A History of Uintah County

Mining and petroleum exploration

Booms and Busts MINING AND PETROLEUM EXPLORATION vJ intah County is noted for its natural resources. Industrial activities have included mining for Gilsonite, coal, copper, iron, oil shale, ozocerite, wurtzilite, and asphalt. Tales of gold in the Uinta Mountains have been numerous. Three of the first settlers-Wilbur Carlson Britt, Finley Britt, and Peter Dillman-came to Utah in 1872 prospecting for gold. Wilbur Britt had been given a map by an old prospector who claimed there was a rich mine near Carter Creek. The men searched until fall; finding no gold, they came over the moun­tain and lived with Captain Pardon Dodds at Whiterocks that win­ter, moving to Ashley Valley the following year. Many early settlers and cowboys were part-time prospectors. By 1888 Gilsonite (a hydrocarbon) had been discovered in the county, and Gilsonite mining was one of the first large commercial undertakings. Local cowboys and Indians had been aware of the black substance from a vein near Fort Duchesne for many years. When John Kelly became the blacksmith for the Indian agency at Whiterocks, he needed coal for the operation of his forge. He described the material to the Indians and asked if any had been seen 130 MINING AND PETROLEUM EXPLORATION 131 in the area. Indian agent J.J. Critchlow and John Blankenship made an examination of the material the Indians told them about and pro­nounced it to be coal. Critchlow sent a party with a team of oxen to bring a load to the agency. When Kelly tried the Gilsonite in the forge, results were memorable because at the high temperature the ore melted making such a pungent, vile-smelling smoke that Kelly came out of his shop using very expressive language.1 George Basor staked out locations of the material, but no land office existed in the basin to file his claim. Bert Seabolt visited the home of Pardon Dodds where Basor was also visiting. Basor brought out several pieces to show Seabolt. Seabolt stated that it was a pure hydrocarbon that he could not classify. He took some of Mrs. Dodds's fresh churned butter and mixed it with the Gilsonite to form a chewing gum that was soon enjoyed by the group. Basor showed Seabolt where the vein of Gilsonite was located, and Seabolt traveled to the land office to make an official filing on the claim, overriding Basor's stake. About the same time, Sam Gilson also discovered the vein of Gilsonite. Gilson had supplied horses to the Pony Express and was the U.S. marshal who supervised the 1877 execution of John D. Lee for the 1857 massacre of California immigrants at Mountain Meadows. Gilson took several sacks of Gilsonite home and began to experiment with the material. His wife reported that she was not overjoyed with her husband's discovery, since he filled nearly every pan in the house with the messy stuff to carry out experiments. Gilsonite was first (and officially) called "Uintaite," but it later became popularly known as Gilsonite in honor of Sam Gilson. When the Gilson Asphaltum Company was formed, he jokingly offered a silver dollar if they named the stuff after him; this was done and the mate­rial has carried his name ever since.2 Gilson and Seabolt joined forces to mine Gilsonite. Discovering that the vein was on the Indian reservation, an attorney who was an expert on mining law was retained and some wealthy Park City mine owners joined in the venture. The group traveled to Washington, D.C, to attempt to convince Congress to remove the carbon vein from the reservation. Adolphus Busch of Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company in St. Louis became interested in the black mineral, which 132 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY made what some considered to be the finest lacquers, paints, and var­nishes in the world and also provided excellent sealing material for beer barrels. Busch added his support to the withdrawal request.3 It took an act of Congress plus a treaty with the Utes before the mine was legally acquired. On 24 May 1888, because of the political pressure, Congress removed a triangular area of land containing 7,040 acres from the eastern end of the reservation, providing for a payment of twenty dollars per acre to the Indians. The base of the area ran from east to west and was three miles wide, the north-south boundary line extended six miles. The Gilsonite company built a few shacks to house workers and tools. The ore was freighted by team and wagon to Price, Utah, where it was shipped all over the world. This area became known as the "Strip." A tent town sprang up overnight which became one of the wildest towns in the west. The town was later called Moffat and then Gusher. In 1899 more than 2,000 tons of Gilsonite was shipped from the area. The average price received was fifty dollars per ton at the railroad, and production and hauling costs were twenty-one dollars per ton.4 In 1902 pressure from whites again became so strong that by a special act of Congress the privilege of locating 100 mining claims on the Uintah Reservation was given to the Raven Mining Company. Fifty of the claims were to be for elaterite-a type of asphalt- twenty-five were to be for Gilsonite, and twenty-five for precious metals.5 In 1902 over 20 million pounds of Gilsonite was shipped from the area.6 In 1903 the Gilson Asphaltum Company paid $1,500 in taxes to the county. Miners had also discovered veins of Gilsonite east near the Colorado line, and mining camps were started at Dragon, Watson, and Bonanza. It is worthy of note that Gilsonite was responsible for the building of the only railroad to enter the Uinta Basin. In 1904 the Uintah Railway narrow-gauge railroad was installed over Baxter Pass to Dragon. It was later extended to Watson and a spur also went south to the Rainbow mines. The Uintah Railway Company was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Barber Asphalt Paving Company and was built for the sole purpose of hauling Gilsonite to the main D&RGW railroad; however, it transported many other products as well. The mineral could then be shipped without wagon freighting, MINING AND PETROLEUM EXPLORATION 133 ' • ' • ' . 