Winter Quarters Coal Mine

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Overview

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.

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:

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

Winter Quarters Mine

E. M. Crandall, in an article in the Western Mineral Survey, stated that his father, Martin P. Crandall was the first to discover coal in the Pleasant Valley Coal Fields, in the spring of 1873. Martin P. Crandall was born in 1830 in New York and traveled to Utah with other Mormon pioneers, to Springville, where he died in 1895. While living in Springville, Crandall was a well known contractor and freighter. "While stopping in Thistle Valley, San Pete County, Utah, at a ranch operated by John Sanders, Martin P. Crandall, my father, met some Indians from whom he learned the location of this coal deposit. Upon investigation, he found a large vein of coal, now called Winter Quarters." Crandall took a party of twenty-one men, his two sons, Myron and E. M. Crandall, two yoke of oxen, and a span of black mules, and built a temporary road up to Soldier Summit from the end of a sixteen mile road already put in place by a lumber company to Mill Fork (near today's Castilla crossover on SP/D&RGW). Upon discovery of the coal mine, along with the abundant fish, game, timber and grass, they built a road from the coal mine down to what was later known as Tucker. Two men were left at the mine over the winter of 1873-1874. In the spring of 1874, Crandall interested "Milon" Packard of Springville, and along with Smith & Doremus, engineers from Salt Lake City, built a good wagon road from Springville to Pleasant Valley. In 1876 construction was begun on a narrow gauge railroad. In 1881, the interests of the Martin P. Crandall & Company was sold to George Scofield and George B. Gaus. (Western Mineral Survey, September 30, 1938, from Utah State Historical Society clipping file)

Coal was first discovered on the Wasatch Plateau in 1874 and mining started in 1875 when Fairview Coal & Coke Company opened a mine in Huntington canyon and established a settlement called Connellsville. By 1876 the Fairview company was mining coal from several openings in both Huntington and Coal Canyons and producing coke from eleven coke ovens. A railroad was surveyed from San Pete Valley, up Fairview Canyon, over the ridge and down Huntington Canyon to the Connellsville mine, but the line was never built. The Connellsville mine operated for a few short years, however, the quality of the coke, and the cost of shipping the coal and coke to Springville by wagon was too great and the mine and settlement were both abandoned. (United States Fuel: Thirty Years, page 5)

Fairview Coal Mining & Coke Company was incorporated on May 2, 1874. ("1874-An Eventful Year", Our Pioneer Heritage, Volume 18, 1975, page 5)

Coal was first discovered in the Wasatch Field, the region of the Wasatch Plateau (along the western edge of what later became Carbon and Emery Counties), in 1874. Mining started in 1875 when the Fairview Coal & Coke Company, organized in May 1874, opened a mine in Coal canyon near the head of Huntington Canyon and established a settlement called Connellsville, after the noted source of coked coal in Pennsylvania. Coking operations were carried on for approximately three years using eleven coke ovens. Wagons were used to haul the coke to Springville, but the cost of transportation, along with the inferior quality of the coke brought a short life to the enterprise. (Powell, Next Time We Strike, page 18, citing Salt Lake Tribune, January 1, 1875)

Coal discoveries were made in the Pleasant Valley area in July 1875. The railroad and most of the "leading" mines were owned by "Messrs" Child, Packard, Pritchard, Crandall, and others. After the discovery of the Pleasant Valley coal mine in July 1875, a wagon road was constructed at a cost of $11,000.00. (Deseret News, September 5, 1877)

The Winter Quarters mine was opened in the spring of 1875 by George Matson, of Springville, along with Phil Beard and John Nelson. These three men arrived in Pleasant Valley, laid out the Pleasant Valley township, assessed the mine claim, and drove the first hundred feet of tunnel for the Winter Quarters mine. In an article in the August 23, 1928 issue of the Sun Advocate, Matson stated that he helped dig the first load of coal to come out of the Pleasant Valley area. That first load of coal was sacked at the mine, hauled by mule down the hillside, and loaded into wagons. The wagons were hauled by mules to Springville by Milan Packard and Myron Crandall. The name Winter Quarters came from the fact that John Nelson and Abram Taylor "wintered" there during the winter of 1875-1876, holding the mining claims for the owners. During 1877 Peter Moran and a group of miners from San Pete Valley settled the town and began to continuously work the mine, with formal work beginning in June 1877. These miners were caught by an early winter storm that fall and were forced to stay at the mine through the winter. They stayed until their supplies ran out in February 1878 and then left the area, walking to Tucker. Once the Castle Gate mines were opened in 1888, the coal from Winter Quarters was used by the railroad for its locomotives. (Zehnder, Chuck. A Guide To Carbon County Coal Camps And Ghost Towns, 1984, page 4)

December 11, 1875
Commercial development of the coal resource in what is now Carbon County began in 1875 with the organization of the Pleasant Valley Coal Company by Milan O. Packard, M. P. Crandall, and Nephi Packard, all of Springville. At the same time, on December 11, 1875, these same individuals also organized the Utah & Pleasant Valley Railway to build a rail line between Provo and their new mine in Pleasant Valley. (Utah corporation, index number 4301)

During the winter of 1875-1876, John Nelson and Abram Taylor camped at the site of Winter Quarters to stake out a coal mining claim on the area for the Pleasant Valley company. The town and mine were given its name in their honor. (Powell, Allan Kent. "A History of Labor Union Activity in the Eastern Utah Coal Fields, 1900-1934". PhD dissertation. 1976, page 14)

(The Winter Quarters name may have been applied to the camp because of circumstances similar to the Mormon experiences (the San Pete Valley miners were most likely Mormons) on the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, Iowa over the winter of 1846-1847 prior to their leaving for Utah in 1847. That camp on the Missouri River was also called Winter Quarters.)

A wagon road was constructed beginning in the spring of 1876 to move the coal from the Winter Quarters mine and Springville. The first opening for the Winter Quarters mine was made that summer of 1876. The coal was mined and packed by mule down the hillside and loaded onto wagons for the trip into Springville. The Pleasant Valley Coal Company began shipping coal in the fall of 1876, by way of the new wagon road to Springville, the round trip taking four days. At Springville the coal was sold locally for $4 to $5 per ton. (Watts, A. C. "Opening First Commercial Coal Mine Described", Centennial Echos from Carbon County, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Carbon County, 1948, pp. 33-35)

(The mine owners had difficulties finding financial support for the railroad until they could show that it had sufficient traffic to pay its way. To show that the traffic truly existed, it was necessary to develop the coal mine and begin shipping the coal to market by wagon prior to building the railroad.)

Grading for the new railroad line was begun at Springville in April 1877. Warren G. Childs of Ogden was the principle contractor, keeping between 160 and 300 men on the project throughout the summer through early winter 1877. By year's end, the road's construction engineer, J. Fewson Smith, reported that twenty-six miles of grading had been completed. (Reeder, page 370, citing Deseret News, March 28, 1877, May 30, 1877, December 26, 1877, Salt Lake Tribune, June 10, 1877, Salt Lake Herald, December 21, 1877)

The first actual miners for the new mine came in June 1877 from the San Pete Valley area when Peter Moran and fourteen other men of Scottish and Welsh ancestry were hired, possibly because of their previous mining experience from the Wales mine. They worked at the mine for the season, but an early snow storm kept them at the mine camp over the winter of 1877-1878, after which they walked out, north to the railroad construction camp at Clear Creek (later called Tucker). (Watts, A. C. "Opening First Commercial Coal Mine Described", Centennial Echos from Carbon County, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Carbon County, 1948, page 35)

September 5, 1877
The railroad was graded sixteen miles. (Deseret News, September 5, 1877)

Development work on the new Winter Quarters No. 1 mine began in June 1878, with the prospects of the soon to be completed Utah & Pleasant Valley Railway. Twelve beehive coke ovens were built, but they found that the coal had poor coking qualities. (Watts, A. C. "Opening First Commercial Coal Mine Described", Centennial Echos from Carbon County, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Carbon County, 1948, pp. 35-37)

By mid-1878 the Utah & Pleasant Valley Railway had not yet laid any rail, and was having problems paying the interest on its construction bonds, which meant that it might not be able to complete its line to the mines. It was rescued in October 1878 by Charles W. Scofield, an investor from New York City who had also saved and taken control of both the Bingham Canyon & Camp Floyd Railroad and the Wasatch & Jordan Valley Railroad -- two narrow gauge lines which traversed the Salt Lake Valley between the mining camps of Alta and Bingham Canyon, meeting and connecting with the Utah Southern Railroad at Sandy. (Reeder, page 372, citing Poor's, 1879, page 923)

(With Scofield's support the Utah & Pleasant Valley was able to complete its line into Pleasant Valley and the coal company's mine there. In return Scofield was given control of the railroad which meant that he and his associates controlled three of the most important rail lines within the state at that time.)

