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Show I! B6 Wednesday, August 1, 2007 Urado Mine Continued from B8 remote part of the country, but fortunately a narrow gauge railroad ran nearby on its way to the new gilsonite mining town of Dragon which was about 12 miles from the mysterious oil flow. Several people in Vernal soon became involved in this strange oil find and together with support fromjsalt Lake City a company was formed and given the name of Urado. Although the operation was located in Garfield County, Colo., a few miles from the state line, it was called Urado, because most of the promoters were from Utah. An office was set up in Salt Lake City, with John T. Pope from Vernal being named president and Henry Moore as vice president. Soon interest in this recently organized company became the talk of the town and several from Vernal found work at the new camp and others even purchased shares in this new found wonder. won-der. Here was a source of crude oil flowing right out of Mother Earth on its own, something that required no drilling in order to reach it. It was indeed a miracle of nature. Drilling in those days was a slow, tedious and uncertain undertaking, plus lots of expense. Now Urado's oil was not from a well or from oil shale, but from a flow coming out of the mountain side. Probably the most appropriate appropri-ate name for it was , as those early finders would say, an oil spring. By 1915 a camp had been set up and several buildings, some that were covered with tin, were erected to house equipment and operations. There was a tool shed and a fine blacksmith shop built to take care of so many important needs. In time 15 large holding tanks would be set up for containment con-tainment of the oil. A tunnel was started that followed the oil flow and a pipe line laid to carry the oil to the processing plant a few hundred yards away. Housing was made for the families of those men in charge, but most of the workers lived in boarded-up tents. There were corrals for the work horses and mules, also there was an area where ground had been cleared and with irrigation water from the nearby creek, hay was raised to help supply feed for these animals. ani-mals. There have been reports of the planting and harvesting ,. of a garden. Urado was indeed turning into quite a camp. As mentioned earlier, there were several involved with Urado WE'LL STOP PQOVIDING ?r.2 scaEE;:iNGs VklEMCAnCER: C:JLY ATTACICS WOMEN WITH PULL HEALTH COVERAGE. If you're 50 or older, you most likely qualify for a free breast and cervical cancer screening. To find out, call 1-800-717-1811. 0 Utah sjQ Cancer Control (r))Pivgram y A Joint Program of the V S Utah Department of Health and Utah's Local Health Departments who were from Vernal. Some of these besides John T. Pope were Mark Pope, Nathan Hunting and his son Earl and son-in-law Jim ' Allred. There was also one or two from the Slaugh family and one from the Fairchild family, but their first names are not known and there are no doubt several others whose names have been lost in time. The Uintah Railway was excited ex-cited about this oil source which was about five miles from their tracks and as a result built a siding near the mouth of Whiskey Whis-key Creek Canyon. In time they would haul hundreds of barrels of oil away. The Railway Company Com-pany even considered running a spur line to Urado when and if production increased to the point supporting such a move. Equipment Equip-ment for the Urado operation I I I II II IW II H i ri f . ( 5 i; f iff ;), i ;m Vs. rs m ! it i ..... John and Grace Pope from Vernal stand at the entrance to the tunnel in which the flow of Urado's mystery oil came from. John was made the president of this historic company and was its main supporter. Photo courtesy of Marilyn Hunting. . - 5- fx x r0 Vernal was brought in by the railroad and then freighted by teams to the site. The Railway Company found that the oil worked very well for their train needs and thereby used a lot of it. By 1917 the Vernal Express wrote that 25 barrels a day was being produced and a refinery had been set up and hopes were that production would soon reach 50 barrels a day and even higher. Also that year the Mining Review magazine had an article about the Urado Oil Company, stating that its crude oil was of the highest quality of any known anywhere and that it was so free from grit that several Utah concerns con-cerns were using it and had done so for nearly two years, finding it successful for many needs. It also mentioned that a 50 barrel refinery had been shipped there f ' iB A'-,i'f XiC ; NO EXCUSES GET SCREENED TODAY 0 Express and, would soon be in production. produc-tion. Several items appeared in the Vernal Express about the progress