Utah Fuels the West
Utah's coal industry and the railroads that served it
By Don Strack
This page was last updated on July 18, 2002.
(Incomplete… research continues)
Introduction
From the time of their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley the pioneers recognized the importance of coal. Brigham Young knew that if the Saints were to ever become self-sufficient, they would need a source of coal for both home heating and for industrial purposes. One of the first uses for coal in Utah was in the early, iron manufacturing industry in southern Utah. The lack of adequate iron-making technology, along with a source of nearby coal of good enough coking quality prevented the growth of Utah's iron industry, at least until the early 1920s. The smelter industry in Utah began with the earliest silver smelters of the early 1860s, and the new industry needed fuel for their steam boilers, the source of mechanical power for the stamp mills. Smelting of gold, silver, lead and copper needed coke, a fuel made by burning the combustibles and impurities out of the coal and leaving a very high carbon-content fuel that makes for the very hot fires needed by the industry's smelting fires. There was great pressure to locate a source of coal that could be made into coke.
During 1875, coke was being imported to Utah's, and Nevada's, silver smelters from Pennsylvania. The 2,000-mile transportation of the much needed commodity forced the price per ton of coke up to $35 to $40. (Engineering and Mining Journal, September 18, 1875, p. 288)
Early transportation, or rather the lack of it, was one of the major obstacles, if not the greatest obstacle, in the development of Utah's coal resources. As coal was found throughout the territory, the discoverers soon found that the absence of low-cost transportation also prevented commercial development. The growth of the metal mining industry was stifled by both the limited supply of coal for its smelting furnaces, available only in wagon load shipments, and the lack of transportation to move the products of its smelters to East Coast refineries.
Utah's coal production in 1902 put the state at number nineteen in the nation, producing 1,574,521 tons, one-half percent of the national total. Production for 1896 was for 418,627 tons, somewhat less than a third of the 1902 total. Machine mining came to Utah in 1901, when thirteen "pick", or puncher mining machines were introduced. That quantity remained constant through 1903, with as much as 75,000 tons of coal being mined by the use of machines. These undercutting machines were used to remove the coal from the working coal face, with the coal still being loaded by hand. The use of pick machines were easier on the miners, over the use of a hand pick, and reduced the breakage of the coal, allowing for increased sales of lump coal. (USGS: Mineral Resources, 1903, pp. 381-383)
In 1916 Utah produced a total of 3,567,428 tons (compared with its first recorded year of production, 1870, with 5,800 tons). Utah's production in 1916 was about a third of Colorado's, and about a fifth of Wyoming's. (Salt Lake Mining Review, September 30, 1918, p. 30)
In August 1918 the state's monthly production was broken down by individual mines. The Cameron Coal Company at Cameron, near Castle Gate, produced 12,000 tons. Carbon Fuel at Rains produced 25,000 tons. Independent Coal & Coke at Kenilworth produced 35,000 tons. United States Fuel at its three mines, Hiawatha, Black Hawk, and Mohrland, produced 128,000 tons. Liberty Fuel at Latuda produced 15,000 tons. American Fuel at Neslen produced almost 16,000 tons. (Salt Lake Mining Review, September 15, 1918, p. 30)
Prior to the enactment of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, coal lands in Utah, and other western states, had to be purchased from the United States government in tracts of a maximum of 160 acres, the size of a homestead. In order for a coal, or any other, company to acquire sufficient land to allow development of coal lands, including tipples, power houses, employee homes, and even railroads, several individuals would associate themselves, each purchase the 160 acres of land, and then lease the land to the coal company through an agent of the lessee, usually the general manager of the coal company. (Gibson: Sunnyside, p. 206)