August 29, 1878
Tracklaying began on the Utah & Pleasant Valley line at Springville. (Reeder, page 370, citing the Salt Lake Tribune, August 29, 1878)

September 7, 1878
The construction of the Utah & Pleasant Valley Railway, the "Calico Road", was started on September 7, 1878. (Mendenhall, page 150)

September 16, 1878
After a mile and a half of track was laid, using a construction train pulled by horses, the railway company's first locomotive was put on the rails. (Reeder, page 371, citing Salt Lake Tribune, September 17, 1878)

This first U&PV locomotive was a Porter & Bell 0-6-0, with a four-wheel tender, and had been the American Fork company's second locomotive. American Fork Railroad had shut down just two months earlier, in June 1878. Charles Scofield bought the rolling stock and rails of the American Fork company and used them in the construction of the Utah & Pleasant Valley. (Reeder, page 208, citing Deseret News, June 12, 1878)

During the construction of the new line, coal was loaded from the wagons to the rail cars at the end of track, where ever that might be as construction proceeded up the canyon. By early and mid May 1879 coal was being hauled into Springville by rail. On May 9th, five cars of coal was received at Springville. (Territorial Enquirer, May 10, 1879)

The new line was built using rails that weighed twenty pounds to the yard (compared to today's regular use of one hundred thirty-three pound rails). Coal was hauled in five-ton wooden cars with twelve cars making up a train, sixty tons of coal per trip. (Watts, A. C. "Opening First Commercial Coal Mine Described", Centennial Echos from Carbon County, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Carbon County, 1948, pp. 35,36) (Today, a single coal car carries 100 tons, nearly twice as much coal.)

November 5, 1879
The Utah & Pleasant Valley railroad was completed to the mines and immediately began hauling coal to Springville. (Reeder, page 371, citing "Spanish Fork", in Railway World, November 15, 1879)

(A. C. Watts, chief engineer of Utah Fuel, in his article in the March 15, 1913 issue of Coal Age magazine, wrongly stated that the Utah & Pleasant Valley commenced operations between the Pleasant Valley mines and Springville in 1876. This was the date that wagon operations began.)

In 1880 the Winter Quarters mine was owned by the Pleasant Valley Coal Company, but the mine was leased to Bishop Williams. At the same time, the same company began development of the Mud Creek mine, an action that was protested by Williams, arguing that another mine in the area was not needed because his mine would be able to furnish all demand. (Watts, A. C. "Opening First Commercial Coal Mine Described", Centennial Echos from Carbon County, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Carbon County, 1948, pp. 36,37)

In 1880 the Winter Quarters mine was leased to David Williams, the Mormon bishop in Winter Quarters. (Powell, Next Time We Strike, page 20)

March 3, 1881
The first mention of the Pleasant Valley Coal & Coke Company in the property records was on March 3, 1881 when Alexander A. Atkins sold 198.28 acres to the coal company. The property was in Section 32, T12S, R7E and Section 5, T13S, R7E. (Carbon County Miscellaneous Records Book 3, p. 18)

The Winter Quarters mine was shown as the "Williams Mine" in the 1884 measurement of side tracks done by the D&RGW's Utah division engineer. (Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Company. Measurements of Side Tracks from Grand Junction to Ogden, January 1, 1884)

In 1885, Pleasant Valley Coal Company, under the new management of W. G. Sharp, took over the operation of the Winter Quarters mine and shut down the Mud Creek mine. (Watts, A. C. "Opening First Commercial Coal Mine Described", Centennial Echos from Carbon County, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Carbon County, 1948, page 38)

During 1886, the Winter Quarters mine shipped 71,814 tons of coal, which was shipped principally to points in Utah and western Colorado, and to Butte, Montana. The Winter Quarters mine coal was being extracted from a vein that was 11 feet thick. (Charles A. Ashburner, "Coal Production In Utah, 1886," AIME Transactions, Volume 16, 1887-1888, page 357)

May 1, 1900
A fire an explosion in the Winter Quarters coal mine near Scofield, Utah, caused the deaths of 200 men.

