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Wednesday, August 5, 1992

"Kenilworth" Written by Frances Blackham Cunningham for Kenilworth Day, Saturday, 27 August 1988.


The following information about Kenilworth was donated by Frances Blackham Cunningham.
KENILWORTH - EARLY BEGINNINGS
The history of Kenilworth dates back to 1904. In the early spring of that year, Heber J. Stowell, a resident of Spring Glen, was hunting horses in the mountains northeast of his home when he spotted large outcroppings of coal. He showed the coal samples to Wade H. Lawley of Price, and the two men decided to begin prospecting. They discovered three workable coal beds, positioned one above the other. These became known as the Aberdeen, Royal Blue, and Kenilworth beds respectively.
Stowell and Lawley began mining operations in Bull Hollow, just northeast of the present town, but found access to difficult. They climbed about hafway up the mountain and opened a new entrance to the coal veins. Eventually a steep tram was built to this entrance. The company formed was the Western Coal and Coke Company. In February 1906, the Eastern Utah Advocate reported that two men were at work on the Wade-Lawley prospect. Other mining companies had started adjoining mines.
Stowell built a wagon road to the workings, hauling water from Price River. By December of 1906, the Independent Coal and Coke Company, a Wyoming corporation, bought the Aberdeen mine, also the properties of the adjacent Price Trading Company. It was reported that forty men were employed by this new company. By 1 January 1907, grading from Bull Hollow, a point about four miles distant from Helper, had commenced to connect with the Rio Grande main line tracks near Helper.
The Independent Coal & Coke Company reported securing 160 acres of land, where tipples, coke ovens, and a townsite were to be located. The Aberdeen property consisted of a tunnel two hundred feet in length through which wagons were driven and loaded in a large chamber which could hold 30 wagons at a time, and that there was 300 tons of slack on the floor that had been ground out by the wagon wheels. "It is affirmed that a man can stand on the spring seat of a wagon and yet not be able to touch the coal overhead with his hand, " a news article reported.
A slump in the coal market in that year (1907) slowed the growth of the new town, but by 1 October 1908 a contract to supply naval ships with coal made the future brighter, and Superintendent C. H. Stevenson requested that the company hire an additional 30 men. Boarding houses replaced the tents that the men were living in. Also erected were cottages, a Greek coffeehouse, a Boy Scout hall which was also used by the Italians for dances, and a saloon. Three apartment houses were also built; one for the colored workmen, one for the Japanese workers, and one for the remainder of the workers.
School was first held in a cottage, then a school house was erected across the street from the cottage. When this school building overflowed, classes were held in the auditorium while remodeling of the school took place. Students attended this school up to the eighth grade, then were bused to Spring Glen and Price to finish junior and senior high school.
On Saturday, 4 February 1911, violence erupted at Kenilworth. Some of the workers alleged that the company was "short-weighing" coal. This was denied by the company officials and the complaining "foreigners" were fired. Two men were killed: Elias Jackson, a deputy sheriff and a watchman for the company, and a Greek rioter, Steve Kolozakis.
Unionization at Kenilworth took place in February 1919. The Sun in Price reported "Kenilworth Unionized". The short article said a union organizer, John McLennon, claimed the complete organization of the camp at Kenilworth.
By the early thirty's, a third tipple had been built, also a new hospital, tennis courts, and "New Town". The town became a showplace among coal camps. Perched high in the mountains above Castle Valley, Kenilworth still looks on the world around it.
Written by Frances Blackham Cunningham for Kenilworth Day, Saturday, 27 August 1988.

Additional information about Kenilworth donated by Frances Cunningham.
Mining in the Kenilworth area began in 1898 when the Price Trading Company, the first general store in the community of Price, launched a coal-producing enterprise in that area. Kenilworth, however, did not exist until 1907, when Independent Coal and Coke Company founded its Kenilworth mine, and started the company town of Kenilworth to go with it. This mine extracted coal from three different seams.
The Kenilworth community was an excellent example of the lengths that coal operators had to go to in order to mine their product. Roads had to be built; schools and churches built; and even the power supply had to be arranged.
From 1906 until 1912, Independent's Kenilworth mine was powered by steam from burning coal. Then from 1912 until 1917, the company operated its own generators. Finally, in 1917, the Kenilworth mine was connected with the Utah Power and Light system.
Other major mining operations in this area were Independent's Aberdeen and Royal Blue mines, as well as the Milburn mine (1936-1949) and the Arronco mine.
THE COMPANIES CONSOLIDATE
The periodic booms and busts of the Utah coal industry proved to be too difficult for many of the smaller operators to weather. The first major slump came with the advent of oil and diesel fuel before World War II. The war years brought renewed prosperity to the mining industry as the Independent Coal and Coke Company produced more than a million tons of coal annually. However, production in the coal fields slumped again in the 1950's. The post-World War II years brought many changes. Independent Coal and Coke bought out the Utah Fuel Company holdings and merged the Kenilworth and Castle Gate No. 2 mines into a single entity in 1961. In 1972, the merged Castle Gate - Kenilworth mine was closed because of economic conditions.
Source: The fifth in a series of articles concerning the history of American Electric Power's Affiliated Coal Mining and Transportation.
Additional information about Kenilworth can be found by reading "I Owe My Soul" an Architectural and Social History of Kenilworth, Utah by Wayne L. Balle (Utah Historical Quarterly - summer 1988 vol 56 no 3 page 250)

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