In the early 1920s, Scofield, Utah, peaked above 6,000 people with 12 stores and 13 saloons; today just 26 residents are recorded in the coal town

Buried in the hills of Carbon County is a town called Scofield, which appears to be nothing but a few cabins near a lake. Yet in the early 1920s, this was one of the bustling mining towns in the American West. According to the Utah State Parks description of Scofield State Park, the Scofield mining district supported more than 6,000 residents at its peak in the early 1920s, along with 12 stores, 13 saloons, four large hotels, and a post office.

A coal camp built from scratch in the Wasatch Plateau

Coal was discovered in the hills near Scofield in the mid‑1870s, and the Winter Quarters Mine began operating soon after, in 1875, four years before the surrounding community was formally settled in 1879. Mining continued until the seams were exhausted by the mid‑1920s, with the mine formally closing in 1928, according to UtahRails’ history of the Pleasant Valley coal mines. Immigrants from various countries, including Finland, Wales, and Scotland, settled down to do their work in the mines.


The Winter Quarters explosion that marked the town forever

In the early morning hours of May 1, 1900, a powder explosion inside the Winter Quarters No. 4 mine spread to the connecting No. 1 mine, killing about 200 men, most of them from poisonous afterdamp gas released after the blast, according to Utah's Division of State History, in its 'I Love History' feature on the 1900 Scofield mine disaster. Then, it was the most fatal mining incident in the United States.

Nancy J. Taniguchi analyzed the consequences of the mining tragedy while conducting historical research on State Coal Mine Inspector Gomer Thomas, work that appeared in the Utah Historical Quarterly, the flagship journal of the Utah Division of State History. She found out that long before the actual explosion, Thomas was already complaining about the dangerous state of the mine’s ventilation system, along with an excessive amount of coal dust, according to a Utah Division of Archives and Records Service article on Inspector Gomer Thomas and the 1900 Scofield mine disaster. Finally, the disaster resulted in strengthening the legislation regarding the safe mining process in Utah.

A second Utah Historical Quarterly article on the disaster, titled 'Tragedy at Scofield,' takes a different angle. It takes the human casualties of the explosion rather than its regulatory effects as its subject matter. The article indicates that the accident left 107 widows and 268 fatherless children, and that entire Finnish immigrant families were devastated; the Louma family alone lost seven sons and three grandsons, though the exact number of Finnish miners among the dead isn't established in the source. In addition, the accident provided a boost to labor unions due to the lack of industrial insurance.

Twelve stores, thirteen saloons in Scofield's peak

Coal mining in the Scofield area continued after the disaster, and the town kept growing for another two decades, as History to Go notes that the Pleasant Valley Coal Company continued operating until 1923. As mentioned above, by the early 1920s, the population of Scofield exceeded 6,000, and there were as many as twelve stores, four hotels, and 13 saloons on Main Street, which stretched for over a mile. It became the largest town in Carbon County for some time.

Why the mines and the town emptied out

The prosperity was not to last much longer. The quality of coal seams at Winter Quarters became poorer as time passed during the 1920s, coupled with rising transportation costs, making the enterprise less and less lucrative. As discussed earlier regarding the Gomer Thomas case, the new safety procedures introduced following the 1900 disaster had already revolutionized mining operations at the site but could not affect the laws of economics. Mining at Winter Quarters was gradually winding up in the later part of the decade, with Winter Quarters deserted by 1930. Census records show the decline in dramatic numbers: from 678 inhabitants in 1920 to 295 in 1930, with a further downward trend into the decades that followed, resulting in just 43 people in 1990, as shown in the Census per the Bureau's 2003 report on Utah population and housing characteristics.

What's left of Scofield today

Since the formation of Schofield State Park in the vicinity of the reservoir in the 1960s, many tourists visit the site every summer than all the residents the town can have throughout the year. The Bureau's 2020 incorporated-places data lists just 26 residents within the town's boundaries. Scofield is the smallest incorporated town in Utah based on its population of fewer than 26 citizens. As mentioned above, there could be about 100 residents in the town; however, the number includes temporary residents who use their summer cabins built next to the reservoir following the closure of the mines. The old brick building, which used to be the school of the town, still stands empty on its outskirts, while most of the former one-mile business district is abandoned and covered with empty plots of land and foundations.