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Horse Canyon Mine
Looking west from Horse Canyon at the building used by U.S. Steel for its mining operation at Horse Canyon
The area where Horse Canyon mine was located was named by the cowboys that worked for the Whitmore Cattle Company dating back to the early 1880s. Local folk lore suggests that they ran wild horses into this boxed-in canyon and then sealed it off, preventing the horses from escaping.
Looking East at U.S. Steel operation at Horse Canyon.
Before mining operation began at Horse Canyon a meeting was held on July 9, 1942 in Salt Lake City between Jack Forrester, a representative from Washington, D.C., and William McPhie, vice president of the United Mine Workers of Carbon County district 22. At issue were manpower complements for the entire project, location of the mine. During this meeting it was determined that a large workforce of between 300 to 600 men were needed to complete the entire project but would peak at 800 during the mid 1950s. This figure included carpenters and other skilled workers for the construction of the town, opening the mine, and men to mine the coal. (Sun Advocate, Feb. 4, 1943)
Mechanized mine equipment
Developers estimated that miners at Horse Canyon could produce up to 8,500 tons per day during its early days of operation. Estimations of the number of men needed ranged from 350 to 600 miners, but it did at one time peak at 800. (Pressett) Attracting men to work the mines would not be difficult, because many families were still feeling the effects of the Great Depression and men were anxious to get back on their feet financially. Many like Julius Rossman came from coal mines in Colorado. This potential for prosperity brought about by the coal mines, railroad, and steel industry was all the impetus needed for men from throughout the country to come to Utah, and in particular to East Carbon.
Air portal located in Lila Canyon
The first phase of the massive project at Horse Canyon was to extend a six-mile railroad spur from Columbia to the mine. Work on the spur began June 8, 1942, and was completed on September 24, 1942. Initial work on the mine at Horse Canyon began with the main opening driven from the surface in the spring of 1942. The outcrop of the mine seam was at approximately 6535 feet above sea level, and varied from 10 to 16 feet in thickness with a downward pitch of 11.6%.
Conveyor belts use to move the mined coal
Allen and Garcia of Chicago, Illinois was awarded the contract for development of the openings, which were made on both sides of the canyon. One was driven 3100 feet to the property line one half-mile from the mouth of the canyon along the north side of the canyon, and the south mine opening was driven into the cliff one and one half, to two miles on the south side. Eventually these two portal would connect at the eastern portion of the mine where the sloping coal seam was completely beneath the canyon floor. (Butler)
miners collecting their lamps
A rail car loader was operational by early January 1944, but prior to that date coal was hauled to Provo by trucks. The mining plant included sand storage and oil storage buildings, a welding electrical and machine shop, an acetylene and oxygen shortage building, a warehouse, boiler house and heating plant, a switch house, a washhouse, an office building, and a garage. (U.S. Steel News, Oct. 1943) Separated from the other structures and located toward the upper end of the canyon, two reinforced concrete structures were built, one was the cap house and the other the powder house.
Setting roof poles
A 350,000-gallon concrete tank erected on a hillside near Dragerton provided the water for the mining operation. Electrical power for the buildings and electrical equipment came in at 44,000 volts and stepped down to 2300 volts for general distribution in the plant. Four portable track-mounted rectifiers were used in the mine to convert alternating current into 250 volts direct current utilized in mine operations. When the mine was completed and ready for coal mining operation, it would be free from methane gas and fully mechanized.
In the development stages (opening the mine), a combination drilling and cutting machine undercut the coal and then drilled blast holes. The coal was then broken down from the face blasting and then picked up and emptied into a mine car by a mobile loading machine. This loading machine was used primarily for entry driving machinery. In the regular operations, in which the coal is worked from the upper reaches of the seam downward, wide-mouth “duckbill” shakers’ troughs called loaders were inserted under the shot coal and moved by oscillation to continuous conveyors. The coal was delivered directly to belt conveyors in drifts in line with the pitch of the mine, but in lateral drifts it was fed to chain conveyors, which delivered it at right angles to the belt conveyors. The shaker loaders were expandable and capable of functioning to a maximum distance of 350 feet from the face. The continuous conveyors or traveling belts were extended as far as needed by merely adding sections. By September 1, 1942, it was reported the mine had already produced 11,000 tons of coal and 6,000 tons had been shipped. At the time, there were 350 men employed at the mine, and by December 1942 the mine was producing 400 tons of coal per day. (U.S. Steel News, Oct. 1943)
Because of its significance to the economy of the area, the mining activities at the Horse Canyon Mine always warranted the attention of the residents of Drager(ton). Whether it involved the addition of new mining equipment, strikes, layoffs or safety concerns, all were paramount in importance to the families of miners that worked inside the mines.
