Show COAL MINING IN UTAH IN 1907 increase in tonnage and value of output although the monetary disturbances disturb anses in the last three months of 1907 are clearly re fielded by the statistics of the coal mining industry in utah the record made in the mines of the state during the first nine months of the year was sufficient to more than balance the effects of the depression when the coal production of 1907 is compared with that of preceding years during 1906 which up to last year held the record as the most prosperous in the coal mining industry of the state the production of coal amounted d to short tons valued at in 1907 the output reached a total of short tons having a spot value of the increase in production in the later year amounted therefore to per cent and the increase in value to 2289 per cent these statistics indicate that until the effects of the panic began to be felt in the latter part of the year the demand for utah coal had been somewhat in excess of the supply and was accompanied by the higher prices natural 1 under such conditions the business busin ess was also most satisfactory to the operators in other ways for the product of the mines was handled by the railroads in a gratifying manner and there were but few complaints of sh shortage of car supply th coal mines of utah gave employment in 1907 to 2203 men who worked an average of days the average in 1906 1966 having been days for 1572 men the rhe record for 1907 shows a distinct loss in the average efficiency of the mine workers the production per man having decreased from tons in 1906 to tons in 1907 in 1905 the average production per man was tons the average daily production per man in utah in 1907 was tons against tons in 1906 and tons in 1904 labor disturbances in the coal mines of utah have been few during the last three years in 1907 there was only one strike and this one which aff affected acted 1311 men e n last laste but four days in 1905 and 1906 there we practically no labor disturbances mr J E pettit who has succeeded 1 M T gomer thomas as state mine inspector ls r re ports that in 1907 there were six fatal aa eighty two nonfatal non fatal accidents in ill the e coal oal mines of utah of the fatal ac accidents ode n ts three I 1 were due to falls of roof or coal al one was I 1 the result of an explosion and two resulted I 1 from other causes of the nonfatal non fatal accidents six were of a serious character twenty six were due to falls of roof or coal four to gas or dust explosions and fifty fiftal two to other causes the death rate pe per 0 thousand employees was in 1907 as against in 1906 and the number of tons mined for each life lost was in 1907 as against in 1906 the coal fields of utah are impo important tant 1 and widely distributed and grouped geo 1 graphically comprise the book dins cliffs wa satch weber river southern utah and small scattered fields the book cliffs field with its southern extension the wasatch field is the largest in the state the coal bearing rocks of this field underlie man many thousands of square miles of the tjipta basin and outcrop along its southern margin in the book cliffs of western colorado and eastern utah the coals of this field are of upper cretaceous age and occur in several beds ranging from three to twenty feet in thickness the lowland at the base of the book cliffs is traversed by the rio grande western railroad the mines at sunnyside Sunn Sunny side castlegate Cast legate winter quarters and clear creek produce 95 per cent of the coal output of the state the coal is a medium grade bituminous and yields a good quality of coke over tons of the total production of the state in 1907 having been used for this purpose the weber river field in the northern part of the state is at present next in importance to the book cliffs field it has an area of only a few square miles but it is reached by a branch of the union pacific railroad and two beds ranging 0 in thickness from seven to twenty four feet are mined milled at Coal coalville Co alville vilIe the other coal fields of utah with the exception of a small area in sanpete county where a thin bed is mined at sterling on the sanpete valley railroad are far from railroads and are practically undeveloped the geologists of the united states geological survey have investigated many ol of these fields and have presented reports on them in various publications of the survey notably in bulletins nos and statistics in regard to the coal mins industry in the united states in 1907 are now being prepared for publication by mr re W parker the coal expert and chief sta of the united states geological survey and will appear as an advance chapter from mineral resources of the united states calendar year 1907 anle some time in the summer of 1908 |