prog-ress at Urado, In 1918 there was an article that told of plans for further expansion and increased production. A second tunnel had been opened up in hopes to help increase the flow of crude, also that the demand for Urado oil was high and the market good and that it was hoped to reach a capacity of 200 barrels a day. In 1919 the Express had an article telling of how the Urado Company was branching out and with a drilling rig being set up to start drilling a mile east of their refinery. As a result of this good news the price of shares in the company jumped from $50 to $100 a share, with several people anxious to get in on this miracle oil production. Something else that soon happened hap-pened concerning Urado crude, was that it was found to contain medical properties. Ranchers found that it would heal cuts, sores and bruises on their livestock live-stock better than anything they had ever tried. Also by diluting it down a little and rubbing it on the backs of animals it did away with lice or ticks and even helped keep the flies away. Veterinarians would obtain it and bottle it up for use in their trade. A noted veterinarian from Vernal was a frequent visitor at the Urado operation and collected what he called the "Urado mystery cure," for all kinds of livestock. Jewell Lee Wall who now lives in Alaska and is the daughter of Hen and Mae Trujillo Lee, long time residents of Dragon and Bitter Creek, tells of how her folks would come by wagon using a steep and twisting road down one of the canyons to Urado and get cans of this special crude for healing purposes of livestock as did most ranchers in the area. In 1929 an article in the Davis County Clipper newspaper, told how Urado oil had cured a small infant girl of a very serious case of eczema, after the parents had been unable to find any other cure. They had lost another daughter a few years previous of the same thing and after spending spend-ing 1 100 dollars trying to get her cured by specialists during the one year of her life. This article was signed by the father of the little girl, giving their address. He said how he would spread the fame of Urado's healing oil wherever he went. As news of Urado, and its " miracle oil flow became the talk of the area, there soon become other people looking for a way to cash in on this great opportunity. A group got together and filed on several claims and formed a new company called, the Rado Oil Association, a name similar to Urado, only without the "U." They in time would control more acreage than the Urado Company and would lease it out to various investors in hopes of striking it rich. But it seems that mostofthe production and favorable results Trm i ii fFf-T" Exit Realty Professionals ACROSS 1. Complex dwellings: Abbr. 5. "MaratSade author Peter 10. Nine inches, commonly 14. Ill-bred fellow 15. '...ready P 16. T-aterP 17. Organization for young baseballers 19. Major flare-up 20. Advertising suffix 21. Blow it 22. Dagwood's young neighbor 23. Mosque leader 26. Slaughter in Cooperstown 28. Striped walkway 33. Kind of cross 35. Storage structure 36. Passover event 37. Affixes one's John Hancock to .39. "Alice in Wonderland" cat 42. Hero purveyor 43. One end of a pig 45. Swashbuckler's quaff 47. Yodeler's perch 48. Marx Brothers classic , 52.MachuPicchu site 53. Ticked off 54. Make mockery of 57. E-fHe org. 59. blitz 63. Plow team 64. Classic arcade game 67. Nixonian gestures 68. Bee-related 69. Warhol pal Sedgwick 70. Fashkxiista's mag 71. Himalayan hoks ?mdl CallmforallywrRealEstatequestions. mm (im) or mum were with the Urado operation. About this same period of time, drilling was in progress at the Rangely oil field about 40 miles to the north. The Raven Oil Company under direction of Andrew Brigman and Edward M. Keeney was working hard to try and get oil produced there. An early refinery had been set up at WhiteRiverinl918with Charles Neal of Vernal, its manager. You could say that the race between Rangely and Urado for oil was on. But as things turned out, Urado's light shined bright for a time, but it would later flicker and gradually die out. Rangely on the other hand went on to become one of the finest oil fields in the West. Work continued at Urado for a considerable time and various leases were let out. Several hundred hun-dred barrels of oil was shipped out by the Uintah Railway, but as time slipped by, productivity instead of increasing, gradually decreased. Drillingfailed to locate the oil pool they were hoping for. As a result of this the company changed ownership two or three times, with one of the owners being be-ing a man by the name ofVincent from Salt Lake and later another one whose name was Mendez, but still things never improved. Before long the steady flow that