1907 Gilsonite miners at Dragon, Utah (UCLRHC collection) and the mines on the Strip ceased operation. "Slim" Beaslin, local attorney lohn Beaslin's father, was the railroad conductor and many local men worked for the railroad. Some immigrants, including Greeks, worked on the railroad as section men, and it is probable that Greeks also worked in the Gilsonite mines. Many Greeks later migrated to Price to work in the coal mines. It has been reported that Chinese laborers were also hired to work in the narrow Gilsonite veins. Their smaller stature made it possible for them to work more easily in the tunnels.7 Contemporaneous with the building of the railroad, construc­tion began on a system of toll roads which connected Dragon with Vernal. In addition, telephone and telegraph lines were built. All of these activities were combined under two companies: the Uintah Railway Company and the Uintah Toll Road Company. In 1928 several companies were active mining and shipping Gilsonite. The Gilson Asphaltum Company (a subsidiary of the Barber Asphaltum Company) was working at Rainbow; the American Asphaltum Company, a St. Louis concern, worked the Bandana and Little Bonanza mines; the Utah Gilson Company oper­ated the Little Emma Mine about twelve miles north of Watson; and 134 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY two small companies operated in the central part of the basin, with one mine at Fort Duchesne and another on Castle Peak about twelve miles south of Myton.8 The Uintah Railroad was discontinued after an abandonment hearing in lanuary 1939. The main mining operation was moved to Bonanza and the Gilsonite was shipped by truck to Craig, Colorado. It was later transported to a refinery near Fruita, Colorado, using a slurry pipeline. In 1957 a six-inch, seventy-two-mile-long pipeline was extended from the mines to Gilsonite, Colorado, through which ore was shipped in a water slurry. There it was converted into elec­trode coke and gasoline. Due to the economics of competition with petroleum, the pipeline operation was stopped in 1973 and the plant was sold. In 1979 the American Gilsonite Company completed con­struction of a modern processing plant to replace existing plants at Bonanza. Today large tanker trucks are loaded at the plant, and haul the ore all over the world. The huge tankers can be driven onto ships and freighted across the ocean. The truckers drive off the ship and deliver the Gilsonite. Several dozen products are made from Gilsonite; they include paints, varnishes, inks, roofing materials, elec­trical and other insulations, battery boxes, phonograph records, floor coverings, brake linings, caulking material, gilsulate for underground pipe insulation, high-test gasoline, and metallurgical coke. Ninety-five percent of the Gilsonite in the world is found in the Uinta Basin, providing a large part of the economic base of Uintah County. Mining of other minerals also has been important to Uintah County's economic development. Besides the Britts and Dillman, other prospectors were looking for gold prior to 1880. Promising ore was found in the Vortex Cave area, and on 4 June 1880 a meeting was held to organize the ten-mile-square Carbonate Mining District.9 Officers were elected and a constitution adopted, which among other things, declared, "no Chinaman would be tolerated in the district... claim being situated in Carbonate Mining District near Bullion Townsite in Uintah County, Utah Territory."10 A small mining camp was started when a few log cabins were built; it was christened Camp Fudgy by William. G. Reynolds. Prospectors roamed the mountains in search of wealth. Mining companies, corporations, districts, and partnerships were made and dissolved almost daily. The Uintah MINING AND PETROLEUM EXPLORATION 135 Papoose, Vernal's first local newspaper, reported on 22 May 1891 that a town known as Parsons City had been established. It boasted a store operated by Frank Moore and was located on the old Parsons mill site. The Dyer Mine nestled between Oaks Park and Dyer Mountain in the Uinta Mountains about twenty-six miles north of Vernal was the biggest mine. About thirty families lived near the smelter located on Anderson Creek built in 1889 by the Uintah Copper Summit Company, with Rock M. Pope as foreman. On the average, the Dyer Mine produced 50 percent copper, with some gold, silver, and lead. The gold and silver paid for the production costs of the copper dur­ing the first years of operation. Mining at this camp was in full swing between 1887 and 1900, producing more than $3 million worth of high-grade copper. Records show that from 1891 to 1917 the output of ore from this district was 4,377 tons, yielding a return of $395,655 in copper, $63,497 in silver and $18,857 in gold.11 From 1900 to 1902 about 100 men were employed at the camp known as Bullionville.12 Most of the ore was hauled over the Carter Military Road in wagons pulled by horses or oxen to Carter Station, Wyoming. Oxen were often used since they could haul heavier loads. In the beginning, some of the ore was hauled through Sears Canyon to Rock Springs.13 By 1904 the rich ore pockets had been exhausted and mining opera­tions ceased. In 1928 the Dyer Mine was revived by EJ. Longhurst and George E. Pope, a Vernal miner, who had acquired it for $302.36 at a delin­quent- tax sale two years previously. The construction of the Vernal- Manila highway brought the mine to within four miles of an automobile road, and the elimination of only one steep grade was required to enable automobiles to reach the camp. This mining ven­ture did not prove to be a success, however. The mine was closed and Bullionville became a ghost town. Another mining rush came in 1891, this time on Blue Mountain, where many copper and silver strikes were reported. The Uintah Papoose was full of "strike it rich" stories for many years. Most of the finds were pockets rather than veins. Vernal resident Hy Mantle and his brothers did find copper. Their mines were located on a high, steep area called Tanks Peak on the north rim of Blue Mountain. The YYlSTOTCf OT YjTOIAYi