Show gilsonite and coal in uinta co A special correspondent of the engineering and mining journal of new york has furnished that publication with the following interesting description of the gilsonite and coal resources of uinta county biah utah uinta county utah is the source of the entire output of gilsonite in the united states and situated as it is comprises a portion of the great yampa coalfield alfield co gilsonite exists in vertical fissures in the sandstones and of the eocene tertiary period these fissures vary in width from two to seventeen feet from wall to wall until about three years ago this product was mined in the vicinity of fort duchesne utah and conveyed by indian and mormon wagon freighters to price on the rio grande western railroad at a cost of 11 per ton that mined at dragon to the southeast of fort duchesne was teamed to rifle on the lug YI 41 d ilk A fig 1 working of the vein of gilsonite by the open cut method same railway the price for gilsonite in st louis was then about 50 per ton and the cost delivered there was about 20 per ton several companies were doing a profitable business now however according to recent advices advises ad vices all this is changed what is known as the barber asphalt trust which has obtained possession of most of the best veins built a branch railroad called them uintah from mack a station on the rio grande western named after the head of the barber company to dragon where is one of the chief producing veins high rates on this the sole outlet for the products and a reduction of the price of t gilsonite to 30 per par ton have practically destroyed competition present and future transportation the old wagon road to price the former outlet was supposed to be kept in order by the county but if this was not done the united states government whose supplies for the troops at fort duchesne were haule 1 over the road stepped in and made the repairs now however the government contracts for these supplies over the uintah railroad and in consequence the price road has fallen into such a condition as to be almost impassable for freighters this has made the trust railroad practically the only means of transportation relief however is in sight jesse knight a capitalist of provo utah and reed smoot who is associated with him in many profitable enterprises have met the president and officials of the denver northwestern pacific railway and at that conference it was decided by the utah financiers financier sto to build a railway from provo over the wasatch range and thence via the strawberry and duchesne river valleys to jensen a point on the surveyed line jine of the moffat S L 62 V M M 4 t fig 2 gilsonite sacked ready for shipment road on green river at the state line between utah and colorado engineers are now making the preliminary survey and this line which will pass through the center of the hydrocarbon fields is practically assured the freight charge from dragon to new york is at present 2235 per ton which includes the 10 haul on the uintah railway from dragon to mack independent shippers pay a wagon haul to dragon in case they ship that way although the barber asphalt company at present has the monopoly of the market it is likely that if the moffat road and the road projected by the utah capitalists ever pass through the strawberry valley and the owners and miners of gilsonite veins are placed in a position to save the present 10 haul they will then be able to secure a fair fail amount of business in competition with the barber company the rate made by the moffat road in such a case will be probably the same as that from mack on the rio grande e western and will thus eliminate the 10 charge production and consumption the available tonnage in uinta county of tile the pure form of crude bitumen known as gilsonite was estimated by the late geo H eldridge of the united states geological survey at tons the approximate annual consumption in the united states is between and tons thi consumption seems to have increased materially during the last year or two owing to the reduced price at which the product is now being sold the accompanying illustration fig 1 shows the vein in the strip as it is calle locally which is a piece chopped out of the indian reservation many years ago for the benefit of utah men and others for the reason that it contained a four foot vein of exceptionally high grade gilsonite the property is now owned by the asphalt trust the workings s shown were at tile the time 1 took the picture about one half mile long and ninety feet deep working under underground round with open lights was tried at first but one day at a point near the center of the vein the powdered gilsonite in suspension blew abole ahole a hole in the earth killing two men after that the deposit was worked by an open cut or trench so as to have daylight later electric lights were installed and the men worked in safety this vein is not now being worked for the reason that at the lower terminus of the uintah railroad the dragon vein eight feet wide is supplying all present requirements fig 2 shows the whip with which the gilsonite is hoisted and also the product sacked for shipment available coal the fuel famine in utah california and nevada has caused the people of those states to cast hungry eyes on the 1200 square miles of coal in the yampa field through which the moffat road passes and in which it is now grading now the powerful influences of the heads beads of the union pacific and the denver rio grande railroads and their affiliated coal companies which have hitherto been employed to prevent the moffat road from bringing the yampa coals into the easterland east ernand western markets will be of no more avail the opening of these great deposits of various carbonaceous products will beof be of great benefit to the whole country between the fortieth and forty first parallels of latitude and from the missouri river to the pacific coast |