FROM a few sod roofed
dugouts in the banks along the Price River that were occupied by its first settlers in
1879, Price, now the county seat of Carbon County' Utah, has grown to a population of over
four thousand people, with hundreds of modern dwellings in its residential districts and
many pretentious mercantile establishments in its business district which have today a
total tax valuation of nearly three million dollars.
In 1879 the territory surrounding Price, known at that time as Castle Valley, was little
more than a rendezvous of Indians, cattle-rustlers and bandits. None of its many thousand
acres of fertile lands had yet felt the pierce of a plow share, nor had its great deposits
of coal in the nearby hills felt the touch of a miner's pick. Trapping and fur-trading
were the principal industries engaged in by the early settlers, with a few straggling
herds of cattle and sheep dotting the 580,000 acres of well provided ranges.
Today more than four million tons of coal are shipped from mines operating in the hill
country nearby. These mines employ in excess of five thousand miners who are paid more
than twelve million dollars a year for their. labors. There are more than sixteen thousand
acres of agricultural lands now under cultivation with the promise of double that amount
in the very near future as the Price River Water Conservation project becomes fully
developed. Over one hundred and twenty-five thousand head of sheep that produced a wool
crop valued at over four hundred thousand dollars in 1925, and a lamb crop that yielded
over seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars during the same period, are supported by its
well provided grazing lands, to say nothing of the thousands of bead of cattle that are
ranged thereon. This is just the beginning in the development of the natural resources
that abound in the territory surrounding Price.
As the final developments of the Price River Water Conservation District are completed,
the scarcity of water which has always been a drawback to agricultural developments in
this territory, will become a thing of the past. The ample water supply which this new
enterprise insures the more than thirty-seven thousand acres of rich lands in the
District, will stimulate agricultural enterprise around Price that bids fair to make it
the metropolis of Eastern Utah.
Price being centrally located in the District, a canning factory, cheese factory, creamery
and sugar factory supplied with products from the lands in the District, are likely
possibilities for the future. With these additions, Price will take on a new aspect. The
vision of orchards, truck farms, poultry farms, increased livestock feeding and finishing,
in the nearby future also holds forth great promise for Price's future growth and
prosperity.
Price has made its greatest growth in the past twenty years. Up to 1906 there was scarcely
any development to speak of. The townsite was surveyed and laid out in city lots in
November, 1882. Fred E. Grames, one of the first settlers, built the first frame building
in Price and opened up a mercantile business with a stock of goods that he had purchased
from the contractor in charge of grading of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad through
these parts.
During April, 1883, track laying was completed from Desert, just east of Green River, to
Salt Lake and Ogden, by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, and the first trains were
run through in May of that year. Price was then named as a station by the railroad and
they opened up for business in a narrow gauge box car depot.
August 30, 1883, the first post office was established at Price, with Fred E. Grames as
postmaster, and Price then found itself on the map. A little later the second frame
building shot up near the railroad and called itself a "Railway Eating House,"
where railroad workers and passengers were served as opportunity afforded.
In January, 1884, the people who had commenced to occupy the townsite, erected a log
meeting house, twenty feet long and forty feet wide. This was used for church, school and
court purposes for many years. A number of log and adobe houses had been built on the
townsite by this time. In 1884 the residents organized the Price Water Company and began
constructing a canal to bring water into the town from the river. Previous to the building
of this canal the populace were forced to haul water from the river in barrels and tanks.
With the arrival of water through the canal in May, 1887, Price began to grow. Orchards
and gardens soon were in evidence, and trees were planted along the streets.
BY November, 1890, four general
merchandise stores were doing business in Price and the population had increased to over
three hundred. In 1891 the first newspaper was published. It was called the Eastern Utah
Telegraph.
On July 14, 1892, a petition signed by three hundred and eight persons was presented to
the county court of Emery County by A. Ballinger. Price town was organized on the eighth
day of November, 1892. A general election was held and J. M. Whitmore was elected
president, Henry G. Mathis, John H. Pace, Seren Olsen, trustees; A. Ballinger, clerk and
treasurer.
On January 4, 1894, a petition was circulated to create Carbon County, out of a portion of
Emery County, and on January 17, was presented to the Utah State Legislature and finally
granted, and the bill signed March 8, 1894, by Governor Caleb B. West. On May 1, 1894, an
election was held to elect officers and designate the county seat. E. C. Lee, T. P.
Gridley, E.
Santachi, selectmen, H. A. Nelson, clerk and recorder; A W. Holdaway, assessor and
treasurer; L. M. Olsen, probate judge; Joseph W. Davis, school superintendent.
Tax valuation of Carbon County in 1894 was $888,376.94. The city hall was built in 1895 by
popular subscription. In 1901 and 1902 an eight-room brick house was built. In 1902 the
Price Co-operative Mercantile institution was organized. In 1908 and 1909 Carbon County
court house was built at a cost of $75,000. In 1910 the railroad depot west of Main street
was burned. A new one was built on South 8th Street in 1911-1912.
