, p. 19, "in a few days")

November 5, 1915
Carbon Fuel's railroad was to be in operation sometime in November 1915. (Coal Index: News Advocate, November 5, 1915, p. 3)

November 15, 1915
"The Carbon Fuel Company, the new coal enterprise, started in Carbon county, Utah, L. F. Rains, manager, reports that a twelve-foot face of solid coal is showing in the main entry. The railroad has been completed to the tipple and the company is now shipping." (Salt Lake Mining Review, November 15, 1915; Madsen, p. 47)

April 30, 1916
"The Carbon Fuel Company will be in a position to ship 1,000 tons of coal daily, after September 1st. At the present time its daily production amounts to 200 tons. The management is well pleased with mine conditions." (Salt Lake Mining Review, April 30, 1916)

June 23, 1916
Carbon Fuel Company was shipping about 300 tons per day. (Coal Index: News Advocate, June 23, 1916, p. 4)

January 17, 1919
"Carbon mine, of Carbon Fuel Company at Rains, Utah, and Liberty mine, of Liberty Fuel Company at Latuda, Utah, are located on a piece of track 1.8 miles in length connecting with our Spring Canyon Branch; this track is owned by the Carbon Fuel Company but is maintained and operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad by license of Carbon Fuel Company. The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad was about to enter into a contract for the purchase of this trackage but negotiations fell through because of the advent of Federal control." (Letter, January 17, 1919, D&RG Railroad general superintendent of Utah Lines, to Utah Public Service Commission)

In 1919 the Denver & Rio Grande bought the railroad property of the Carbon Fuel Company, between Standardville and Rains. (LeMassena, p. 131)

In 1930 Carbon Fuel Company, at Rains, closed part of mine. (Carr: Towns, p. 79)

February 25, 1934
Carbon Fuel Company relinquished a coal lease back to the federal government. (Salt Lake Tribune, February 25, 1934)

(The above item in February 1934 is the last reference to the company in available online newspapers.)

In 1938 the Carbon Fuel Company extended its underground workings and began working adjacent, defunct Mutual Coal mine. (Carr: Towns, p. 79)

September 1943
The mine at Rains was mentioned as belonging to the Uta-Carbon Fuel Company in September 1943, and again in December 1945. (Helper Journal, September 16, 1943; Sun Advocate, December 13, 1945)

In 1951 the Rains mine at Rains was being operated by the Hi-Heat Coal Company. (D&RGW: Traffic Circular 36-E, p. 86)

In 1958 the mine shut down due to increasing costs and decreasing demand. (Carr: Towns, p. 79)

Mutual Coal Company

Mines in the Mutual area included the Morton No. 1, opened by Thomas Lamp in 1917. The Thompson Rains wagon mine also opened in 1917. The Morton No. 2 mine was opened by Walter Dake in the fall of 1918. The Annis & DeMyer mine started to ship coal in February 1921. The Mutual No. 3 was opened in March 1925 by Albert Shaw. These mines were known collectively as the Mutual mines. (Madsen, pp. 47,48)

In 1921 the Mutual Coal Company developed a mine at the upper end of Spring Canyon. The mining company was unusual due to its ownership scheme. The promise that stock ownership also meant that all shareholders would receive their coal at a discount. The scheme worked and the diversity of the stockholders grew, along with the coal mine itself. (Senulus)

In 1924 the Consumers Mutual Coal Company developed mine in Gordon Creek canyon. (Carr: Towns, p. 81)

There was a Consumers Fuel Company incorporated on December 27, 1911. This may have been a reorganization of an earlier company with the same name, or the renaming of another company, incorporated on May 11, 1911. (Utah corporation, index number 8991) There was also a Consumers Coal Company, incorporated on July 16, 1934. (Utah corporation, index number 21077)

The mine at Mutual closed in 1938. The workings were taken over by the adjacent Carbon Fuel Company by extending its own underground workings into the Mutual mine. (Carr, p. 79)

In 1951 the Mutual mine at Mutual was being operated by the Western Coal Company. (D&RGW: Traffic Circular 36-E, p. 86)

MacLean Mine

(The MacLean Mine was also called the Little Standard Mine)

In about 1919 the Standard Coal Company opened the MacLean mine, also known as the "Little Standard", located about a mile up canyon from its Standardville mine. The output of the MacLean mine was about 500 tons per day for a number of years. (Gibson: Spring Canyon, p. 228)

December 29, 1922
The MacLean mine near Rains was leased to the Sweets, who controlled the Standard mine. (Coal Index: The Sun, December 29, 1922, p. 6)

The MacLean Coal Company was incorporated on January 27, 1923. The corporation was "revoked" on June 2, 1943. (Utah corporation, index number 15649)

In 1925 the Little Standard developed its mine at upper end of Spring Canyon. (Carr: Towns, p. 79)

February 1934
The "MacLean Operation" was purchased by Charles T. Worley and Dr. Foster J. Curtis, both of Salt Lake City. The purchase price was reported as in excess of $200,000. (Coal Age magazine, February 1934, page 84)

Many of the miners moved from tents at Little Standard to homes in Mutual when the mine closed in 1938. (Carr, p. 79)

In 1945 the Little Standard mine closed. (Carr: Towns, p. 79)

The MacLean mine was closed in 1945 due to an underground fire that continued to burn through 2011. (Deseret News, November 5, 2011)

Utah Terminal Railway

The Utah Terminal Railway built a 3.64 mile line from a connection with Utah Railway at their mile post 2.4 (later called Jacobs) to the coal mines of the three coal companies. (Utah Railway: Manual, p. 23)

Competition for Utah Railway's Spring Canyon Branch was from the D&RGW's own Spring Canyon Branch. The longer D&RGW line served eight mines in the canyon, including the three also served by Utah Railway. (72 ICC 90)

The D&RG's inability to furnish sufficient cars and switching service was the reason that the major mining companies in Spring Canyon organized the Utah Terminal Railway in 1920. This company built parallel to the D&RG's branch into the canyon and connected with all of the major mines. The actual trackage was constructed by the Utah Railway and operated by them as a branch until 1921 when that company purchased the track outright. (Anderson: Ax-I-Dent-Ax)

The Utah Terminal Railway was incorporated on May 12, 1920 to construct a railroad line from a connection with Utah Railway at or near the mouth of Spring Canyon, up said canyon to Standardville, a distance of about four miles. The company's incorporators included F. A. Sweet of Salt Lake City, with 2,500 shares, L. H. Curtis of Salt Lake City, president, with 2,500 shares, Lynn H. Thompson of Salt Lake City, vice president, with 2,000 shares, R. E. Allen of Provo, secretary-treasurer, with 1,500 shares, and J. Will Knight of Provo, with 1,500 shares. The corporation was involuntarily dissolved on November 9, 1974, along with hundreds of other inactive Utah corporations on the same day. (Utah corporation, index number 14450)

(F. A. Sweet was president of Standard Coal Company, L. H. Curtis was president of Utah Railway, Lynn H. Thompson was president of Peerless Coal Company, and J. Will Knight was president of Spring Canyon Coal Company.)

The Utah Terminal Railway was incorporated by owners of Spring Canyon, Peerless, and Standard Coal Companies, to construct a rail line in Spring canyon that would provide competition to D&RG. (72 ICC 91)

May 12, 1920
Utah Terminal Railway was given permission to build its railroad in Spring Canyon. The approval was protested by both Denver & Rio Grande, and United States Fuel. D&RG's protest was that it was able to supply whatever railroad service was required. U. S. Fuel's protest was against the coal companies that owned the proposed railroad, saying that these other coal companies would fail because it was capable of supply whatever coal was required. The Utah commission approved the railroad to engage in intra-state commerce only, within the State of Utah, as stated by the railroad as its intention. The Utah commission found that it had no jurisdiction over inter-state commerce, outside of Utah, which the railroad stated it might engage in some time in the future. (Utah Public Service Commission Case 320, decided July 9, 1920; ICC Finance Docket 36, decided [denied] June 28, 1922, reported in 72 ICC 90)

During July 1920 Utah Terminal Railway began construction. (72 ICC 90)

August 31, 1921
Utah Railway bought the assets and interests of the Utah Terminal Railway and operated it as the Spring Canyon Branch. Coal shipments began on August 21, 1921. (Utah Railway: Manual, p. 23)

June 28, 1922
Concerning the operation of the Utah Terminal Railway in interstate commerce, the Utah Public Service Commission held hearings at the request of the federal Interstate Commerce Commission in the matter of the railroad's request, submitted on April 25, 1922. The Utah commission recommended approval of the application. On June 28, 1922 the ICC denied the application. After a rehearing, the ICC approved the application on April 3, 1923. (Utah Public Service Commission Case 320, decided July 9, 1920; ICC Finance Docket 36, decided [denied] June 28, 1922; ICC Finance Docket 1632, decided [approved] April 3, 1923)

The Public Service Commission of Utah had approved the railroad's application to operate intrastate service by through rates with the ten railroads in Utah. The ICC denied them permission for interstate rates, based on the lack of evidence in their application showing need. The original contention was that the D&RG did not furnish enough cars for the three coal companies to ship all of the coal that they felt they could. The facts later showed this not to be true, and at the time of the hearing, the car supply was determined to be adequate. Until the fall of 1920, D&RG was unable to get back its own equipment from its connecting lines. They owned 2,700 cars assigned to the Utah coal trade, with about seventy percent of its coal traffic going to connecting carriers. Empty cars originating off of the Union Pacific's Oregon Short Line took 7.24 days to reach the Spring Canyon mines, while empty cars originating off of the Western Pacific took 6.45 days to reach the mines for loading. D&RG added 700 more cars to its Utah coal fleet in January and February 1920. The ICC denied the application saying that there was no need, other than the three coal companies that owned the Utah Terminal merely wanting to ship their coal on another carrier (i.e., Utah Terminal to Utah Railway to Union Pacific). The commission stated that competition would be good for the region, but that the competition should come from Utah Railway, an already established line. (72 ICC 94,95)

October 21, 1922
The ICC's decision for denial was appealed by both the Utah Terminal and the Utah Railway, and another hearing was held on October 10, 1922. At the hearing, testimonies of the public service commissions of both Nevada and Idaho, along with testimonies of the Standard Coal Company, the Spring Canyon Coal Company, the Peerless Coal Company, and the Carbon Fuel Company (the four major customers of the proposed railroad) were all heard to be in support of interstate rates for the Terminal company, and acquisition of the Utah Terminal by the Utah Railway. This time the application was granted, based on the D&RG's inability to furnish cars to meet increased demand caused by a coal miner's strike between April and August 1922, together with a shopman's strike from July to September 1922, which affected the availability of locomotives for use on coal trains. The D&RG's inability to furnish the badly needed cars in a period of unusually high demand convinced the commission that competition was indeed needed, and the coal companies got their wish of not having to depend on a single carrier to ship their coal. (79 ICC 187)

The terminal company had applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission for interstate through rates, but was denied. Upon appeal, the ICC reheard the case and approved the application on April 3, 1923. Interstate shipments over the by-then Utah Railway Spring Canyon Branch began on May 21, 1923. (Utah Railway: Manual, p. 23)

The ruling grade of the Utah Terminal Railway was in favor of the loaded cars, a steady 4.9 percent down from Standardville to Jacobs, the connection with Utah Railway. (Utah Railway condensed profile, 1933)

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