Coal in Utah

"The mountains of Utah contain one of the largest deposits of high grade bituminous coal in the world. According to the United States Geological Survey, there are 13,130 square miles of land known to contain workable coal, and these extensive fields contain 196,000,000,000 tons of coal. More remarkable than the extent of the coal fields is the thickness of the coal beds. Over three-fourths of the output of coal in Utah is recovered from beds ranging from 8 to 17 feet in thickness, as compared to one-eighth of the output of the entire country from such beds. In 1917, Utah mined one-third of its coal from seams at least 16 feet thick, compared to one-half of one per cent of the total bituminous output of the country from like seams.Coal at Wales, in Sanpete County, and in the vicinity of Coalville, Utah, was, it is reported, the first discovered by white men in the state. Wales claims the distinction of having produced the first coal mined in Utah. Two men, who had been coal miners in Wales, learned of the coal from an old Indian chief who called it ""rock that would burn."" In 1857, the town of Wales was founded and coal mined, and in 1858 some coke was manufactured and hauled by ox team to Salt Lake City. South of Wales is Castle Valley, in Wasatch Plateau field. From 50 to 60 miles of the Old Spanish Trail from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Monterey, California, lies in Castle Valley. The coal in this field may or may not have been known at the time the trail was used extensively. The first published reference to this coal, however, was made by a party of the Corps of Topographic Engineers in their journal for October 11, 1853.After the completion of the Union Pacific railroad in 1869, mining on a commercial scale was attempted. In 1876 the Utah and Pleasant Valley railroad commenced operations between Scofield, in Carbon county, and Springville, Utah county, and following the year 1878, when the Rio Grande Western railway began construction through the Carbon county field, development increased until in 1900, when large smelters commenced operations in Salt Lake valley and gave coal mining in Utah an impetus that first carried it to an annual output of a million tons. During the past fifteen years many new mines have been opened, and with the construction of the Utah railway, an exclusive coal road, from the properties of the United States Fuel company in Carbon and Emery counties to connect with the Union Pacific system at Provo, the state reached a maximum production of 6,005, l 99 tons in 1920."