Utah State...
|
|

|
|
|
| |
Utah Counties
|
|

|
|
|
| |
|
|
Carbon County, Utah
Carbon County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
County Seat: Price
Year Organized: 1894
Square Miles: 1,476
MSA: |
Court House: Put address here
|
Named: from the vast amounts of coal found there
State & County QuickFacts:
History
Most of Carbon County's residents
live in the Price River Valley and at the foot of the Book Cliffs. The western
end of the county rises to the Wasatch Plateau and slopes down eastward to the
Price River which cuts through Castle Valley. This valley stretches across the
southern half of Carbon into Emery County, with the Wasatch Plateau on the north
and west and the Book Cliffs all along the east. The Green River marks the
eastern border of the county. Geographically, Carbon County is in the Colorado
Plateau physiographic province. Evidence of the Fremont Culture is extensive in
the county. Figurines have been discovered as well as many rock art panels, such
as the "Head Hunter" located in the Gordon Creek area. Evidence of prehistoric
life includes many dinosaur footprints found in coal mines. Mormon settlements
were established all along the Price River in the late 1870s. The high barrier
of the Wasatch Plateau had delayed settlement until that time. Routes into the
region included offshoots of the Old Spanish Trail and a trail over Soldier
Summit. Farming and ranching became early economic activities, giving Carbon
County a tradition of cowboys and outlaws, with the likes of Butch Cassidy and
Gunplay Maxwell roaming the area. The Nine Mile Canyon freight road from Price
to the Uinta Basin became an important transportation link. In 1894 the
territorial legislature separated Carbon County from Emery County.During the
early 1880s the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, seeking a route from
Denver to Salt Lake City, discovered and opened up the vast coal lands of Carbon
County. Coal mining became the major catalyst for development. Coal companies
often built and ran towns in Carbon and imported many southern and eastern
European and Japanese laborers to work in the coal mines and on railroad gangs.
Helper became known as the town of "57 Varieties" because of its ethnic
diversity. Mine explosions near Scofield in 1900 (200 killed) and at Castle Gate
in 1924 (172 killed) and major strikes in 1903-4, 1922, and 1933 brought
tragedy, violence, and eventual unionization to the mines. Coal mining continues
to play a vital role in economic and social development, with ups and downs in
the industry creating periods of boom and relative bust. Utah Power and Light
built a main electric generating plant near the former town of Castle Gate. In
1980 the Carbon Plant generated 171 megawatts of electricity. Ninety-eight
percent of UP&L's power comes from thermal steam plants that burn coal.The
College of Eastern Utah, established in 1937 in Price, promises to become a more
important facet of the county's economic and social development in the future.
Source: Beehive History 14: Utah Counties. 1988. Utah State Historical
Society, 300 Rio Grande, Salt Lake City, UT 84101-1182.
Neighboring Counties:
Cities:
County Resources:
Enter County Resources and Information Here
|
|
County Resource Guide
|
|

|
The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we’ve given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the “characteristic features of
our country!”
But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn’t the only reason to explore counties’ role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.
Today’s counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990’s political slogan “Think globally, act locally.” |
|
| |
Penn Foster High School
|
|

|
|