Co^YSiT^ Green River Gold Dredge (UCLRHC collection) location of the mine made it hard to operate, and it was finally leased to Hell's Canyon Copper Company. The company had a large min­ing camp and operation around 1919, but it was not successful for long. A uranium rush erupted in the 1940s, but that too proved unsuccessful. Other miners have discovered limited quantities of rich copper ore in the area.14 Other methods of gold mining also were attempted. The first gold dredge was located along the Green River in Uintah County and it is believed to have been at Basor Bend before the turn of the cen­tury. It was owned by an eastern company and was operated by a local family named Mitchell. It has been stated that at one "clean-up" about $1,500 in gold was obtained, but the gold consisted of exceed­ingly fine flakes, and the venture ultimately was not a success. Ira Burton, Ene Gurr, John McAndrews, and Judge J.T. McConnell were some of the local residents involved with this dredge.15 In 1908 an immense dredge was built on the Green River by the Uintah Placer Mining 8c Exploration Company. It was located between Split Mountain Canyon and the lensen bridge. Prominent stockholders and officers of the company were from Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, Vernal, and other parts of the country. At least 100 tons of machinery and 100,000 feet of lumber were required to build the frame. The cost of construction and machinery totaled $50,000. MINING AND PETROLEUM EXPLORATION 137 Hopes for the operation were high. N J . Meagher of the Bank of Vernal purchased considerable gold panned from the vicinity. Mrs. H. C. Rupple of Vernal had in her possession a nugget taken from the craw of a chicken near Island Park above this dredge.16 Attempts were made with the machinery to recover the fine flour gold from the channel and terrace sands, but this operation also met with little suc­cess. Another attempt to mine gold on the Green River was made in 1913 by the Fine Gold Placer Mining Company below the Jensen bridge at Horseshoe Bend. New equipment was installed and work began with three eight-hour shifts-eight men to the shift. Five more dredges were planned for the area, and it was estimated that work would continue on the vein for fifty years. However, this enterprise also ended in failure.17 Asphalt, often referred to as "native asphalt," is another of Uintah County's mineral resources. It is a brown or black tarlike substance, a variety of bitumen. It is found in a natural state in an outcropping about two miles west of Vernal; another deposit is located near Whiterocks. The asphalt deposits near Vernal are found in various states of oxidization-from a thick, tarry semi-liquid like molasses to a sandy material. Several ways of breaking down the substance to obtain the oil have been used, one being hot water. Asphalt has been placed on roads and sidewalks in the county for nearly 100 years. One of the methods used is to mix it with sand and haul it directly to road surfaces where it is spread to a depth of about four inches. One of the first men to become interested in rock asphalt was Sheriff John T. Pope. He perfected formulas using the product for roofing hundreds of area homes and businesses. He had a laboratory and factory 4.5 miles southwest of Vernal. He was successful in extracting the "gum" from the sand asphalt without the use of fire, and he was the first to use sand asphaltum for paving in Vernal. Hauling the rock from the hills with a team and wagon, he chopped the material with an ax and beat it down with a sledgehammer after it was laid, making a sidewalk at his home in Vernal. In 1898 the Vernal city council decided to experiment with sand asphaltum to determine the effect of solar rays on it. On 16 August 1898 about twenty tons of asphalt was placed on a Vernal street and 138 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY sidewalk. The strip of sidewalk was completed at the cost of $125 and the experiment was considered a success. Further experimenting led to improved ways of using the asphalt to pave streets and sidewalks. By 1906 Vernal City had acquired a lot at 100 West 100 North where vats were installed to heat asphalt and bids were let for 100 tons or more of asphaltum and ten or more yards of sand to be deliv­ered to the city lot for paving three blocks.18 In 1924 another plant with six vats was located in the yard of the Uintah Canning Factory (previously Workman's Hall). The asphalt was heated with steam from the boilers and also with a wood fire underneath the vats. The asphalt was spread over the roadbed hot; as it cooled, it was smoothed with a three-ton steamroller. In 1924 an eighteen-foot-wide asphalt strip was laid eight blocks from the center of Vernal to Fifth West and then south to the tabernacle. After ten years, the road was still in excellent condition. This project was completed later under the Federal Emergency Relief Act.19 By 1978 Uintah County and Vernal City had leased an open-mine asphalt pit from Sohio Company. Asphalt was also sold to indi­viduals at cost, but all asphalt had to be used in Uintah County. The asphalt is used for private drives, walks, lanes, hard-surface feed lots, playgrounds, tennis courts, and parking lots. Paul Feltch, Uintah County road supervisor, stated in 1992 that of the 375 miles of paved roads in Uintah County only twenty-one are not constructed with native asphalt. Feltch predicted the city's mine had another two years for production. Tests were executed to determine if another layer of tar sands directly under the county's excavation pit would be eco­nomical to develop.20 Drilling down another thirty-two feet beneath the location, enough additional asphalt was located to last four or five more years. Another layer to the northwest was located which is rich in asphalt. It is a dome with fifty or sixty feet of overburden on top of it. It will take two or three more years before workers can expose the asphalt. County workers remove about 50,000 tons of asphalt a year for use on roads. The new road to Bonanza was built with 119,000 tons of asphalt. It was once