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COAL BASIN SUMMARY <br /> By Steven Renner <br /> April 16, 1999 <br /> GENERAL <br /> Coal Basin is a term used to describe both a mining operation and a physical geographic feature. <br /> Coal Basin,the geographic feature, is a high mountain valley, the mouth of which is located <br /> about four miles west of Redstone, Colorado. The valley is about 27 square miles in area, which <br /> is fairly large for this type of feature. The far west margin of the basin is defined by Huntsman <br /> Ridge, which tops out at about 11,000 feet. Huntsman Ridge is a locally significant drainage <br /> divide, which trends north to south. The land falls to the east and west from the ridge line. <br /> Precipitous cliffs are very common on the Coal Basin (east) side of Huntsman RidZD <br /> ge. It is in <br /> these cliffs that the Coal Basin Mines were developed. <br /> Coal Basin is drained by two larger creeks, Coal Creek to the north, and Dutch Creek to the <br /> south. These two streams converge in the vicinity of the Coal Basin Mine preparation plant area. <br /> Below their convergence,the stream is known as Coal Creek,which flows into the Crystal River <br /> at Redstone. <br /> Coal Basin receives a large amount of annual precipitation, about thirty three inches per year. <br /> The moisture mainly occurs in the form of winter snows and summer thunder storms. These <br /> storms are usually localized within the Basin and are generally short in duration, but have been <br /> observed to be very intense in terms of the amount of rain produced. <br /> The sheer volume of annual moisture, coupled with some very unique geologic characteristics <br /> has resulted in significant amounts of natural erosion. In fact, it is due to the combination of <br /> these two factors that Coal Basin was formed over geologic time. <br /> The majority of Coal Basin is within the White River National Forest. These publicly owned <br /> lands are open to use for grazing,hiking and other non-motorized recreation. After being closed <br /> to the public for almost forty years due to mining operations,the public is currently <br /> re-discovering the beauty of Coal Basin. <br /> HISTORY <br /> Coal mining operations initially began in the late 1800's when `coal baron' John Osgood opened <br /> the original Coal Basin Mine. This operation is located at the northern portion of the Basin, and <br /> was re-opened by Mid-Continent as the Coal Basin Number 5 Mine in the 1970's. Osgood not <br /> only opened the mine, but built the company towns of Coal Basin (located at the mine) and <br /> Redstone, located about nine miles down stream from the mine. These two towns were <br /> connected by trail and narrow gauge railroad. The narrow gauge served to transport coal from <br /> the mine to the standard gauge railroad at Redstone. The coal was processed at Redstone, and <br /> then shipped via rail to the Colorado Fuel and Iron mills in Pueblo, Colorado. Due to the volume <br /> of annual snow fall and because of the extremity of the winters in Coal Basin, mining operations <br /> were suspended in the early winter, when the residents of Coal Basin were transported back to <br /> Redstone. In the spring, the miners and their families were again moved back to Coal Basin, and <br />