IOn the tour at 190 I always explained to people that NEPA had the largest highest quality deposits of anthracite in the world. With a few locations throughout the country and world having much smaller deposits. And I knew there was some in the Rocky mountains. I came across a newspaper article from 1902. It said miners were leaving our area during the strike, for the soft coal fields, and " anthracite mines in Utah". I never knew those deposits were developed. Anyone of our wordly travelers been to any of these mines in Utah ?Anything left of them ? I also learned during the late 70's some mining companies wanted to open up those deposits. But there were no qualified anthracite miners out there. So they came to our area offering jobs. But found no takers, as most former miners were in there 50's and late 60's. On an unrelated note. I also found an article from 1978. Evidently the soft coal fields were on strike. And there was a shortage of soft coal ( pre Powder river basin). Scrantons mayor " Hikey" invited the soft coal operaters to our area to discuss reopening our anthracite mines. As our local economy was in even worse shape than it is now. The mining companies came to the conclusion we all know. Yes there is alot of anthracite left. Unfortunately most of it was under water. And would be to expensive to pump out. Just some newly learned facts.

I've heard of anthracite in Colorado near Crested Butte:

http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/3010

but hadn't heard of any in Utah.

on a related note, I found mention of pitched veins of bituminous coal out west. I wonder how it was worked, and who worked it.....

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-Thou shalt not little vein-

an interesting article from the NY Times in 1903 about Colorado Anthracite... mentions Pennsylvania fields.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D05EFDE1739E433A2575BC0A9619C946297D6CF

click on the "view full article"

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-Thou shalt not little vein-

I did find a coal mine in utah but it was still active so i kinda checked it out from a distance and moved on. you can sometimes see the coal seam in blasted out sections next to the road just like when driving through parts of PA. ill check and see if i can find a pic of this mine.

thanks. be interesting to see

here is a pic from a distance

it was about 40 miles south of salt lake city

Interesting setting for a coal mine and nothing like an east coast anthracite mine. Do you know if they worked this from the surface or underground or both?

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"If you thought old, abandoned mines were only in the west, then you haven't been to IronMiners.com!"

hold it, do you know that it was anthracite, mike?

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-Thou shalt not little vein-

im not sure if it was anthracite or not i just snapped the pic cause i thought it was interesting maybe it is bituminus?

i would say it has to be bitty coal..............

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This ain't longwall... this is long hole!

Looks like a power plant in the pit ? Probably bity. Mined on site ?

looks like a good place to sink slope

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That mine has gone through a number of names. When I first inspected it in the mid-80's it was the Price River Complex. Then it was Castlegate Coal, Amax picked it up and named it something, now the permit is in the name of Castle Gate Holding Co. Don't know who owns that company.

Some interesting things about that one:

At the road pull off right near where the picture was taken, there used to be a historical marker telling how Butch Cassidy robbed the payroll at the Castle Gate Mine. Seems like the mine started in the 1880's.

Just up the road from that picture is a road that turns to the south. Down that road a bit is where Castle Gate sunk a 14' diameter shaft 2200' deep. They put in a longwall and then there was all manner of heaving and such...the longwall was pinched. They eventually closed the shaft and I understand that they never pulled a ton of coal from all that work. I last saw it during a bond release inspection about 10 years ago.

Keep going west on that road for a little ways and you get to Soldier Summit. Turn south at the divide and you go to the town of Winter Quarters. Walk through the old, old cemetary and you see many a dead miner from disasters. Bad conditions.

Clarification: I looked at the picture again. That is the power plant and coal stockpile. You should have seen a silo and some other structures off to the left of the photo that were the Castle Gate Mine operations. At least they were there 10 years ago; maybe it has been reclaimed by now.

Also, UT was part of my area for about 20 years. I don't remember any anthracite mines. BLM had a nicely done coal fields map and I don't remember anthracite on it. Dunno.

Thanks for that great information. Very interesting details. (I LIKE IT)

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Pioneering the next INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (Preservation ! ). . . Saving equipment (1) mine site at a time.