Grass Creek, Utah
Utah
A Utah coal camp of fewer than two hundred people had its own Chinatown, and a railroad with three rails.
In a narrow Utah canyon, a coal camp grew up around a mine and gave itself a name: Grass Creek. The company built houses along the north side of the canyon and put the business district on the south. Miners' shacks stood near fine stone homes built for the mine owners. There was even a Chinatown. At its peak in the nineteen ten census, the whole place counted a hundred and ninety people. Getting the coal out was the hard part. Until eighteen seventy-three, ox teams hauled it through Parley's Canyon all the way to Salt Lake City. Then a narrow gauge line was built up from Echo through Coalville. Years later the Union Pacific laid standard gauge track alongside it, and the branch into Grass Creek ended up with three rails in the roadbed so trains of both widths could run on the same line.
This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.
There was even a Chinatown.
Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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