| Show short sketch 0 of fe early ar y lf L emery 77 7 f 7 mery county booms back in the beginning of this century 1900 emery county was in the throes of its first oil and coal boom by the spring of 1901 the residents main interest and topic of conversation was oil and coal it was said that coal and oil bearing lands south of castle dale presented the appearance of a graveyard so extensively ten had it been staked with location monuments the first coal mine however had been opened up 20 years pre sly in 1881 by george meakin in huntington canyon the first oil well to have studded in on the san rafael oil fields was reported to have done so at a depth of feet the drill had penetrated oil sand 21 feet thick and a heavy scum of oil coated the water taken from the hole this was in 1900 or 1901 in august of 1901 it was re ported that the san rafael oil co had struck oil on the dave moore property where a shaft feet deep had been sunk it was claimed that the oil drove the men out of the shaft A con rated mass of copper as socia ted with other minerals and all of it caked and saturated with oil was brought out A frenzied rush for oil diggings commenced that year 60 acres of emery county land was filed upon as oil bearing land by september a total of oil claim notices had been filed at the cou county nty seat in castle dale these filings brought in a total of 1 00 in fees for the county by august 1903 the oil fever had cooled off coal mining had settled down to steady prodoc tion since eight new coal mines had been opened up the year be fore during this year in 1903 a new boom reared its head though this one did not last long it was that magic word gold reports were that ex sheriff tuttle and mr E T wolverton had found some extremely rich float about eight or ten miles northeast of castle dale A number of gold claims were filed and among them some by sam snow sr anaf and F 0 richards the early spring of 1904 heard the he t first rumblings of present day magic uranium oscar beebe a resident of the town of emery discovered some camo tite ore near the south end of the san rafael swell it was said to be very rich in both uranium and vanadium at that time uranium was bringing 4 00 a pound there have also been other booms in emery county some of these were agricultural in na ture such as fruit and melon booms 00 is going back to 1903 it was reported that fully fruit trees were planted in emery county by may 1903 of this number had been planted the year before in 1904 40 were started and another in 1905 some of the heaviest planters of fruit trees were recorded as being james jeffs castle dale A G jewkes or angeville dangeville ang eville R W hill lawrence isaac allred and charles larsen of emery and henry mills of desert lake emery county presented the greatest showing of fruit in its history it is said in the fall of 1904 most of it was marketed in the booming coal camps of car bon county so to emery county watching booms rise and fal is an old story but nothing like the pres ent boom has ever been seen any where in the world this is the granddaddy of them all and is far greater than even the famous gold rush of 49 this is the treasure hunt of an entire nation its success or fail ure mean life or death for our civilization |