Today Price has three banks with assets of over $3,000,000, two live newspapers, four
churches' six big department stores, two farm implement houses, two undertaking
establishments, three fine hotels, two furniture stores, two wholesale houses, one
wholesale and retail automobile accessory and electrical store, two jewelry stores, two
first class theatres, two hospitals, eight restaurants, one music store, six barber shops,
five meat markets, four lumber yards, one bottling works, one flour mill and elevator,
three paint shops, seven automobile sales rooms, two warehouses, eleven garages, one ice
and cold storage plant, five hardware stores, eight grocery stores, six service stations,
three machine and blacksmith shops, three laundries, three bakeries, one of the finest
high schools in the state, one junior high school, and two large grade schools.
In the past ten years new buildings in the business section of Price have been erected at
the aggregate cost of over $1,000,000, and over 500 new homes have been built in the
residential section at an approximate cost of $150,000. A new city water system has been
installed at the cost of $516,000. This system will supply water sufficient for a city of
16,000 people. It is piped twenty-six
miles from Colton Springs, the purest kind of mountain water. The city is well lighted
with electricity. Whiteway electric street illuminations have been installed in the
business district. It has seven blocks of paved streets, a well shaded public park with
lawns and flowers, one large municipal dance hall, a camping ground for tourists, baseball
park, race track and golf links. Its high school auditorium will seat 600 people, and the
L. D. S. Tabernacle with a big pipe organ will seat twice that many.
A WELL equipped fire department has been installed, and three complete sewerage districts
completed. Over eight miles of paved sidewalks have been laid, making the city complete
and attractive in every respect.
Besides an active Chamber of Commerce, Price has a Rotary Club with an active membership
of 35; a Kiwanis Club that has done much to build up the city, and a branch of the
American Legion with 100 members who have accomplished a number of worthwhile things for
the good of the city. A Masonic temple costing about $55,000 is now in the course of
construction.
Price heralds itself as the "biggest little city on earth," and it certainly has
won that distinction in the great strides it has made in the past ten or fifteen years.
The gateway to an empire between the Rockies and the Wasatch range of mountains, located
in Eastern Utah, representing one-fourth of the area of the entire state and fully
one-tenth of its population; located on the very edge of one of the largest coal deposits
in the world with its untold millions of unmined tons of the highest quality coal in the
west; the trading and shipping center for the Uintah Basin', a great inland empire, Price
is the logical commercial center around which the future development of this great
territory, abounding in natural resources that have only been scratched, must surely
revolve.
Price is located on the main line of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad which
furnishes ample transportation facilities for the expeditious movement of freight and
passenger traffic, thus making all eastern and western markets available to Price and
surrounding territory. During 1925 this railroad handled into and out of Price the
following carloads:
1925 FORWARDED CARLOADS
- Cattle 94 cars.
- Sheep and Goats-100 cars.
- Hogs-2 cars.
- Honey-8 cars.
- Gilsonite-76 cars.
- Alfalfa Seed-141 cars.
- Hay-39 cars.
- Mill Stuff and Grain-20 cars.
- Wool--47 cars.
- Beets-95 cars.
- Turkeys Dressed-6 cars.
- Hides-8 cars.
- Miscellaneous-10 cars.
Total 646 cars forwarded.
1925 RECEIVED CARLOADS
- Gasoline-162 cars.
- Lumber-109 cars.
- Coal-84 cars.
- Oil-44 cars.
- Autos-90 cars.
- Grain-60 cars.
- Canned Goods-61 cars.
- Flour-55 cars.
- Sheep-119 cars.
- Machinery-20 cars.
- Furniture5 cars.
- Sugar-47 cars.
- Cattle-2 cars.
- Soap-9 cars.
- Salt-29 cars.
- Cereals-6 cars.
- Cement-91 cars.
- Sand and Gravel-50 cars.
- Coke-5 cars.
- Brick-19 cars.
- Grapes-8 cars.
- Wire and Nails-12 cars.
- Miscellaneous-39 cars.
Total 1126 carloads received.
The railroad employs fifteen men at Price, the year around, with a payroll of over
$24,000. Four passenger trains serve Price daily, and ticket sales at the passenger
station average $12,000 monthly. It has ten spur industry tracks that serve 17 warehouses
with track connections, a modern well equipped brick passenger station, large freight
house and platform, and stockyards with a capacity of 18 cars that are provided with water
and lighting facilities.
The Price Chamber of Commerce advertises for five thousand new families to share in its
new prosperity, and once the remarkable possibilities that await the new comer there are
known, this quota will be filled in short order.
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Price Main Street 1909
Price Main Street 1909
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