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• The coming of the railroad to the Canon City Coal Field, did not cause a <br />surge of mining activity, primarily because the D&RG exercised near <br />monopolistic control over the production and shipping of Canon City coal <br />for non-local markets. <br />In late 1878, the DBRG's control over the production of Canon City for <br />non-local use was broken when the D&RG was temporarily leased to the <br />Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad as a result of the "Grand Canon <br />War", the legal battle between the two railroads for the right to build <br />through the narrow gorge of the Arkansas to Leadville. The Santa Fe took <br />advantage of this unexpected opportunity to break into the market. By <br />1879 the AT&SF, through a subsidiary of the Canon City Coal Company, had <br />opened the Rockvale Mine, which gave the D&RG stiff competition. For the <br />next 17 years, the coal operations of the Santa Fe Railroad dominated the <br />area's production, thanks to Rockvale Mines # 1 and # 7. In 1887, for <br />example, Rockvale produced 252,000 tons to CCIC's 154,000 tons. <br />• During the 1880's many mines other than the AT&SF's opened. The Fremont <br />Mine in Bear Gulch began operations in 1880. It was one of the area's big <br />producers, turning out 2.6 million tons before it closed in 1927 when <br />water from the nearby Ocean Wave Mine flooded the Fremont workings. <br />Although formally known as the North Magnet Mine, the Ocean Nave got its <br />popular name for the large quantity of water which constantly had to be <br />pumped from it. <br />In 1881 Henry and Willard Teller platted the town of Williamsburg at the <br />Terminus of the D&RG Oak Creek branch on land bought from CCIC. Oak Creek <br />Mines #1 and #2 opened that same year but shut down in '83 and '86 <br />respectively, because of the inferior nature of the coal. More <br />importantly, in 1884 Coal Creek Mine # 2, also known as the Canfield of <br />Caldwell Mine, opened. It was purchased in '86 by the Colorado Coal and <br />Iron Co., the successor to CCIC and predecessor to Colorado Fuel and Iron. <br />It operated until 1934, producing 4.3 million tons of bituminous coal. <br />. By 1887, however, its companion mine, Coal Creek # 1, was on the verge of <br />closing. The State Coal Mine Inspector reported that although it had been <br />in operation 15 years, the fact that "the mine's best days are now over <br />2.04.4-2 <br />