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Show 24 Energy Guide March 2004 Energy office chronicles: (Continued from page 10) Hawk properties. Utah Railway was organized to connect the mines to Helper. 1922-194- 0 Coal production peaked at slightly more than five million tons in 1929 and averaged 3.3 million through the next decade. purchased the first two continuous miners for the Sunnyside operation. The Great Depression resulted in slowing consumption, but helped the coal industry by making other energy sources less affordable. Kaiser Coal in Utah in 1951 Amalgamated incorporated a subsidiary named Blue Seal Coal Company. A mine north of Scofield was opened in spring 1921, working intermittently through the Gordon Creek and National coal companies started mining in 1921. The mines operated through the 1930s and reopened during World War II. Mutual Coal Company, located in Spring Canyon, was incorporated and started working in 1920. The mine operated for about 18 years and closed in 1938. During 1922, Columbia Steel opened a mine in the eastern Book Cliffs. The mine operated until 1967. In 1926, Mike Francis incorporated Maple Creek mine southeast of Standardville. The mine operated from 1928 until 1937, despite a damaging fire in 1931. In 1920, mid-1940- 1941-195- s. 7 to the two forces workdirections 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 plants came on line, including Carbon one and two in 1954. The units used about 1.25 million tons or more than 20 percent of average annual production. But a lucrative sector of the coal industry all but vanished within a relatively short period when consumers switched to alternative heating fuels. In the transportation sector, locomotives halted due to World War II resumed, but the fuel of choice was no longer coal. From the ing in opposite mid-194- mid-1950- s, When the Winter Quarters boarding house no longer had adequate space to accommodate victims, bod- ies of the miners killed at Winter Quarters were loaded Winter Quarters portal belches smoke: stricken ones were and their (Continued from page 5) to trace the origin, force and direction of the initial and possibly subsequent, explosions through examination of displaced or demolished mine equipment and the location as well as the condition of the individual victims' bodies. The mine inspector's formal report to the governor stated: It seems, from the evidence available, that some person accidently ignited a keg of powder, which caused the dust to rise and ignited the same, carrying the flames from a point known as 'Pike's Peak' and immediate vicinity thereof ... all "Along the line where the powder exploded, the bodies were badly burned, more so than in any other part of the mine. From this point, the blast shot down along the main and main-bac- k entries of No. 4 mine, gathering combustibles, such as dust, powder, etc., within reach." "Part of the blast shot out to the surface through No. 4 tunnel and air shaft, and part went through No. 1 mine. The part of the blast that went into No. 1 mine soon lost its force ft One newspaper reported that 137 bodies had been recovered when officials halted the first intensive rescue effort at 2:30 a.m. on May 2 to enable searchers to rest. A perceptible change in the mood surrounding Pleasant Valley and Winter Quarters Canyon resulted as the survivors of the miners Companies paid minerals with script Castle Gate workers stand in line to collect wages from a Utah Fuel Company clerk shortly before disaster struck the small mining community in 1924. Coal operators generally paid the miners in script, accepted only at the company store. onto railroad boxcars and transported to Scofield, Determined searchers continued to enter the mine, only to exit carrying more lifeless bodies. killed in the explosion prepared to receive the bodies of the dead. "The awful scene of yesterday had passed away when the day dawned this morning, and the awful calm of despair had taken its place," reported the Deseret Evening News. "The agonized shrieks of the widows and the moans of the fatherless were no longer heard. The beyond that, grief could find no utterance." Several Scofield households lost all male family members in the explosion at Winter Quarters. John James and his son were discovered by a rescue party at the spot where the two victims were overcome by afterdamp. The father and son were entwined in each other's arms. Abe Louma and his wife, who had come to Scofield from Finland three months earlier, lost six sons and three grandsons in the explosion. The company provided caskets along with burial clothes for the victims and absolved the dead miners' families of debts incurred at the company store during April. In addition to a $20,000 contribution to the Winter Quarters relief fund, the company offered $500 to the victims' heirs. Most survivors accepted the coal company's offer in lieu of filing future claims for damages. The relief fund amassed more than $200,000 in donations from local communities, individuals and benefit events. On May 5, 1900, two funeral services were conducted for the coal mine disaster victims. Mourners lingering at the grave sites after the services were driven from the cemetery in the early evening by strong winds and torrents of rain. Six weeks after the explosion, a Carbon County grand jury heard testimony on the Winter Quarters disaster. On June 13, 1900, the grand jury members issued the following statement: "We fail to find any criminal neglect or carelessness on the part of the owner of the mine in which said disaster occurred or on the part of anyone else." |