had kept the plant operating began to diminish more and more until finally the operation closed down. Shortly thereafter the Uintah Railway also shut down and the famous narrow gauge train that had hauled the Urado's product out over Baxter Pass to the markets beyond was also soon to become history. Much of the equipment was sold for junk. The refinery building build-ing or chemical plant as some called it, that sat upon a large rock foundation with its huge boiler and oven, was all dismantled dis-mantled and hauled away. Some of the other structures are also gone, but a few small dwellings still remain as do two large metal buildings. Several holding tanks and old rusty barrels are still there of which some are located in one of the large tin buildings. After the operation shut down a little of the oil continued to flow and Alien Gentry's father would collect it from the settling tank and after getting several barrels, he would haul it to Fruita, Colo. This he did until about 1941 or '42, when a large cave-in covered mostofthe main tunnel, atwhich time the flow completely stopped. TheJntryiamUypwne4.pfop-erty TheJntryiamUypwne4.pfop-erty adjoining Urado" from two sides, so you could very well say that it was right in their back yard. Outside of those people who were directly involved, the Gentry's no doubt knew more about this historic oil operation then anyone else. Today all is quiet at Urado and large stands of brush, of which most is sage, cover the area. The old buildings are all slipping into ruin and the pipe coming from the tunnel that once carried the precious liquid is now partially Mane Attractions 5 e e c nF f f i r ,o 11 12 13 17 ie ! ib 20 " 21 22 " 23 24 25 " W 2? 2 " 29 " 30 31 32 33 34 35 - 37 3 " 39 40 41 1 42 43 44 " 45 46 47 41 " " "" " 49 SO " 51 "" " - 53 : 54 55 S " 1 57 5 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 69 67 68 f3 70 71 72 72. Umlaut's pair DOWN 1. Bowser's bowlful 2. Holey-pocketed 3. Melt need 4. One of the Little Rascals 5. Doomsayer's cry 6 . Former NOW cause 7. UtUeSneba" playwright 8. More vinegary 9. Caterer's supply 10. Ready for a vacation 11. Mop's mate 12. Quark's place 13. Gp. headquartered in Brussels 18. Innocent ones 24. Like the Negev 25. Neighbor of Niger 27. CIA forerunner 28. Adolph, who was president of Paramount Pictures 29. Line dance 30. Think tank output 31. Jodw Foster title role 32. Golf dub part 33. Mrs. Addams, to Gomez 34. Cornerstone word 38. Hitchcock's genre 40. Some are fine 41. Guffaw syllables 44. Informal top 46. Far from sterile 49. "Just the facts, ma'am cop 50. Benelux locale covered with dirt and is rusting away. Truly a sad ending to what was once very special dreams to a group of people who thought they had found the El Dorado of the oil industry. This old Uintah Basin is noted for its many valuable resources, some of which like Urado's oil are of a rather mysterious nature. Urado, you might say is sort of like the once famous Dyer copper mine north ofVernal, which came forth so fabulously rich and then faded away. Somehow like Urado, more money was put into it then was ever taken out, trying to find the original source or main body. Another similar operation was that of seeking the elusive fine goldalonggreenriver, such as the dredgingoperation at Horseshoe Bend. Today at Horseshoe Bend there is the remains of the years of hard work these people done, but finally they had to give it up and move on, but would you know the gold is still there waiting wait-ing for man to successfully come up with a way to collect it profitably. profit-ably. Who knows, perhaps down in old Mother Earth somewhere lies the main source of Urado's unique crude oil and in time with advanced technology it will be found and Urado will once again make headlines. If John T. Pope and those early promoters could talk, they would most likely say; "we knew it all along" and this with big smiles on their faces. Editor's note: Most of the information about this article was obtained from Allen Gentry. Allen was raised in the country relating to this story, where he and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. H. A Gentry operated a large and successful cattle ranch. Their property joined that land containing con-taining this mysterious oil flow and its operations. Later Allen and wife, Velda, would carry on this ranching business for many years. if f . Morning Coffee, . ii.... Subscribe today! Call 789-3511 n mnim 1285 West Hwy. 40 Office: 789-EXIT (3948) Cell: 828-6086 Crossword Puzzle August 1st, 2007 51. Needed a bath desperately 54. Zeus, to the Romans 55. Rink leap 56. Cocktail garnish 58. Peevish mood 60. Bird clubbed to extinction 61. "What's for me?" 62. Gets mellower 65. Trombonist Winding 66. USNA grad |