THE COAL INDUSTRY
T L he significance of coal to the Carbon County area is reflected in the choice of Carbon—the primary element of coal—for the name of the county. Coal fueled the early industrial development of the United States and was a much sought-after resource by Brigham Young and other leaders of pioneer Utah. Coal would heat homes, businesses, and public buildings. It would power Utah's railroads, and, if a high enough quality could be found and turned into coke, coal would also fuel the smelting and refining of the state's iron, copper, and other mineral ores.1 Without coal, there was little chance for Utah to develop industrially or, in the era that preceded natural gas and electricity as sources of heat, to provide adequate heat for Utah's increasing population. The history of coal mining underlies the development of Carbon County in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. On the threshold of the twenty-first century, the importance of coal has not greatly diminished. Because of its complex history, the story of coal mining in Carbon County is not easdy told; therefore, in this and the three chapters that follow, four major themes are examined. First, in this 107
