Show helper Is ce center anter ot of great coal mining area has payroll of over a half million dollars and does large larg e volume of business has had steady growth helper the hub of carbon county and the most progressive little city in eastern utah is situated right at the mouth of both price and spring canyons with roads radiating from this hub to kenilworth gibson coal city castle gate price and the uintah basin forty eight years ago helper was iio nothing thing more than a gap in the price river canyon with only one log cabin owned by pratt who settled here on july 5 1880 this early settler was the son of parley P pratt the widely known mormon church leader and early pioneer of utah pratt saw in this valley i a wonderful future and chose this spot as his future home building the first log cabin and starting the foundation fou dation of this fast growing city known as helper utah the cabin and other landmarks made by this pioneer are still intact and may be viewed by visitors grading for the first line of the denver rio grande railroad company under president palmer and vice president D dodge 0 d g e commenced through helper in march 1881 in 1883 laying of track was completed from deseret through to salt lake city and ogden regular service between grand junction and ogden began an may 17 1883 in 1883 the denver rio grande granda railroad com company any began to build one story frame bouses houses for its employed emp loyes and thus started the growth of a town by the fall of 1887 the railroad had built twenty seven frame residences and in the summer of the following year ten more were erected it was planned by president palmer of the road to make helper a freight terminal and in when the standard gauge track was completed helper was made a division point for the road it remained so for thirty years or up to the time the terminal was moved to soldier summit in 1891 a large railroad roundhouse machine shops coaling station water tank and large hotel were built to provide for the needs of the company in 1893 the present commodious passenger station was built the top floor was converted into a library and billiard room for the men and remained so until helper railroad Y M C A was built aside from these railroad buildings the first house to be built in helper was a two story frame house built by J tom mitch fitch in 1891 the first business house was a small saloon this was followed by the first store building and in 1893 the first lo 10 log school house was completed helper precinct was organized in 1892 and was set off from spring glen precinct by order of county commissioners ners in 1891 1894 things were fairly booming in helper by this time the railroad employed hundreds of men coal mines mines of the utah coal company were in operation employing many more men and a number of others be began an farming the fertile soil and irrigating their lands business houses and residences began shooting up with startling rapidity during october of 1907 helper township was regularly organized and incorporated corp orated the first duly elected officers were J torn tom fitch mayor W continued on page four price is key city continued from page 1 year which will make it a paradise for fishermen in the course of OTO one or two summers the reservoir covers thirty six square miles of ground and is eight miles long at the farther est point by three miles wide at the greatest breadth range creek near sunnyside Sunny side is one of the other feature attractions of the county and has received large trout shipments from both the state and federal hatcheries the carbon county fish and game protective association embodies a membership of sportsmen and has done great service toward serving the sportsmen in the county securing trout and supervising the planting and maintaining a vigilance on the game situation in this and neighboring counties county treasurer earl N radcliff of price is the president carbon county has a country club with a golf course and tennis courts at the former townsite of carbonville Car bonville A pretentious club house with commodious quarters and locker rooms a course with well planned fair fairways ways and several tough hazards are a part of the equipment of the club mat gilmour of price is president of the club which has a membership of 75 members the course bids fair to becoming one of the most popular sources of amusement and sport in the county the eastern utah baseball league organization playing soi some ile of the fastest semiprofessional semi professional baseball in the west is located within carbon county this season there are four teams but the usual membership is six or eight teams price helper and ano kenilworth among the cities and carbon county at large represented through the wanderers squad are the teams in the 1928 aggregation elmer young of Ili hiawatha awatha is president of the association cia tion price city offers seven tennis courts to citizens who are interested in that form of diversion numerous tennis clubs exist in the city and this phase of sport is well developed besides the industries which are developed in the county one in the embryonic state bids fair to rival some of the older ones this is the production of rack asphalt for road sur facing material A mountain of rock asphalt or silica is situated about five miles from sunnyside Sunny side A corporation po ration of colorado men has invested nearly a half million dollars in the development of the production there and a factory costing that amount is being constructed at the present time A spur line of the denver and rio grande railroad is being built from sunnyside Sunny side to the factory site and will supply a ready avenue to a market the silica deposits in this county are said to be the largest known in the world but one other corporation in the united states exists engaged in the same line this is at bowling green kentucky and will be eclipsed by the factory now going up in carbon county the climate of carbon county is one of its greatest assets the winters are mild and brief the springs are early and pleasant and the summers are not excessively hot the autumns are the pride of the carbon county section the average altitude of the county is feet and presents a range from about to feet price has an elevation of feet lying one mile above the level of the sea the valley of the price river sheltered as it is from severe winds by the precipitous ell cliffs effs iffs to the northward is one of the most desirable res residential sections in the state in the valley below P price rice city lies the town of wellington with a population of on the outskirts of this town is situated an experimental farm arm of the state orf of ut utah all made possible by the appropriation of by the last session of the state legislature the farm is being operated with a view to securing firsthand first hand data on the agricultural possibilities of carbon county some of the largest herds in the state of utah are the property of price residents A portion of the acres of grazing land is utilized by the stock growers of this vicinity as well as huge ranges in emery grand san juan san pete and duchesne counties national forests are also leased by carbon growers for range purposes transportation facilities for carbon county are well developed A branch railroad of the denver and rio grande runs from mounds to sunnyside Sunny side and columbia A branch line of the utah railway extends from utah junction to hiawatha wattis and Mol mohrland irland and another branch runs from helper to the various mines and camps in the spring canyon region another extends from colton to scofield winter quarters and clear creek stage and bus lines as well as commercial truck lines operate from price to the mining towns throughout the county and to points in the uintah basin and emery countes coun tys inland towns carbon county has more automobiles per capita than any other county in the state it excella and exceeds any other county in the state of utah in the school buildings and equipment per c capita leads the state in amount of payroll per capita and is the wealthiest county per capita in the state carbon county has the largest larest bituminous coal producing district in the state of utah and one of the largest and most valuable in the west geologists claim that there is enough coal in the mountain fast nesses of carbon county to supply the world with fuel for one hundred years more than six million tons of coal were produced during the season of 1927 in carbon county and the total payroll of the coal industry in carbon county was more than twenty eight mines are being operated in carbon county by twenty two wo companies the columbia steel corporation orp oration has its mines at columbia and the coal produced there is is used at the steel plant at ironton hiawatha kenilworth castle gate sunnyside Sunny side wattis spring canyon heiner scofield clear creek gordon creek maple creek gibson consumers mutual peerless stand ardville and numerous other communities muni ties are exclusive coal mining towns the coking ovens at sunnyside Sunny side are the largest in the world the two great tipples those of the united states fuel at hiawatha and of the I 1 utah fuel at castlo castle gate are the largest in the world in the heaviest season neally men are employed in the mines of 0 carbon county it is necessary for the operators to schedule three c eight hour shifts to keep pace with the demand deman during the rush coal season hundreds of miners in the county own their homes and aside from the number of company mine houses in the various mining towns perhaps a greater number of persons own their own homes in carbon than in any other county in the state carbon county has an assessed valuation of more than three fourths of this amount is embodied in the various mines of the county which pay that proportion of I 1 the countes coun tys taxes |