believed that enough asphalt existed to last more than a hundred years, but in 1995 it was reported that in a few years the county would deplete its available supply of asphalt. In 1996 county commissioners hired geologist Bud MINING AND PETROLEUM EXPLORATION 139 Paving Main Street in 1923 with native asphalt (UCLRHC collection) Covington to do a study from recent tests made, and he indicated that enough asphalt existed for another forty to fifty years, alleviat­ing commissioners' fears of losing their free source of asphalt. At one time, the county had leases on about nine other sites; however, the commissioners let them expire, believing the county had all the asphalt it needed.21 The abundance of Gilsonite, asphalt, and other hydrocarbons, along with the sighting of oil dripping from the crevices of rocks near Vernal, has prompted wildcatting for oil in the county. The first known drilling occurred in 1900. The John Pope #1 Well was drilled to a depth of 1,000 feet, but there were no signs of oil or gas and the well was abandoned. In 1911 the drilling of several other oil and gas wells occurred on Asphalt Ridge near the "Twists" on U.S. 40. These wells also showed no promise and were capped. During World War I, C.J. Neal of Vernal was hired by the Uintah Development Company to drill several wells on the west flank of Asphalt Ridge. Using a cable tool rig, a coal-powered steam boiler, and a wooden derrick, Neal drilled to depths of 1,700 feet. Very small amounts of gas and tarry oil were found in these wells, but Uintah Development decided not to continue its exploration for oil and gas. 140 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY Jte Early oil well in Dog Valley, 1912 (UCLRHC, C. J. Neal collection) These dry oil and gas wells did not deter others from continuing to search for oil and gas. During the 1920s, Earl Douglass, a noted paleontologist and discoverer of dinosaur fossils in lensen, became a spokesman for further oil exploration in the county. His knowledge of geology and his scientific investigations in the county and else­where in the Uinta Basin convinced him that the region contained an abundance of oil.22 His assessment proved correct-in April 1925 a 10-million-cubic-foot gas gusher was struck between Vernal and lensen near Ashley Creek. The Ashley Field was the first major pro­ducer of gas in the county and in eastern Utah. Oil developers were optimistic, and the next three years saw work being completed on Neal Dome. The Maud-Ellen Oil Company began drilling in Steinaker Draw, the Nevada Company began two wells seven miles southwest of Vernal, and Utah Oil Company also began drilling. Some 15,000 acres near Vernal were tested for gas. In 1929 it was announced that no test wells would be drilled near Vernal as there was a declining market for oil. The same year, forty oil per­mits were revoked by the General Land Office. Although Rangely, Colorado, to the east had some activity through the 1930s, very little MINING AND PETROLEUM EXPLORATION 141 oil activity occurred in the county through the Depression years until 1940 with advent of World War II. When big oil-producing wells were drilled in the county in the 1940s, petroleum became one of Vernal's major industries. Since that time, oil and gas have provided both good times and lean times for the people of the county, who began to rely on the petroleum indus­try. Between 1945 and 1947 Standard Oil of California, Pure Oil, Continental Oil, Gulf Oil, Carter Oil, and Union Oil showed interest in the Uinta Basin. In 1948 oil was found in commercial quantities, climaxing a search of nearly half a century. Equity Oil Company, a Utah-based enterprise under the leadership of pioneer oil man J.L. Dougan of Salt Lake City, guided the first successful well into pro­duction. It produced 300 barrels a day. When Equity hit oil, the boom was unleashed. In the next seven years major oil companies opened several fields in Ashley Valley and the Uinta Basin. By 1949 Uintah County had twenty-six producing oil wells, and the Gusher and Roosevelt oil fields were opened in the Green River Formation. Drilling began in the Red Wash Oil and Gas Field in 1951 and in Walker Hollow Field in 1953. These openings brought the boom to a head. Three hundred families moved to Vernal in 1955. The year 1958 saw several important developments for Uintah County's mineral industry. First, the search for oil and gas, which had dropped off during the past several years, surged to a new level. Second, oil-shale lands were leased for the first time. Third, large-scale testing of phosphate ore from the Brush Creek area was under­taken to determine its commercial feasibility, while drilling and testing continued on oil-bearing sands on Asphalt Ridge. In the following years, the county's economy fluctuated with the activity in the oil fields, which had a record high production in 1985. Since that time, however, oil production has slowly declined year by year; by 1992, 238 wells had been shut down, and twenty of these were abandoned or plugged. Revenue from oil suffered further when Uintah County had to repay some of its revenues from the oil indus­try as a result of a tax dispute settled in 1992 with major oil compa­nies in Utah who charged that the county had over-taxed them since 1988. The settlement cost Uintah County about $300,000, and local 142 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY property taxes increased due to the reduction of residential property exemptions.23 The low price of oil worldwide contributes to the oil industry's continued slump in the county. Uintah County has been famous not only for its oil but also for its natural gas. By 1929, four years after gas was discovered in the Ashley Valley Field, lines were installed and natural gas was supplied to the town of Vernal and Ashley Valley. It was estimated that enough gas existed in the wells to provide gas locally for forty years; however, by January 1941, because of the lowering of the pressure of the gas due to infiltration of water into the Valley Fuel Supply Company wells, it was necessary for the Uintah Gas Company to restrict