Mine Supervisor Paul Butler inspection mine roof bolts
Horse Canyon was one of the safest mines in East Carbon, during its operation, which spanned a period of 42 years. Thirteen miners lost their lives inside the mine at Horse Canyon which is relatively small compared to 23 killed in one explosion at Utah Fuel’s mine on May 10, 1945.
Conveyor belt used to move the mined coal
For half a century Horse Canyon Mine and the Geneva Steel Plant providing thousands of permanent jobs and attracting ancillary businesses the towns of Dragerton, Sunnyside and Columbia. It was due to the decline in the world steel market and foreign imports that ultimately led to closure of the mine at Horse Canyon. While the mine was it operation the area where the mine was located comprised of 3,120 acres of underground mine workings, and 87 acres of surface disturbances. Eighteen months later, in October 1982, all operations at Horse Canyon were temporarily suspended. In January 1984, after forty-two years of continual employment, mining operation at Horse Canyon ceased. The closure of Horse Canyon signaled the end of a once-teeming economy and the second largest town in Carbon Count.
Mined coal at Horse Canyon Mine
long tunnel inside Horse Canyon Mine
Photos courtesy of Donald Butler's photo collection of the Horse Canyon Mine.
Horse Canyon Mine Fatalities
1. Abner Collins, [ 37 ] born November 26, 1906, Heaveder, Oklahoma to Philen Collins and Sibble Grammar. Married to Zimmer Collins. Died 12/11/1943 cause of death crushed chest. Falling rocks.
2. Earial Henry Marrey, [ 32 ], born July 23, 1912, Clawson, Utah to George Marry and Rose Davis. Married to Sally Alice Murry. Died 08/26/1944. Crushed skull, chest and broken arms and legs. Falling rocks.
3. George Washington Head, [ 32 ], born April 20, 1915, to Robert Lee Head and Addie Lee Sloan. Married to Elizabeth Head. Died 05/05/1945, cause of death, crushed skull, chest and pelvis. Falling rocks.
4. Christobal Archuleta, [ 22 ], born April 23, 1922, Coyote, New Mexico, to Esquipula Archuleta and Aleja Herrera. Died 05/24/1945, cause of death cut in two abdomen. By railroad car
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5. Floyd Warren, [ 37 ] born June 4, 1910 Price, Utah, to Hubbard Warren and Burtha Jane Olsen, married to Vera May Behling. Died 08/25/1947, cause of death Bilatical Pulmonary Embolism, crushed by 1800 lb rock.
6. Theodore Norman Mullen, [ 46 ], born January 1, 1902, Middletown, Illinois, to Edwin Mullen and Josephine Cullenine, married to Birdee Mullen. Died 01/24/1948, cause of death crushed head, chest and legs. Falling rocks
7. Elmer Herman Degener, [ 49 ], born October 4, 1900, Palisade, Colorado, to William A. Degener and Alma Stokes, married to Mildred Parker. Died 03/24/1950, cause of death compound fracture of skull, laceration of the brain. Hit by flying bolt.
8. Willie Trujillo, [ 45 ], born November 12, 1908, Conejos, Colorado, to Armando Trujillo and Adelina Chavez, married to Lucy Atencio. Died on 01/13/1954, cause of death crushed chest, abdomen. Falling rocks, cave in.
9. Leslie Price Fowler, [ 36 ], born March 5, 1918, Morhland, Utah, to Charles Fowler and Hannah Price, married to Adeline Fowler. Died 07/19/1954, cause of death cave-in, crushed chest and skull.
10. Ernest Milner, [ 56 ], born 7 July 1899, Wellington, Utah, to George B. Milner and Emma Thayne, married to Carrie Aleneda Ball. Died on 07/13/1955, died of a heart attack while at work.
11. Roy Holt Naylor, [ 43 ], born 15 April 1898, Bountiful, Utah, to Samuel Naylor and Emma Jane Holt, married to Vivian Alice Evans. Died on 08/20/1955, cause of death heart attack while at work.
12. Glen Lavar Norton, [56], born 28 November 1918, Shelly, Idaho, to Lafayette Norton and Sara Elvira Mathews, married to Ana Irene Worley. Died 07/12/1974.
13. Eldon Samuel Tidwell, [ 52 ], March 1, 1911, Smithfield, Utah, to Roy Edwin Tidwell and Ellen C. Anderson, married Blanche Fredrickson. Died 08/18/1963, cause of death, crushed between two coal cars.
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