PERMFILE110598

• Permit No: C1981022
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 12/11/2001
• Doc Name: Cultural Resource Report Sanborn Crk Mine Portals Centuries Research Inc 1/91
• Section_Exhibit Name: Exhibit 2.04-E2 Part 6
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

Coal Mining:
Other than frcit and stork ranchiny, the only significant
means of economically ex.plnitiny the North Fork region has
been through the mininy cr coal. Coal mining is an intensive
form of eronoinic acCivit; which has had, ant: still is having,
significant impact on tfie F;ortli Fork area. According to one
local historian, the first settlers in the region were unaware
of the vast coal deposits in the Valley and used overgrown
willows to make charcoal for their forges (Rockwell N.D.:
161). The regionally prominent Somerset and Bowie mines were
not discovered until the fall of 1883. Ranchers filed on the
coal claims of the area but abandoned them, and it was not
until much later that indications for appreciable concern for
coal are noticed in the local history. The arrival of the
railroad in Somerset in 1902 (Beebe•1962: 374) made commercial
mining on a large scale feasible by opening up distant
markets. Rockwell does note some active speculation in
advance of the railroad regarding the Somerset mine
properties. The Crystal River• Railroad had intended to run a
spur into the IJOrth Fork fr•c:rn the Crystal kiver in order to
tap file vast potential in c~dl there. Major coal production
seems, however, to gave started with the Utah Fuel Company
which acquired the Somerset property in 1901. Utah Fuel built
a company town at tf~e n.irie iii I9O3, and the mine operated
continuously for the next twenty years and is said to have
produced nearly 1,000 tons of coal per day (Rockwell N.D.:
161-163).
Other significant commercial producers in the Valley were
the Oliver and Bowie mines. Some time prior to 1902, the
Juanita Coal and Coke Company opened a mine a few miles below
the Somerset. After the arrival of the railroad, one
Alexander Bowie gained control of this company, and he built a
company town and substantially improved the mine. The name of
the mine became Bowie, and it operated under the management of
the bowie family until recent decades (Rockwell N.D.:
I64-165).
In addition to large commercial operations such as the
Somerset, Oliver, and Bowie mines, many other small mines were
opened in the North Fork. In the Paonia area, names such as
the Black Diamond, Farmers' Cooperative, Converse, Cowan, and
Conine are part of ttre local mining history, but historical
detail is obscure for most of these. As will be discussed
later, most of these were small, locally-owned operations
called "wagon mines." Simply stated, they were what one
informant described as "gopfrer holes" of various sizes,
usually worked by one family or a very small paid crew. In
the main, the teal frorti the wagon mines was produced Solely
for the local domestic market with little emphasis on
cem~mercial production. Today, one frequently encounters the
evidence nor such small workings among the cliffs and gulches
on the north side of the North Fork (Rockwell N.D.: 165 and
Hammond 1977). (from Baker 3978: c"4-26)
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