the use of large consumers. As the gas supply continued to decrease, the com­pany applied to the Public Service Commission in October 1941 to discontinue gas service in Uintah County. Despite much protest, res­idents were forced to change to butane or revert back to coal after twelve years of natural-gas service. Fifteen years later, in 1956, El Paso Natural Gas Company began building a pipeline from the Canadian border to New Mexico. A regional transmission pipeline through the northeast portion of the basin made natural gas once again available to the area. Two major oil companies announced tests for petroleum in the revival of activ­ity. Utah Gas Service began installing lines to serve the county popu­lation with natural gas. This service provided many jobs as it took two years to complete the lines to homes and businesses. The gas was turned on in 1958. Mountain Fuel Supply Company explored Uintah County dur­ing the 1950s in search of natural gas. Gas was discovered by the company in 1960 in the western part of the county. A permanent office and warehouse was set up in 1961 and the company joined with Utah Natural Gas Company (a subsidiary of El Paso Natural Gas Company) to build 103 miles of twenty-inch pipeline westward from the gas-producing fields to a connection with an existing eighteen-inch pipeline at the Clear Creek gas field in northwestern Carbon County. This natural-gas transmission line had to be buried under the Green River, eased down a precipitous 43 degree slope some 1,400 feet into Nine Mile Canyon, bored under a transcontinental highway and railroad, and snaked up through mountainous terrain to its ter- MINING AND PETROLEUM EXPLORATION 143 minus at the Clear Creek gas field. In 1965 Mountain Fuel joined in a project building a pipeline to Bonanza.24 In 1974 the government felt El Paso had created a monopoly and ordered a downsizing of the company. At that time Northwest Pipeline purchased a portion of El Paso's pipeline.25 Utah Gas Service (which is now owned by the Cordillera Corporation) owns the Altonah and Bluebell gas fields. In 1974-75 a pipeline was built through LaPoint to Vernal. Since that time, most of the natural gas distributed in the area by Utah Gas Service has come from that source rather than from Northwest Pipeline, although some is still purchased from Northwest Pipeline and from a few small companies. In 1984 government regulations prompted Mountain Fuel to organize a holding company-Questar Corporation. Companies could no longer buy, sell, and transport gas as Northwest had been doing. At that time, Northwest became a transport company only and Williams Field Service took over the buying and selling of gas. Mountain Fuel Supply Company became responsible only for the local distribution (retail) networks. The transmission of gas through interstate pipelines was moved under Mountain Fuel Resources, with an office in Vernal. Drilling and production was moved to Wexpro Company and Celsius Energy Company. Uinta Basin has become mostly a gathering area where natural gas is placed in the pipeline at Red Wash and transported to other parts of the country. In 1988 Mountain Fuel Resourses was renamed Questar Pipeline Company. Forty people currently (1995) work out of Questar's Vernal office.26 In August 1990 Questar Pipeline completed an eighty-one-mile, twenty-inch-diameter pipeline linking its northern and southern sys­tems. The $25 million pipeline, also known as Main Line 80, linked the Fidlar Compressor Station in the Uinta Basin with Kastler Station at the Clay Basin underground storage reservoir in Daggett County. This allowed the company to balance gas flows between the northern system and the southern system. (The northern system flows from northwestern Colorado and southwestern Wyoming into northern Utah via Parley's Canyon and Emigration Canyon. The southern sys­tem flows via the Uinta Basin and Carbon County into Utah County.)27 Today, with modern technology, things change daily as brokers 144 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY buy and sell gas. A computer bulletin board is available, so a company that needs gas can see which company is selling at the lowest price. Gas ordered is then placed in a transport line and delivered to the company. The system is becoming more complicated, and it is not known from day to day if Uintah County is getting gas from the Uinta Basin gasfields or from distant fields; nor is it known to what locations Uinta Basin gas is being distributed. The network of nat­ural- gas pipelines crisscrossing the Uinta Basin has provided numer­ous jobs not only building the pipelines but in workforces hired by transmission and distribution companies. Gas- and oil-related businesses are located throughout the Uinta Basin, especially on the Naples Industrial Strip. The boom and bust periods of the oil industry have affected many aspects of the county's economy, including housing construction, schools, trucking, and mercantile outlets. Early cowboys discovered another substance that amazed them. When certain rocks were placed around campfires, liquid oozed from these rocks into the cooking fires, burning better than coal oil. This magic rock was oil shale. Ute Indians had known about the black rock for a long time. A legend was told of Mike Callahan, who built a new cabin with a rock fireplace, not knowing he was building the fire­place out of oil shale. When he lit the first fire, it burned down the cabin. Talk of oil-shale development in the Uinta Basin was being printed in the local paper and experts were coming to the area to col­lect samples for testing as early as 1917. One article stated that a local company had been organized to work oil-shale property near Watson in the larger oil-shale territory along White River and in Hell's Hole Canyon, which was said to be one of the richest bodies of oil-shale deposits in the world. The newspaper reported that a new reduction plant would be built near Watson. Four tons of shale was shipped to England for testing.28 In 1921 a tower was built in Agency Draw, east of Willow Creek in Uintah County, for a retort plant. The project