Coal City is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

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. Established in 1885, Coal City was initially a farming community until coal was discovered in the area. Small-scale

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

began to take place, and because the mining operations were a mile or two away from the mines at

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

and

Consumers A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or use purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. Th ...

, it was assumed that the citizens of the town would lack

workplace stress Occupational stress is psychological stress related to one's job. Occupational stress refers to a chronic condition. Occupational stress can be managed by understanding what the stressful conditions at work are and taking steps to remediate thos ...

. Coal production began to decline in 1935, and the town was essentially abandoned with just two residences occupied by the late 1960s.

History

In 1885, a group of settlers established a town in Carbon County, Utah, and called it Oak Springs Bench. Because the town's

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

was approximately ,

farming Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

and

ranch A ranch (from /Mexican Spanish) is an area of landscape, land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of farm. These terms are most often ap ...

ing were difficult. However, soon after the town was settled,

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

was discovered in the area. Small-scale

took place under the Great Western Coal Mines Company, but mining operations weren't large due to the town's distance from the nearest

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

. In August 1921, the permanent town site was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

ted and renamed Coal City, after the deposits of

in the area. The town was incorporated in October 1921. Although most of the houses were tents, a log school house served Coal City in 1925, and was replaced by a brick schoolhouse in 1927. Later that year, a couple stores and a

bakery A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based baked goods made in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, doughnuts, bagels, Pastry, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as Coffeehouse, cafés, servi ...

were constructed, and made up the business district. A few dozen homes were constructed around the stores. The town's residents lacked stress from mining operations because they were located away from the larger mining operations in

and

. At its peak, the population was about 70. In 1926, the mine superintendent, George Storrs, was

indicted An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an indi ...

for mail fraud. Though he was cleared of charges, in December 1926, Storrs's mining company went bankrupt and halted operations. The town began to decline in 1935 and by 1940 it was uninhabited. A few buildings remain in Coal City, including two stores, several

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

s, and a few outbuildings.

References

External links

{{authority control Ghost towns in Carbon County, Utah Coal towns in Utah Mining communities in Utah Populated places established in 1885 Ghost towns in Utah 1885 establishments in Utah Territory

History

See also

References

External links