(Read more about the Scofield mine disaster, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary)

(Read the Wikipedia article about the Scofield mine disaster)

July 21, 1900
Pleasant Valley Coal company offered $500 per person as settlement for victims of the Scofield mine disaster. (Engineering and Mining Journal, July 21, 1900)

During late 1901 the Winter Quarters mine, located about one and a half miles above Scofield, was producing 1,200 tons per day from the No. 1 opening, and about 400 tons daily from the No. 4 opening. The No. 5 opening was still being developed. The No. 1 mine was first worked in 1879, but was not vigorously worked until about 1895. After that time the yearly output was about 350,000 tons per year. In the No. 4 mine, an electric hoist was used to drop the loaded mine cars out of the mine workings, through a rock tunnel to the mine opening. The loaded cars were then eased down a 1,500 foot gravity tramway from the mine opening to the tipple, with the loaded cars lifting empties back to the mine opening. (Higgins, Will C. "One of Our Largest Home Industries: The Coal Mines of Carbon County, Utah", The Salt Lake Mining Review, November 30, 1901, page 19)

January 30, 1908
Utah Fuel forced all of the workers in its Winter Quarters mine to live in the company-owned town of Winter Quarters. Some were living in the private-land town of Scofield. Those who had not yet moved to Winter Quarters by January 31st were told to "get their time and settle up." The Scofield (former Union Pacific Mine) and Winter Quarters mines were working three days per week. (Eastern Utah Advocate, January 30, 1908)

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

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

During late 1909 the first steel loading tipple in the state was erected at Utah Fuel's Winter Quarters mine. (Watts, A. C. "Coal Mining in Carbon County, Utah", Coal Age, Volume 3, Number 11, (March 15, 1913), p. 404)

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

June 15, 1910
"Jones & Jacobs, of Salt Lake, contracting engineers, are building a steel tipple at the Winter Quarters coal mine of the Utah Fuel company. The machinery and equipment is being furnished by the Jeffrey Manufacturing company, of Columbus, Ohio." (Salt Lake Mining Review, June 15, 1910)

June 11, 1914
The Winter Quarters mine and the Clear Creek 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)

The Winter Quarters mine produced 379,000 tons of coal during 1909 (or about 7,580 fifty-ton car loads, about 25 cars per day for a 300 day working year), making it the third largest producer in the state. The coal is slightly higher in moisture and ash than other coals, but was regarded as good domestic and steam coal, and was very extensively used by the D&RG for its locomotives. (Harrington, Daniel. "Utah as a Coal-Producing State", The Salt Lake Mining Review, March 15, 1910, page 21)

(PHOTOGRAPHS: A photo of the Winter Quarters tipple was in Coal Age, Volume 2, number 22, November 30, 1912, page 747.)

The coal mined at Winter Quarters was of inferior quality, compared to Castle Gate coal. The low quality of the coal made it hard to market, and because the mine was owned by the Denver & Rio Grande railroad, the railroad began using the coal for its locomotives. Production decreased after 1920, due mostly to the long underground haulage, which increased operating costs so that the coal was even too expensive for the railroad to continue using. In 1928 the original Winter Quarters mine was closed. (C. H. Madsen, Carbon County, A History, 1947, page 55)

(United States Fuel: Thirty Years, page 6, says that the Winter Quarters Mine was opened in 1884, and abandoned a few years later.)

March 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)

April 2, 1925
The Winter Quarters and Clear Creek coal mines of Utah Fuel company were leased to former employees to keep the mines open. An order had come from D&RGW headquarters New York City to close the mines permanently. The Winter Quarters mine was leased to William Littlejohn, who resigned as general superintendent of the Castle Gate mine, and his brother J. W. Littlejohn. The Clear Creek mine was leased to T. J. Parmley, who resigned his position to take the lease. Both leases took effect on April 1, 1925. (Coal Age magazine, April 2, 1925)

April 6, 1933
The abandonment of the Winter Quarters Branch was announced, for the purposes of a public hearing. (Sun-Advocate, April 6, 1933)

On April 28, 1933 the Denver & Rio Grande Western received ICC approval to abandon the 1.7 mile Winter Quarters Spur, from the Scofield wye to Winter Quarters, including 1.3 miles of yard tracks at Winter Quarters. Utah Fuel Company had closed their mine at Winter Quarters in 1928 and they removed all of the machinery in September 1930. (193 ICC 21)

The buildings at the Winter Quarters mine were dynamited to avoid paying property taxes. (Utah Labor News, June 7, 1935)

"Mining at the Winter Quarters area was initiated in 1878 and finally terminated in the early 1940's; practically all of the production, however, some 12.5 million tons, was obtained prior to the 1930's." (Letter dated December 11, 1975, on file with Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining, Coal File 0070001)

By the end of its life in the 1940s, the Winter Quarters mine had taken, by room and pillar methods, large sections of coal extending from its main entrance on the south side of Winter Quarters Canyon, south to its "south fan cutout" on the north slope of Eccles Canyon. When the Valley Camp company was developing its Belina No. 1 mine, it was in a side canyon on the south side of Eccles Canyon, across from the Winter Quarters south fan cutout, but in the same coal seam.

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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