was begun by R.S. Collett, who reported the project in the Salt Lake Mining Review on 30 April 1921. He had a crew of eighty men at work on a fifty-mile road from Rainbow to Agency Draw. By 1922 the journal noted that MINING AND PETROLEUM EXPLORATION 145 successful preliminary tests had been completed. A fifteen-man crew worked at the retort. The shale was blasted from nearby quarries and hauled to the retort, where pinion was burned to heat the shale. However, the oil produced had to be shipped fifty miles over the wagon road Collett had built to the railhead at Watson, and, as that proved to be unfeasible, the operation was discontinued.29 Western oil shale is a form of limestone called maristone, which contains incompletely formed oil in a solid form. This solid, kerogen, is composed of the remains of dead plants and animals deposited eons ago in Lake Uinta, which extended over parts of Utah. This organic matter was later covered with volcanic ash and sedimentary deposits from nearby mountains. Sufficient heat and pressure were present to allow the formation of oil shale but not enough to develop crude oil. It was not until the 1970s that companies again seriously began to explore oil-shale production in the area. The U.S. government became involved in methods of extraction of oil shale due to concern over worldwide supplies. It was thought that the U.S. should not be totally dependent upon foreign oil in case of emergencies, and it was also politically expedient to keep gasoline prices as low as possible at the pump by trying to make available increased supplies of oil. Prior to the early 1920s, individuals could stake claims on oil-shale land; but after that time the government only allowed such land to be leased. No such leases had been granted to 1970. After much pressure, in 1974 the Department of Interior leased two 5,200-acre-tracts in Utah to Phillips Petroleum Company, Sunoco Energy Development Company, and Sohio Shale Oil Company, which later joined together to form the White River Shale Company. The U.S. government under the leadership of President Jimmy Carter created the Syn Fuels Corporation (SFC) in 1980 to stimulate a domestic alternative energy industry. The SFC could guarantee loans or provide guaranteed prices making it possible for the oil-shale companies to secure the large loans necessary to construct a synthetic fuels production facility. Several projects had been announced as early as 1976, including plans to build a reduction plant separating potash from the oil shale. Other oil-shale develop­ers in the area were Paraho, Syntana, Magic Circle, Texaco, Exxon, 146 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY Tosco, Ramex, and Geokinetics. By 1982 White River Shale began construction of a mine to start developing its oil-shale tracts. The media focused on its ambitious plans-$100 million was to be spent in 1982-83-but no oil was ever produced. Geokinetics, Inc., a small company which had lost out in the bid for government leases, leased land from the state of Utah and devel­oped and operated an extraction facility for ten years. Mike Lekas invented a process to retreive oil from shale, and Geokinetics became the first company to produce commercial quantities of oil-250,000 barrels. The military tested the product at Hill Air Force Base and certified its quality. Geokinetics built a plant seventy miles south of Vernal called Kamp Kerogen, which originally consisted of three tents and outdoor cooking and eating facilities. The camp grew to a small town with a permanent population of thirty persons. However, by 1984 the air had gone out of the oil-shale balloon. After the foreign oil cartel weakened and oil was again plentiful, in 1985, under President Ronald Reagan, the U.S. discontinued the Syn Fuels Corporation and its support of the expensive oil-shale produc­tion projects. The big oil companies also found it was unproductive due to the low price of oil to secure oil from shale and their projects were also discontinued. White River Shale turned its leases back to the government and went out of business without anything to show for its millions spent. Geokinetics also discontinued its oil-shale pro­gram and transferred its energy to conventional oil and gas activities. The failure to continue the oil-shale activity created economic problems, as the Deseret Power Plant had been constructed with the intention of supplying electricity to the oil-shale operations. The tremendous growth that was anticipated and begun also created social and economic problems in the county's towns.30 Oil was also found in saturated oil sands near Dragon, Whiterocks, and Powder Springs southeast of lensen. In 1918 lohn Pope attempted to develop saturated oil sands by means of tunnel­ing instead of drilling. It was Pope's idea to tunnel under the sands and bring the oil to the surface by means of gravity rather than by pump. The plan worked successfully and tunnels were built at other locations, but production was low and the project was finally aban­doned. 31 Although methods of extracting tar sands have not yet MINING AND PETROLEUM EXPLORATION 147 proven feasible, the potential remains great. The largest single deposit of bituminous sandstones-tar sands-in the United States is found in the Uinta Basin. Further research may yet unlock the more than 11 billion barrels of oil estimated to be in the tar sands of the Uinta Basin.32 Another rich mineral resource which has contributed to the economy of the county is phosphate, which was discovered by J.H. Ratliff thirteen miles north of Vernal on Brush Creek in 1915. Knowing the government was going to withdraw the area to be a part of the Uinta National Forest, he and his partner A.E. Humphrey filed a patent and rushed to stake claims. Ratliff stated that there was more than 3.5 billion tons of phosphate rock in the Vernal field, which it was estimated could supply the phosphate (fertilizer) needs of the United States for more than a century. However, development was minimal until the San Francisco Chemical Company became inter­ested in the operation, shipping out 15,000 tons of phosphate ore