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Carbon County


Bureau of Land Management
Carbon County Facts:

County Website: Carbon County
Area: 1,485 square miles
Population: 20,463 (2019)
County Seat: Price
Origin of County Name: from the vast amounts of coal found there
Cities/Towns: East Carbon, Helper, Price, Scofield, Wellington
Economy: coal mining, transportation (railroad), energy
Points of Interest: Helper Historic District, Nine Mile Canyon, Price Canyon recreation area, Scofield Reservoir, Utah State University Eastern Prehistoric Museum, Western Mining and Railroad Museum

 

About Carbon County:

Carbon County may be best known for coal mining and for dinosaur fossils. While there are examples of the early Fremont cultures, the area wasn't very populated until the1880s. During this time the railroad companies, looking for a way to connect Denver and Salt Lake City, stumbled across the coal in the hills of Carbon County. Many coal companies set-up rail towns, mostly ghost towns today, and brought in workers from around the globe to mine and build railroad tracks. Price became the largest city in the county because of its proximity to the main roads and the rail lines.

Today, Carbon County continues to mine coal. Also, a large Utah Power and Light power plant is located in the county, burning coal to produce steam which eventually produces power. Price, the county seat, has a large collection of dinosaur bones found in the Prehistoric Museum at the Utah State University Eastern. Many of these bones were actually found in this county at the working Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. Finally, another memorable archaeological site in Carbon County is Nine Mile Canyon. Here a traveler can see more examples of early Native Americans with beautiful rock art as well as early settlers to the area.

 

Resources:

More information for Carbon County can be found at the following sites:

 

Gallery:


A Coal Mine in Carbon County, Utah.
Image from Wikimedia Commons

A carbon power plant in Castle Gate, Utah.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
Built in 1927 as a schoolhouse, this building now houses a church in Spring Glen, Utah.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
The KOAL radio studio, in Carbonville, Utah.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
The Oliver John Harmon House, a historic home in Price, Utah.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
The James W. and Mary K. Loofbourow House, a historic home in Price, Utah.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
A historical cabin in Wellington, Utah.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
A one story, hand hewn stone gable roof residential building in Helper, Utah.
Image from Wikimedia Commons

The wall of Daddy Canyon, a tributary of Nine Mile Canyon, Utah.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
Nine Mile Canyon is actually 40 miles of a 78-mile back country byway. This unique area has some of the most amazing abundance of beautiful and unblemished rock art panels in the west.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
The Scofield Reservoir is on the Price River in Carbon County, Utah.
Image from Wikimedia Commons

Scofield, Utah.
Image from Wikimedia Commons

Natural casts of Hadrosaur tracks from the Blackhawk Formation from various mines in Carbon County, Utah.
Image from Wikimedia Commons

Skeletal casts of a Allosaurus attacking a Camptosaurus with a Camarasaurus in the front and a Stegosaurus in the background.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
Price, Utah
Image from Wikimedia Commons
Historic Main Street in Helper, Utah.
Image from Wikimedia Commons