Show summit county has two great industries by A F PHILIPS in salt lake telegram in summit county are two great industries dus tries the mining ot of coal and the mining of metal both precious and base the story of the discovery of the metal mines was recently told hence this la Is the story of the coal mining industry of the county in the summer of 1859 a prospector roaming through what Is now the west wert end of summit county discovered disc coal his name was spriggs hla his discovery was near what Is now the city of Co coalville alville the news of the cLis discovery covery spread rapidly and early settlers within reach went there to mine coal tor for their own use it was not however until several years later that the mining of coal in summit county became a major industry the first carload of coal to be shipped out of coalville Co alville was on may 14 1873 while it was the coal find that first brought Co coalville alville into prominence it was the building of a short line railroad ral road known as the summit county railroad which was subsequently dismantled and abandoned that built up this section of the county the prominence attained by park city and the demand for coal there and elsewhere resulted in the building of the utah eastern railroad from coalville Co alville to park city a distance of twenty five miles the railroad was a peculiar outgrowth and it resulted in the building of a branch line of the union pacific railroad from echo to park city a distance of thirty two miles COAL the union pacific road supplied the territory with coal from its wyoming Wy orning mines m ines notwithstanding the tact fact that utah possessed coal fields that could furnish as good and generally a better quality of coal than was imported in the winter months great difficulty was experienced in getting coal in sufficient clent quantity to supply the demand and the price asked for it was regarded as exorbitant or to overcome this it was proposed to pass a bill by the legislature authorizing the counties of salt lake summit davis and to raise by the issue oi of bonds funds to build a line between Co coalville alville park city and salt salt lake the effort proved abortive governor george W emery vetoing a bill the legislature had passed individual efforts were then put forth in 1880 and the work prosecuted under most trying circumstances the poor the aged the laborer who had a few dollars placed their money in the enterprise in the belief that coal could be had cheaper the result was to say the least unfortunate the line had to be bonded and only by the help of the principal owners of the ontario mine was it made possible to built the road as tar far as park city awen ty five miles it was operated tor for some time by the trustees carrying coal from Co alville to park city but later was paralleled by a branch of the union pacific and the control of the little road passed into the h hands and of that corporation ARC DEEP WORKINGS the coal fields on the weber river extend tor for ten to fifteen miles above echo and the coal mines have been developed to a depth 0 of 1500 feet which disclosed that there are bodies of coal to work upon for fifty generations to come among the old timers in Coa Iville was john boyden a native of england who with his family came to salt lake in 1863 and who later moved to morgan t 1 where here he died in 1892 he established the first drug stores in in 1891 which is still running under the management of his two sons with bishop W W cluff he established the first public library and reading room in Co alville ills his son eon J leslie boyden was on a sorl son in england for more than a year va bile walter the other sou son was instructor tor in the public schools he was former food and dairy commissioner of the state and is at present a member of the state board of agriculture bishop william W cluff whose home was in utah county became bishop of summit stake which included settlements in morgan summit and wasatch counties and he madenis made his home in coal ville then he was sent on a mission to denmark remaining there two and a halt half years upon his hir return su amit stake was wag reorganized to include all settlements tle ments in summit county slid and the western part of wyoming he represented summit county six terms in the legislature two of which he pre presided s aided over the senate j other old timers in Coa IvIlle and coun ty were A B winters henry B wiles W H smith robert jones who mettlea sett settled lea near henefer thomas L frazier Fraz ler who was a member of the mormon battalion david moore joseph huff edmund H P healy moses taylor john wright joe dark clark and james johnston charles B R jones now a special audi tor in the state land office mee who printed craid the Co coalville alville times Is said to have been the first person in utah who announced in a newspaper the assassination of mckinley on the night that the president was shot at the buffalo exposition jones was printing the edition of his paper when the flash announcing the sas assassination assi nation was called to him by the telegraph operator at the union pacific station he stopped printing and made a brief story ot of the act ot of the assassin in august ot of 1870 a curious discovery was made by a company of miners I 1 in karnes kamas prairie weber valley in digging a sort eort ot of hole filled up with loose dirt they came upon what proved to be an old shaft the wall had been cut by some instrument and whoever did the work had left a series of steps supposed to have been used for removing the debris ot of the old mine when the working party reached the lower end of the shaft they found a tunnel running underneath for an indefinite distance and in removing the rubbish specimens of rich silver ore were found there was reason to believe that it was the work of mexicans in 1852 one of a party of mexicans arrested in this territory tor for kidnapping indians to reduce them to slavery confessed to general william H kimball then deputy marshal and said it was the best paying business they had engaged in from the time they had stopped packing ore on being questioned further the mexican said he be used to pack ore to santa fe from a point about fifty mues miles from what was known as provo fort up the gos river this would be in the neighborhood of where the ancient mine was discovered PECULIAR DISCOVERY near li enefer another peculiar discovery was made a cave which Is declared to be bottomless so far as explorers have been able to determine A number ot of attempts were made in the long ago to explore the cave but all returned with the same story that no bottom could be found summit county was created by the legislature of 1853 54 and the county seat town was Wan wanshin wanship ship where it remained until february 12 1859 when E P higgins then acting governor approved an act removing it to Co coalville alville where it has since remained the county contains 1862 square mues miles coalville Co alville Is the home ot of george beard pioneer and artist whose paintings have drawn wide admiration his pictures are of nature and they have hale received the praise of the art critics ot of the country some of his paintings are arc on exhibition in the hotel Utah the national copper bank and the utah state national bank in salt lake As in all the early settlements the people of started to build a wall around the settlement and a fort was built in the center ot of the town among the early settlers were samuel P hoyt after whom Hoyt aville was named alma eldredge who was war afterwards it a candidate for congress and james johnston who landed in and took up a farm which Is now owned by john gunn |