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-LS- <br />The S'_., problem :vas that the coal could not be removed because <br />no railroad existed in the area. idillian Fleston, a USGS surve}~o_ <br />noted: "[without a railroad, no shipments of hay, grain, vegetab!.es, <br />33 <br />or fruit can be made anymore than can the coals". <br />The coal industry caws just in its beginning stages by 1900. <br />In the Axial Basin locals used the Streeter Canyon beds for <br />local consumption. Year Oak Creek, small nines were in use to <br />provide places like Steamboat Spr_ags with coal, but large scale <br />mining was not yet possible due to the lack of a railroad. One <br />of the few major mines in the area was the Pinnacle Mine, just <br />southwest of Oak Creek. It was begun in 1910 as a company mine <br />and town and when the railroad reached Oar Creek, the Pinnacle <br />boomed. It was one of the largest underground nines in the <br />region (topped only by Mount Harris) and the Pinnacle was able <br />to operate until 1945 when the mines were closed down due to <br />low prices. <br />In 1902, David H. Moffat began the construction of a <br />standard gauge railroad from Denver to Salt. Lake City. His <br />plan was to go to Salt Lake via northwestern Colorado, thus <br />tapping the coal fields and the cattle industry and also saving <br />nearly 200 miles of railroad track as compared to the route <br />the Denver and Rio Grande Sdestern was using. By 1907, his road, <br />the Denver and Salt Lake, was at Hot Sulphur Springs, c.ut stopped <br />for lack of capital. Moffat managed to raise enough money to <br />continue on to Oak Creek and Steamboat Springs, which c'as reached <br />in 1903. At this point the Denver and Salt La}:e was out of money. <br />~ The coal fields, for the first time, had rail transport. The <br />