Spring Canyon Coal Mines

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This page was last updated on March 4, 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, Arthur E. "In The Coal Fields Of Eastern Utah, Carbon And Emery Counties, Spring Canyon District, Carbon County", Centennial Echos from Carbon County, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Carbon County, 1948, 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.

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, Stephen L., A Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns, 1972, 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)

(Read more about the Peerless Coal Company in Spring Canyon, and its later mine at New Peerless near Castle Gate)

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, Chuck. A Guide To Carbon County Coal Camps And Ghost Towns, 1984, 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, Arthur E. "In The Coal Fields Of Eastern Utah, Carbon And Emery Counties, Spring Canyon District, Carbon County", Centennial Echos from Carbon County, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Carbon County, 1948, 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. (Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company. General Traffic Department Circular No. 36-E, January 1, 1951. Reprinted by Tramway Press, 1983, 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, Arthur E. "In The Coal Fields Of Eastern Utah, Carbon And Emery Counties, Spring Canyon District, Carbon County", Centennial Echos from Carbon County, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Carbon County, 1948, 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. (C. H. Madsen, Carbon County, A History, 1947, 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. (C. H. Madsen, Carbon County, A History, 1947, 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, Arthur E. "In The Coal Fields Of Eastern Utah, Carbon And Emery Counties, Spring Canyon District, Carbon County", Centennial Echos from Carbon County, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Carbon County, 1948, 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. (C. H. Madsen, Carbon County, A History, 1947, 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, Arthur E. "In The Coal Fields Of Eastern Utah, Carbon And Emery Counties, Spring Canyon District, Carbon County", Centennial Echos from Carbon County, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Carbon County, 1948, 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, Arthur E. "In The Coal Fields Of Eastern Utah, Carbon And Emery Counties, Spring Canyon District, Carbon County", Centennial Echos from Carbon County, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Carbon County, 1948, 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, Arthur E. "In The Coal Fields Of Eastern Utah, Carbon And Emery Counties, Spring Canyon District, Carbon County", Centennial Echos from Carbon County, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Carbon County, 1948, p. 229)

In 1954 Liberty Fuel shut down much of its operation. (Carr, Stephen L., A Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns, 1972, p. 78)

In 1966 Liberty Fuel closed its mine. (Carr, Stephen L., A Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns, 1972, p. 78)

In 1966 the mining company blasted the mine entrance shut. (Zehnder, Chuck. A Guide To Carbon County Coal Camps And Ghost Towns, 1984, 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. (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. (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. (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, Stephen L., A Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns, 1972, 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, Stephen L., A Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns, 1972, 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. (Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company. General Traffic Department Circular No. 36-E, January 1, 1951. Reprinted by Tramway Press, 1983, p. 86)

In 1958 the mine shut down due to increasing costs and decreasing demand. (Carr, Stephen L., A Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns, 1972, 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. (C. H. Madsen, Carbon County, A History, 1947, 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, Stephen L., A Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns, 1972, 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. (Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company. General Traffic Department Circular No. 36-E, January 1, 1951. Reprinted by Tramway Press, 1983, 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, Arthur E. "In The Coal Fields Of Eastern Utah, Carbon And Emery Counties, Spring Canyon District, Carbon County", Centennial Echos from Carbon County, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Carbon County, 1948, p. 228)

December 29, 1922
The MacLean mine near Rains was leased to the Sweets, who controlled the Standard mine. (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, Stephen L., A Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns, 1972, 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, Stephen L., A Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns, 1972, 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. Official Manual of Utah Railway Company, No. 2, 1937, revised 1944, 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. Official Manual of Utah Railway Company, No. 2, 1937, revised 1944, 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. Official Manual of Utah Railway Company, No. 2, 1937, revised 1944, 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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