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16 The "Oliver Short Line Railroad" was begun in 1928 to link the mine with ~he Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad at Somerset, and by 1930. railroad cars were hauling coal from the mine. Mrs. Oliver explained that the company constructed the several miles of railway to facilitate its operations and that this short section of track cost approximately fifty thousand dollars. Mrs. Oliver did not remember precisely when the steam generating power plant was completed. It does not appear in 1925 photographs, and the next dated photographs of the Oliver area in which the power plant can be seen were taken in 1943• However, George Norris, the original operator, stated at the time of inves- tigations that the plant was completed in 1930 at which time it handled all the power demand between the Oliver Mine and Montrose, using only eight hundred of its one thousand kilowatt capacity. The capacity was doubled in the 194D's. Fuel xas conveyed directly from the tipple. The Oliver Power Company was pur- chased by the Western Power Company shortly after its completion, and provided a large portion of the Western System power. Clinton Oliver died in 1934 at the age of fifty, and mine operations were thereafter run totally by his two sons, Fdwin and Ronald. A family of diverse ~terests, Fd ran the Paonia newspaper in 1932 in addition to his mine responsi- bilities as manager of sales operations. Accounts of Oliver Aiine picnics for the Paonia Rotary Club provided additional data regarding mine operations in the 1930's. A "Paonian" article states that guests were transported one half mile into the mine fora picnic lunch, then continued another half mile via power or mule riven carts to the Sace of the nine. Such picnics were given in 1935 and 1937• The operation was extremely successful by 1937 at which time the "Paonian" reported that it had doubled its production in the previous five years. In 1943, the south vein entrance of the Oliver Mine was opened (Plate IIa) and railroad cars hauled coal across the river to the tipple. One of the main at- tractions of this high-ceilinged entrance was the dinosaur footprint 3ust inside the portal. A photograph of this vintage shows numerous frame buildings along the north side of the river, as well as the power plant and tipple, office and supply houses, snd a network of railroad tracks. (Although photographs could not be re- produced for this report, a sketch map of the area taken Fran this photograph ap- pears in Appendix A of this report.) S}iortly aster its purchase by Calurnet Fuel in l9tg, the Oliver Mine was .featured in an article in "Coal", the Calumet~Utah Fuel Companies' monthly report.