from the Brush Creek bed to Leefe, Wyoming, for testing in 1958. San Francisco Chemical acquired the deposit from Ratliff and Humphrey in early 1959 and built the Harry Ratliff Concentrating Plant in 1960. Manager D.L. "Scotty" King stated: "The Brush Creek beds are the biggest continuous deposit in the west. Having an indus­try 150 miles from a railroad will definitely limit industrial growth."33 At that time, an attempt was again made-unsuccessfully-to bring the railroad to Vernal. More than 200 employees were eventually employed at the plant with an annual payroll in excess of one million dollars. In 1965 the company produced over 180,000 tons of concen­trate, and it continued to expand through the next few years. In 1969 Stauffer Chemical Company purchased the phosphate plant and began a huge expansion. The plant began production in July and operated on a 300,000-ton yearly production basis running three eight-hour shifts per day, seven days a week. In 1980 Chevron purchased the mine and plant and upgraded production with new installations that increased output from 450,000 to 750,000 tons of phosphate a year. In 1981, 110 persons were employed at the Brush Creek plant. Phosphate was hauled out of the county in trucks to Heber, Phoston, and Garfield, Utah, by W.S. Hatch Trucking Company. About twenty-four trucks were in operation locally. In 148 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY 1986 a slurry line was completed which pumps the material over the Uinta Range to a refinery in Rock Springs, Wyoming. Farmland Industries, Inc., and J.R. Simplot Company, under the name S. F. Phosphate, are the present owners, having purchased the company from Chevron in April 1992. The company mined 2.7 million tons of phosphate in 1995, employing 125 people.34 The county contains other minerals which have been mined. Several uranium mining claims were developed in the eastern por­tion of the county on Blue Mountain near the Utah-Colorado line. In 1954 twelve uranium claims sold in the Davis Ward area southeast of Vernal for $50,000. Excellent silica deposits exist in the area, but have had little development. A good grade of hematite iron in fairly large deposits as well as elaterite and ozokerite exist in Uinta Basin, but these have remained undeveloped.35 Coal mining has been a major economic activity in the county, with more than 20,000 acres of coal lands having been taken up in mining claims by 1903. Within a few miles of Vernal vast deposits of coal were discovered, and for more than thirty years this fuel was sys­tematically mined. The coal was hauled by team and truck, and the operation of the mines gave employment to many county men. Many of the first settlers operated private coal mines. Captain Pardon Dodds had a mine on his property east of the Rock Point Canal, but it was never mined commercially. Four of the main area mines- Pack-Allan, North Star, Gray's, and Farmer's-were within a few miles of Vernal. The Bluebell, Collier, and Dudley mines were located on Brush Creek. The Brush Creek mines were first opened by Wilson Boan, who mined on the lower end of his farm exclusively for home use. It is thought that the first area mine to operate for commercial use was the Ike Burton Mine. A great amount of coal was shipped from this mine before Archie Weeks purchased it to fuel his gypsum plant on Kabell Hill. Weeks closed the gypsum plant about 1921 and the mine was then sold to Thomas E. and Carson Kidd. Coal was sold from the mine for many years before it was abandoned.36 Walter and Frank Collier opened a mine north of the Burton mine and in 1918 pur­chased the north half of the Burton section. The owners operated the mine until they found it impossible to hire laborers, then sold it to MINING AND PETROLEUM EXPLORATION 149 ' 5 ••' J" Delivering coal to Vernal area (UCLRHC, L. C. Thorne collection) White and Leaon Ainge. By 1947 this was the only mine in the Brush Creek area that was still operating. Coal Mine Basin west of Maeser contained the most commercial mines in the county. Before soldiers came to Fort Thornburgh, William Reynolds, Otto Peterson, George Brown, and B.N. Reynolds opened the first coal mine in Coal Mine Basin; it was called the Mill Mine because it was owned by the owners of the Reynolds' Mill. In 1904 Charles C. Rich took over the mine and later sold it to George and Ferre Young, who sold it to the Pack-Allan Mine Company. In 1904 this mine employed fourteen men and produced twenty tons of coal per day. The company provided boarding houses and often fed twenty-four men a day. By 1911 twenty families were living at the location and seventy-five men were employed at the mine with five regular delivery teams. It produced most of the coal mined in the area, although some other mines were active in Coal Mine Basin. During the thirty-three years of its operation, more than 115,000 tons of coal were taken from the Pack-Allan Mine. Al Timothy developed several coal mines in Coal Mine Basin before selling out to Phillip Stringham, who leased them to several independent coal miners. In 1915 Stringham sold out to Lawrence Wardle. loe and Charlie Rich as well as Al and Ren Hatch also mined 150 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY coal in Coal Mine Basin. By 1914 twenty-four coal miners were work­ing Joe Rich's mine. Mary Rich Freeman, Rich's seventeen-year-old daughter, cooked for the miners. The Rich mine was one of the biggest producers of coal in the county; up to forty tons of coal were mined daily. Coal sold for four dollars a ton and miners received eighty-five cents per ton for their labor. Because of small seams of coal, short tunnels, often only six feet high, were dug. Smaller horses were used to pull the mine cars. In the Wilson Boan Mine on Brush Creek, the tunnels were so low that burros were used. Ownership of the Rich Mine changed hands several times. Rich sold to Harvey Tucker, who sold to H.H. Norgard. By 1940 Lawrence and Lowell Wardle owned the mine. Ed Gray opened a mine in Coal Mine Basin which he later sold to Nelson Weeks. Many of the different mines' tunnels became inter­connected. Gray's