99discovery
Sightseer
Site: Connellsville, Utah
Alternate Names: Electric Lake (current)
County, State: Emery, Utah
Years of Occupation: 1874-1878
Status of Site: Open
Classification: Class 1: Barren Town
Type: Industrial/Mining
Remnants: Emery County's earliest industrial city was a doomed failure and eventually drowned in the depths of Electric Lake
GPS Coordinate: 39°36'3.27"N 111°12'57.57"W
Date of Last Visit: 5/16/2020
Connellsville was not only notable for being Emery County's first commercial mining operation but also the first in the entire Wasatch Plateau coal field. Demand for coke by the smelters of the Salt Lake Valley led to the establishment of the town by the Fairview Coal Mining and Coke Company. It was reported at one point to have seven mines totaling 2000 feet of tunnels, producing 12.5 tons of coke per day among 10 ovens.
The poor coke quality doomed the establishment, as it couldn't justify the difficulty of constructing rail from Springville. Four years later, the experiment had failed and all of the miners had moved to nearby Winter Quarters. The mines were only operated sporadically for the heating needs of the Sanpete Valley Communities.
In order to provide water for the Huntington Power Project, a contract was awarded in 1972 to construct the 220' Electric Lake Dam at the right fork of Huntington Creek, storing 32,000 acre feet of water. As part of the construction, Utah Power funded an archaeological dig of Connellsville and moved one of the Coke Ovens to a site above the water line.
Further Reading: A History of Emery County, Edward A. Geary. A digital copy can be found here: http://www.riversimulator.org/Resources/History/UtahCounties/HistoryOfEmeryCounty1996Geary.pdf
Directions to Get There: The kiosk and overlook can be accessed on Highway 31 between Fairview Canyon and Huntington.
1923 USGS Photo of the ruined coke ovens, the only surviving photo of the site that I could find. Accessed from:
Alternate Names: Electric Lake (current)
County, State: Emery, Utah
Years of Occupation: 1874-1878
Status of Site: Open
Classification: Class 1: Barren Town
Type: Industrial/Mining
Remnants: Emery County's earliest industrial city was a doomed failure and eventually drowned in the depths of Electric Lake
GPS Coordinate: 39°36'3.27"N 111°12'57.57"W
Date of Last Visit: 5/16/2020
Connellsville was not only notable for being Emery County's first commercial mining operation but also the first in the entire Wasatch Plateau coal field. Demand for coke by the smelters of the Salt Lake Valley led to the establishment of the town by the Fairview Coal Mining and Coke Company. It was reported at one point to have seven mines totaling 2000 feet of tunnels, producing 12.5 tons of coke per day among 10 ovens.
The poor coke quality doomed the establishment, as it couldn't justify the difficulty of constructing rail from Springville. Four years later, the experiment had failed and all of the miners had moved to nearby Winter Quarters. The mines were only operated sporadically for the heating needs of the Sanpete Valley Communities.
In order to provide water for the Huntington Power Project, a contract was awarded in 1972 to construct the 220' Electric Lake Dam at the right fork of Huntington Creek, storing 32,000 acre feet of water. As part of the construction, Utah Power funded an archaeological dig of Connellsville and moved one of the Coke Ovens to a site above the water line.
Further Reading: A History of Emery County, Edward A. Geary. A digital copy can be found here: http://www.riversimulator.org/Resources/History/UtahCounties/HistoryOfEmeryCounty1996Geary.pdf
Directions to Get There: The kiosk and overlook can be accessed on Highway 31 between Fairview Canyon and Huntington.
1923 USGS Photo of the ruined coke ovens, the only surviving photo of the site that I could find. Accessed from: