Show UTAH ROCK ASPHALT AS A PAVING MATERIAL by WILL C HIGGINS it may not be generally known but it is a fact that the great mountain ranges of utah contain practically every known metal precious and base and every known hydrocarbon the coal measures of the state are wonderful in their magnitude and quality and the activity now prevailing in the coal minin mining industry promises to give in all probability outrival out rival the world but few people know this and even these without first making a personal inspection of the asphalt occurrences in the state have only a slight conception of their magnitude of their purity and high quality and the ease and low cost at which they can he be mined and placed upon the market a class may also be surprised to learn that this home product is of an equal or even of better grade and possessed of more lasting quality than is the imported article the use of which is a bar to home industry as well as an avenue through which the money of home people flows to the benefit of outsiders instead of being 11 wor 1 04 af A W 1 6 6 N A photo by will C higgins view to the north from ridge above water canyon utah prominence as being the greatest coal producing state in the west in the hydrocarbons are included gilsonite and asphalt the production of all of these with the exception of asphalt has been quite extensively engaged in for a period embracing the last ten or twenty years and yet in the immensity of its asphalt deposits utah can very few also realize the vast importance of the enormous deposits of rock asphalt which exist in carbon county the perfect blend of the rock which will permit ot of its being utilized in making t streets and roads in the crude state in which it is taken from the quarries without any preliminary preparation aside from crushing and heating and our home people as kept in circulation among our earners and consumers A great deal of interest is being taken locally in the fact that a certain portion of street paving in salt lake is now being done with utah rock asphalt and the attitude of city officials in thus promoting home industry is meeting with the warm approval of taxpayers tax payers and businessmen business men the only question arising to cause apprehension in the minds of many being the matter of quantity and availability as well as economy of production and transportation facilities I 1 sass in order to see for himself the source of the asphalt now being used for paving in salt lake city and also to pass judg lake first and the then only would he be able to form some idea of the salt content of this wonderful body of water the same reasoning applies in looking at the asphalt now being used in salt lake paving the quantity appears small and an individual if informed that millions of tons abounded where the small lot came from could of the great coal camps of the utah fuel company the body of rock asphalt above referred to forms the 1000 feet of capping lof of the patmos ridge extending from a point three and a half miles northeasterly from sun and forming a seventeen mile exposure of about a thousand feet in thick tl al na S it LT IL tal TA ifer looking up water canyon to the quarry now being worked photo by will C higgins ment upon the quantity in sight the writer recently spent some time in carbon county just above sunnyside Sunny side where he made an inspection of the enormous deposits of the material for which this section is noted and the fame of which is destined to become worldwide world wide it is difficult at times to give even an hardly grasp in his mind the vast extent of the source of supply utah rock asphalt or sand asphaltum as referred to in government reports does not exist as ledges or veins within the meaning of mining terms but forms in deposits in carbon county it is a thousand feet thick and is the capping of a moun ness to a point ten miles northwesterly from sunnyside Sunny side and extending through township 13 S range 13 E township 13 S range 14 band township 14 is range 14 E S L B M within this area are embraced th the P holdings of different companies the principal holding company being the utah asphalt company combining in an own x V AX 7 ala 4 az r showing operations at the rock asphalt quarry photo will G higgins adequate idea of quantity by comparison A statement might be made that one gallon of water from the great salt lake contained a certain percentage of salt and yet a person by merely looking at a gallon of salt water could hardly conceive of the almost incalculable amount of salt contained in the lake he would have to visit the tain or a range of mountains the floor or of the asphalt for the 0 occurrence C cur is in blanket formation being feet above the coal horizons in the dook book cliff mountains of carbon county the asphalt deposits are located thirty four miles southeast of price and five miles northeast of sunnyside Sunny side the latter being one enship and control of about acres practically all of this area and all of it east of the outcrop is a solid body of rod of 10 asphalt containing an average grade per cent bitumen at the openings made in the outcrop and there is a quarry face on 0 each of the thirty claims owned and controlled 1 as above stated occasionally there ther are zones in the deposit which will run as high as 20 per cent bitumen from the floor of the deposit to the top of the patmos ridge the distance is 1000 feet is 1 previously stated the mountain h havin a ving 1 the combined tonnage embraced in this acres according to expert computation would build a road 1000 feet wide around the world and enough would be ba left to pave every street avenue alley and af T N j 4 a 0 X 7 ft camp N 0 2 a mile below the quarry photo by will C higgins a slope of about thirty degrees and showing hi asphalt exposures the entire dis distance talice tonnage practically in sight the tonnage of rock asphalt contained in this vast area is almost beyond comprehension imagine it if you will a mass of asphalt 1000 feet thick if this looks too big although the truth has been stated we will reduce the dimension by eliminating one half and invite your attention to a mountain of asphalt that is only feet thick and covering acres this asphalt weighs pounds to the cubic foot taking this as a measure the acres feet thick will actually contain five billion tons of asphalt the figures are astonishing and almost unbelievable and yet they give one some conception of th the magnitude of this deposit of rock asphalt which embraces an area of which in all probability has no equal in the world in which the material is all in sight hight and presenting a strictly quarrying proposition for every foot thick horizontally over this acres there is contained about te ten w million tons of asphalt producing at the rate of 1000 tons per day it would fake ake practically thirty years to mine this one olie foot and fifteen thousand years I 1 to exhaust the deposit embraced within the environment viron ment of the acres one thousand tons a day would lay 12 00 square yards of surface two inches thick or it would surface over a mile of street or road twenty feet in width ana two inches thick driveway in salt lake or a road a mile and a hali half wide from san francisco to new york and yet there are