Sunnyside is a former city in Carbon County,

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, United States. The population was 377 at the 2010 census. On January 1, 2014, the city merged with the neighboring city of East Carbon.

Geography

Sunnyside is located southeast of the center of Carbon County and is east of East Carbon.

Price A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation expected, required, or given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, especially when the product is a service rather than a ph ...

, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

, is to the west. Before its merger with East Carbon, Sunnyside had a total area of , all of it land.

Climate

According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Sunnyside has a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of se ...

, abbreviated "BSk" on climate maps.Climate Summary for Sunnyside, Utah
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Demographics

As of the 2000

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, there were 404 people, 160 households, and 104 families residing in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was 128.6 people per square mile (49.7/km²). There were 183 housing units, with an average density of 58.3 per square mile (22.5/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 90.84%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.50%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 6.93% from other races, and 1.73% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 20.30% of the population. There were 160 households, of which 28.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.1% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 3.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.4% were non-families. 30.0% of all households were made up of individuals (single person) and 16.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53 and the average family size was 3.20. In the city, the population was spread out, with 26.7% under the age of 18, 7.2% aged 18 to 24, 24.3% aged 25 to 44, 24.0% aged 45 to 64, and 17.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 83.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.3 males. The median income for a household in the city was $32,955. The median income for a family was $36,875. Males had a median income of $39,688 versus $18,333 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $13,752. About 12.8% of families and 14.7% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 14.2% of those under age 18 and 16.4% of those age 65 or over.

History

The area known as Sunnyside was founded in 1879, when George and James Whitmore arrived at the base of the

Book Cliffs The Book Cliffs are a series of desert mountains and cliffs in western Colorado and eastern Utah in the Western United States. They are so named because the cliffs of Cretaceous sandstone capping many of the south-facing buttes appear simila ...

and established the Whitmore Cattle Ranch. In 1883, the

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south fr ...

(D&RGW) extended its line from the railhead at Deseret to Price. Along this stretch two additional railheads were added, one at Woodside, and another north at Sunnyside, named for its location on the sunny side of the Book Cliffs. For over a century, Sunnyside was the leader in coal production in Carbon County. The history of

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

in Sunnyside began shortly after Jefferson Tidwell and his three sons discovered coal in Whitmore Canyon in 1896. By 1898, the Pleasant Valley Coal Company had acquired the rights to the coal from Tidwell. On July 4 of that year, the Sunnyside railhead was abandoned by the D&RGW, and the coal camp located in Whitmore Canyon was named Sunnyside. By 1901, the D&RGW and its subsidiary, Utah Fuel Coal Company, acquired the operation. Sunnyside was officially incorporated as a town in 1916, with a mayor and four trustees. Some of the houses on this government housing project

Some of the houses on this government housing project

For fifty years, Utah Fuel operated the coal mines in Sunnyside, selling its interest to

Kaiser Steel Kaiser Steel was a steel company and integrated steel mill near Fontana, California. Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser founded the company on December 1, 1941, and workers fired up the plant's first blast furnace, named "Big Bess" after Kaiser's ...

Corporation in 1949. The financial investments of these companies turned Tidwell's mining operation into a major coal industry, inextricably tied to Sunnyside. Until 1994, the Sunnyside's mayor was not an elected official. Instead, the office was held by the Superintendent of Mines for Utah Fuel, then later by Kaiser Steel Corporation when it took over in 1950.

Education

Sunnyside is located in the Carbon School District. It has one elementary school, which also accommodates students from East Carbon City. Students attend middle and high school in

References

External links

{{Authority control Former cities in Utah Populated places established in 1879 Former populated places in Carbon County, Utah Populated places disestablished in 2014