original mine was abandoned in 1935 after the bins and tipple were destroyed by fire. Lawrence Wardle ran his mine until 1957, at which time coal was selling for ten dollars a ton. The Farmer's Mine in Coal Mine Basin was a co-op mine owned by several farmers in the county until it was sold to W.L. Fletcher. Martin Fletcher later purchased the mine from his father. During the early operation of these mines and especially during the Depression of the 1930s, mine owners bartered much of the coal for produce or other goods. The owners did not become rich, but their families were fed. On the west side of the county a mine was opened by the federal government to supply coal to the Uintah-Ouray Indian agencies and schools as well as to the residents of the agency. White people ran the mine and sold the coal. Later, private parties dug a coal mine not far from the Government Mine, which was later condemned and closed. Clarence Jensen and Floyd Warburton opened mines at Little Water, and Henry Lee also opened a mine. The Lee Mine and the Jensen Mine operated for several years. Before the mine owners bought trucks and began delivery of the coal to schools, places of business, and residences, individuals drove their teams and wagons to the mines and hauled the coal home. World War II contributed to the demise of area coal mining as many mine workers left for military service. The availability of natural gas in 1928 seriously curtailed the market for coal. MINING AND PETROLEUM EXPLORATION 151 Road work in preparation for first paving of South Vernal Avenue. (UCLRHC, L. C. Thorne Collection) In addition to the industries' contribution to the general econ­omy of t h e c o u n t y t h r o u g h wages a n d consequent purchasing of goods and services, taxes on mining and p e t r o l e um ventures have been a significant source of revenue for the county. As early as the 1880s money was paid to the local government, and in 1900 these monies helped fund a building b o om which included a new court­house at a cost of $16,000 and large brick schoolhouses at Central, Naples, Glines, a n d lensen. Estimates from the local Job Service office indicate t h a t , in 1995, 30 percent of jobs in U i n t a h C o u n t y were related to mining and p e t r o l e um and between 35 to 40 percent of county wage income is generated by these industries. Development of natural resources continues to have a tremendous impact on the county's economy ENDNOTES 1. Major B. H. Roberts, unpublished paper delivered at 24 luly celebra­tion in Vernal, Utah, in 1919; copy located in the Regional History Center of the Uintah County Library (UCL). 2. Robert E. Covington, "A Brief History of Early Mineral Exploitation 152 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY in the Uinta Basin," 1, 4, paper presented at the Thirteenth Annual Field Conference of Petroleum Geologists in 1964; UCL. 3. The first mine was called the St. Louis Mine in honor of this brew­ing company. 4. Covington, "Brief History," 4. 5. Ibid. 6. Vernal Express, 11 lanuary 1902. 7. Robert E. Covington presented this information at a Uintah County Historical Society Meeting on 10 lune 1995. In lanuary 1996 in a personal interview with the author, Covington said he had been told about Chinese miners working in the Gilsonite mines by many old-time miners in the early years of his career. 8. "Facts about the Uinta Basin," 21, brochure-program of 1928 Uinta Basin Industrial Convention, UCL. 9. Uintah County Court record book (handwritten) for 1880, located in District Court storeroom at Uintah Courthouse, Vernal. 10. George E. Pope, "Report on Dyer Mine," 6, unpublished manu­script, copy held in Uintah County Library Regional History Center. 11. Vernal Express, 13 December 1928. 12. The early county records refer to Bullion townsite. On a 1905 U.S.G.S. map, no such name as Bullionville is indicated, but three buildings are shown at the site. The name Bullionville is on the present U.S.G.S. map, and a CCC Camp was located there in 1933. It may be that the townsite was called Bullion and the CCC camp was called Bullionville. 13. Vernal Express, 18 September 1947, 8. Also see UCL Regional Center History folder 1394. 14. "Family History of Heber Timothy," unpublished manuscript copied from his record book by his granddaughter Geraldine La Rue Timothy Carroll, copy held in Uintah County Library Regional History Center. 15. Builders of Uintah, comp. by Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Uintah County (Springville, UT: Art City Publishing Co., 1947), 286. 16. Vernal Express, 23 October 1908. 17. Ibid., 25 luly 1913. 18. Ibid., 11, 18, and 25 August 1898, and 6 October 1906; personal interview of author with Ralph Siddoway 26 luly 1994. 19. Vernal Express, 28 lune 1934. 20. Ibid., 23 December 1992. 21. Paul Feltch, Uintah County road supervisor, interview with by author 26 luly 1994. See also Vernal Express, 13 March 1996. MINING AND PETROLEUM EXPLORATION 153 22. Walter lones, "The Growth of Utah's Petroleum Industry," Beehive History 16 (1990): 21-22. 23. Mike Wilkins, Uintah County Clerk's office, interview with author, 1995. 24. Vernal Express, 21 December 1961 and 4 November 1965. 25. Randy Dearth, telephone interview with author, 9 lune 1995. 26. Steve Chapman, Mountain Fuel Supply Company, telephone con­versation with author, followed by a letter dated 20 lune 1995, written by David Hampshire of Questar Corporation. 27. David Hampshire to Doris Burton, 20 lune 1995. 28. Vernal Express, 7 December 1917. 29. Salt Lake Tribune, 17 February 1974, copy containing picture located in folder 574 in UCL Regional History Center. 30. Kevin Millecam, "Oil Shale," Midflight, May/Iune 1983, 15; l im Lekas, telephone and fax correspondence with author, 5-6 May 1996; Charles Henderson, interview with author, 5 May 1996, UCL. 31. Salt Lake Tribune, 21 luly 1918. 32. Utah Energy Office, "Utah Energy Developments, A Summary of Existing and Proposed Activity, 1981-1990," 1981; copy of report in UCL. 33. Vernal Express, 22 December 1960. 34. Ibid., 1 May 1996. 35. "Facts about the Uinta Basin," 21. 36. Builders of Uintah, 284-85.