skeptics in salt lale laka who hold to the opinion that there is not enough rock asphalt in biah ried only no care need be exercised in getling ling it out in regulation sized blocks in the present case the chief source of operation is at the head of water canyon where about sixty five men are employed in ta taking k out this great paving material from a working face of about feet in height along this exposure a bench of about six or eight feet is made on the inner side of which deep drill holes are sunk at regular intervals and charged with giant powder when these charges are shot the whole side of the face is blown out and the asphalt is broken into pieces weighing from a few pounds up to one or two tons in size the large blocks of asphalt are drilled and blasted and the chunks too large to handle are broken up with sledge hammers As a matter of fact this system of mining is almost a counterpart of glory holing so often practiced in big surface mining operations and an immense tonnage of the asphalt can be broken down by this method at a comparatively small expense were the demand commensurate with the ability to produce at this quarry thousands of tons could be handled daily at the present time an average 0 of f tons is being mined and shipped to salt lake every twenty four hours a tonnage greater than the street paving contractors can utilize at the present time already about 2000 tons of asphalt fro from Z this quarry has been marketed since june of this year without having hardly made an impression on the mountain or even making room for the teams engaged in hauling 71 I 1 W OK va ae showing a portion of the quarry face photo by will C higgins to pave main street or any other of our principal pm cipal th thoroughfares orrigh fares the mining of asphalt rock asphalt is mined almost iu in fhe i no E same ame manner that building rork rock is quor As a matter of fact the to tons ns required by salt lake this year will hardly dress down the face of the deposit or make good working room for the men I 1 or teamsters as the quarry dislocated is located at the licad head of the canyon and surrounded by towering cliffs of the simon pure material transportation from the yards of the denver rio grande railroad at sunnyside Sunny side the asphalt has also been made miles while a survey for the construction of an aerial tramway of asphalt at the from the great exposure a distance of a mile head of this canyon and a quarter this tram will connect with w 4 0 I 1 WAA 7 kle showing great blocks of asphalt after blasting photo by will C higgins quarry at the head of water canyon is connected by a good wagon road much of which was built by the asphalt operator s this road is about five miles in length A mile of the upper end of this load is 0 ol 01 very heavy grade and to negotiate it successfully cess fully big teams are required for the transportation of the asphalt to a point where better grades prevail this necessitates a break in the method of transportation and the asphalt is unloaded at camp no 2 at the lower end of the mile of steep grade at this point the burden is taken I 1 up again by lighter teams and lighter wagons kang and conveyed to the loading station at sunnyside Sunny side the general average load being from f rom three to four tons the jhb freight rate f from r om sunnyside Sunny side to salt lake is bas based ed on the regular coal rate which is per ton ion it will probably occur to tb the reader that on account of this break in the hauling the unloading and reloading again a heavy and fin unnecessary necessary expense is incurred but one r must I 1 remember that this industry is only in its infancy as yet and that when one cannot operate as he would he must bend to circumstances however this condition will obtain for but a short ashert time as up to date facilities will prevail in the near future even now plans are being matured so that the moving of the asphalt from the quarry to the ra railroad will be accomplished mechanically A spur line from the D R 0 railroad dt at sunnyside Sunny side has been surveyed up whitmore canyon to the mouth u h of bear B I 1 car canyon a distance of two the spur railroad at its upper terminal where a refining plant will eventually be installed when the railroad the tramway and the refining plant are in commission practically all of the asphalt marketed will camping and working facilities at the quarry in water canyon sixty five men are employed and ten big teams are utilized in hauling the asphalt to the reloading loading re station at camp no 2 gamp camp no 1 is located near the quarry and its atef accommodations consist of a boarding house which can take care of forty men a bunk bunic house for twenty eight office with lodging for four tent house for the cooks and an old log cabin for storage purposes the ten big teams and their drivers are housed an and d taken care of at camp no 2 at camp no 2 there is a boarding house with accommodations for thirty men and a bunk house of the same capacity besides a tent stable which will ta take ke care of awen ty five horses at camp no 2 P J moran the well known salt lake contractor has also established his headquarters consisting of 0 tent boarding and lodging houses and tent teni stable mr moran although the fact is not generally known has acquired asphalt property up in water canyon and he now has a large force engaged in the construction of wagon roads to his deposit this necessitates some heavy grading but mr moran should be in position to begin asphalt shipments early during the coming year at sunnyside Sunny side the operating companies have a tent office and weighing scales the scene up and down whitmore canyon and up to the head of water canyon is an animated one twenty teams are employed in hauling asphalt from camp no 2 aaa t jac opp 21 4 t M aa I 1 4 wn PS d ft X IV U NEI 71 unloading asphalt at sunnyside Sunny side photo by will c higgins be taken from the deposit at the head of bear canyon where the showing is as stupendous as that already described at the head of water canyon to the railroad at sunnyside Sunny side in going up in making his visit of inspection the writer met eighteen teams loaded with great paving mater material and this heavy braf fie is being maintained right along and will probably be kept up all winter utah rock asphalt attracting attention the eyes of the leaders of industry are being opened regarding the immensity and importance of the rock asphalt deposits of carbon county and a number of experts who have recently visited this section have expressed astonishment at the wonderful tonnage in sight and the uniformly fine quality of the material which with nothing but crushing and heating to be made available can be utilized for paving purposes without any further preparation many salt lake business men prominent advocates of the principles of home industry are investigating the merits of this ready made asphalt among those inspecting these deposits during the visit of the writer being J E langford of saltair fame george D keyser city comi commissioner missioner and sylvester Q cannon city engineer all of whom expressed their pleasure and surprise in being able to prove to their own personal satisfaction that utah has enough asphalt to pave the world |