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Show 46 Energy Guide r r r - April 2001 Recapping energy benchmarks: to an average of 3.3 million name was later changed to through the next decade. Carbon. Just before the start Opening of Columbia of World War I, production of Steel's Ironton plant near coal started. Provo provided a boost to an (Continued from page 43) In 1 9 1 1 . United States Fuel purchased the company and renamed the town Heiner. Before the Great Depression, the company town population grew to 600. The town was abandoned in the 1930s. In June 1912, U.S. Fuel, a subsidiary of Sharon Steel, purchased the last of the company-buil- t mining the towns, including Hiawatha, Mohr-lan- d and Black Hawk properties. Utah Railway, a subsidiary of Sharon Steel, was organized to connect the mines to Helper. The mining industry played an important part in the opening of the west by fueling trains and supplying coal for industrial and transportation consumption. Production stagnated and hovered around 4.5 million tons per year, peaking at slightly more than five million in 1929 and pulling back otherwise contracting industry. Columbia Steel used the Book Cliffs coal in its plant to make coke. Mechanization changed the labor intensive industry. Coal producers streamlined operations and mechanized to become competitive in a declining market. By 1940, Consolidated Coal & Coke and Silver Engineering entered into a contract to design equipment to replace machines used to undercut, drill, blast and load coal. The experimental machine was completed in 1943 and the first continuous miner entered commercial operation in 1946. During 1 947, Joy Manufacturing bought the invention, cited as the 150th major invention in the history of the world. Kaiser Coal purchased the first two continuous miners in Utah in 1951 for its Sim-- SHMESTi GHIRORRAGiTIG (Zone PerurnuUijed SB f33lflS7CD iibtuvt CHP PREFERRED PROVIDER Workmens Compensation Public Health Employees Educators Mutual nyside operation. Kaiser also purchased one of the first two longwall machines used in the country in 1961. In the coal's use as a residential heating source was beginning to be replaced first by fuel oil and later in the 1930s by natural gas. The Great Depression resulted in a slowing down of the consumption of coal. But it also helped the consumption of coal by making the change over cost to other energy sources less affordable. Coal-fire- d steam locomotives were replaced with diemid-1920- s, sel engines. Consumers opened. In 1920, Amalgamated incorporated a subsidiary by the name of Blue Seal Coal Company. The mine, located about a mile north of Scofield, was opened in spring 1921 and worked intermit- Toll Free 1 - 877 - 768 - 7032 637-462- 1 55 North 600 East Price, Utah 84501 Ironton plant. The Columbia mine operated until 1967 when it closed down. In 1926, Mike Francis incor- porated Maple Creek mine, located in the south east of Standardville, and started the construction of the tipple and the excavation of the tun- nel. By February 1928, Maple Creek mine was in operation and worked until 1937, de- spite a damaging fire in mid-1940- s. The coal industry that had fallen prey to the Great De- pression was saved by the steel industry and increased production needs created by World War II. In addition to the Columbia Ironton plant, which produced about one million ton of coal for coking per year, Kaiser Steel developed the Sunnyside mine to supply its Fontana steel plant in California. From the mid-194- 0s to the there were two forces working in opposite mid-1950- s, Gordon Creek and Na- tional coal companies started mining operations in the upper Gordon Creek area in 1921. The mines operated directions that affected coal production. The steel industry was going full force, consuming 2.5 million tons per year or more than 40 percent of total production. From 1950 to 1957, three Utah Power & Light electric through the 1930s and reopened during World War II. Mutual Coal Company, located at the west end of Spring Canyon, was incorporated and started working in 1920. The mine operated for about 18 years until it closed WC3DQDKIE, DC32 2328 Frontage Road, 0 Grand Junction, Colorado 81 505 (970) GENERAL OFFICE 242-220- AREA OFFICES Price, Ut. (435) Rock Springs Wy, Gillette Wy, NM, Henderson coal industry all but vanished within a relatively short span of a few years when the majority of consumers changed over to other residential heat- ing fuels. In the transportation sector, the increase in the number of locomotives temporarily halted due to participation in World War II resumed again, but the fuel of choice was no longer coal. Steel production was shifting from the United States to Japan and later to Korea. As a result, there was lower demand for metallurgical coal. Nearly all residential and commercial heating had changed to fuel oil or natural gas and there was no longer demand for coal in the transportation sector. However, there were indications of good things to come. The world's proven oil reserves did not indicate a sustainable future during the boom years following World WarH. Oil executives started to look at other energy resources and coal appeared to be the most viable. Within a few years, companies such as Exxon, Gulf Oil, Standard Oil, Texaco, At- lantic Richfield, Phillips troleum, Continental, Occi- Pe- dental Petroleum, Quaker generation plants came on Oil and Coastal Energy beline, including Carbon I and came the owners of coal II in 1954. The units were us properties in Utah. P Carlsbad Certified in Acupuncture During 1922, Columbia annually or more than 20 perSteel opened a mine in the cent of the average produceastern Book Cliffs to pro- tion. But a lucrative sector of the vide coking coal for its 1931. used less coal for transportation and freight. Industrial energy users turned away from coal and more mines closed than opened. But there were mines being tently through the ing about 1.25 million tons in 1938. 637-483- 6 H KY SPECIALIZING IN PRODUCTS 1 & SYSTEMS FOR WESTERN MINING TRITRONICS DIVISION Specializing in the Repair of Electronic, Methane Monitors, Spotters, Ground Fault Monitors, Anemometers, Mine Monitoring. |