Western Springs Canyon - Rains - Mutual

Western Springs Canyon - Rains - Mutual. . , Western Springs Canyon , Mutual and Rains were not the only mines in the extreme western end of Spring Canyon. There was the Little Standard mine (1925-1945) operated by the Standard Coal Company and three small family operated mines, the Day, the Vulcan, and the Western. The canyon forked at the Mutual store, Little Standard was on the south fork while the Day, Vulcan and Western mines were on the north fork. Most of the miners employed by these small mines lived in the developed company towns of either Mutual or Rains. That was not the case for the employees of the Little Standard mine, they lived in a tent city that included a fourteen room bunkhouse. This tent town thrived for thirteen years until the Mutual mine shut down in 1938 and the town of Mutual was mostly abandoned. At that point the residents of Little Standard folded up their tents and moved into the vacant houses in Mutual. Even after the Little Standard mine closed in 1945 this group of families along with the remaining residents of Rains kept the Mutual Store alive until its eventual demise in 1954. The western end of Spring Canyon is also home to the legend of the White Lady. There are many versions of the legend as well as numerous sightings, mostly in the area between Latuda and Mutual. Even though the mines are closed and the residents gone, stories of sighting the White Lady continue to this day. The numerous mines and ghost town of Spring Canyon share a history of boom town like growth followed by decline and eventual demise. They were irrevocably tied to the cyclic coal market. In the final years of the mines in Spring Canyon, the miners had to listen to the radio in the morning to find out if they worked that day or not. It was a tough life lived by even tougher men and women who fueled the nation's economic growth for many, many years , Rains 1915-1958 , In 1915 prominent mining engineer Leon Felix Rains convinced P.J. Quealy, a coal operator from Wyoming, to invest in the coal rich lands west of Standardville. Soon the Carbon Coal Company was organized and the land was purchased from the government. Mг. Rains served as president. Rains had been a grand opera singer until he became interested in the coal industry. He first gained experience by selling coal in California. He then worked as the general manager for the Standard Coal Company from 1913 to 1914 before starting the Carbon Coal Company. The coal seam in the Rains mine was so thick (18 feet) the company had very little development work to do before shipping out its first load in November of 1915. The coal camp that grew up around the mine took on the name of its president and the company built around 60 houses for its employees as well as a school, a boarding house, a bath house, a post office and a store. By June of 1916 the Carbon Coal Company was shipping about 300 tons of coal per day on its own railroad spur built from the end of the line near Standardville. The Liberty Mine at Latuda also used the same spur. In 1919 the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad bought and operated the spur between Standardville and Rains. The mine continued to prosper until 1930 when a portion of the operations were shut down. In 1938 the Carbon Coal Company extended its underground workings into the adjacent and by then defunct Mutual Mine and prospered during the war years. After World War II the mine was sold. In late 1945 it was under the ownership of the Utah-Carbon Coal Company and in 1951 was operated by the Hi-Heat Coal Company. In 1958 the mine was shut down completely and the town was deserted. During its peak the mine produced about 1500-2000 tons of coal per day, employed about 200 men and the town was called home by about 500 residents. , Mutual 1919-1954 , The extreme western end was the last area to be developed in Spring Canyon. In December of 1919 the Mutual Coal Company was organized and advertised the sale of stock thereby becoming the only mine in the canyon that was not privately owned. The name Mutual was chosen because it was organized as a cooperative with stockholders. Fred J. Leonard was the first president. The unusual ownership scheme promised shareholders they would receive their coal at a discount. The diversity of the shareholders grew along with the mine. As soon as weather permitted, in the spring of 1920, a tipple was built along with a surface tramway 600 feet long from the upper coal seam to the tipple. The mine had 3 seams of coal, one 8 feet thick at the highest elevation, one 14 feet thick between the other two and one 6.5 feet thick closest to the tipple. The Mutual Mines consisted of Morton #1 opened by Thomas Lamp, the Morton #2 opened by Walter Drake and the Mutual #3 opened by Albert Shaw. In 1921 the Mutual store was built by Joe Pauagano and later sold to Walter and Helen Johnson. The store remained open until 1954 outliving the Mutual Mines by 16 years. Unlike the company towns in Spring Canyon and elsewhere, Mutual was different because it did not have its own school, instead sending their children to the school in Rains, and it had a privately owned store, very unusual for that time. Mutual was the last stop on the Spring Canyon Stage Line. Local residents Joe and Bob Cormani, Peter Labori and Harry Eda operated the line and charged $1.50 for a round trip fare to Helper. The fare was high for the time but for many residents it was their only option. In the winter the snow was so deep that even residents who owned cars would use the stage line. The Mutual mines were closed in 1938 and the workings were taken over by the Carbon Coal Company in adjacent Rains. Miners from the nearby mines of Rains and Little Standard moved into some of the homes abandoned by the Mutual miners but as the coal boom died away after world war two so did the town of Mutual.