THE  HARMONY,  COLOB,  AND  KANAB  COAL  FIELDS, 
SOUTHERN  UTAH. 
By  G.  B.  Richardson. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The  existence  of  coal  beds  of  workable  thickness  in  the  southern 
part  of  Utah  has  been  known  since  the  country  was  settled  by  the 
Mormons  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  but  the  isolation  of  the 
area  has  prevented  development  and  the  southern  Utah  coal  region  is 
the  least  known  in  the  United  States.  Only  a  few  small  mines  have 
been  opened,  in  the  vicinity  of  settlements  that  are  located  contiguous 
to  the  coal  outcrop,  and  practically  the  entire  region  is  unprospected. 
The  recent  completion  of  the  San  Pedro,  Los  Angeles  and  Salt  Lake 
Railroad,  however,  has  aroused  interest  in  this  area,  and,  although  the 
road  is  40  miles  from  the  nearest  coal,  a  branch  line  can  easily  be  con- 
structed across  the  Escalante  Desert  between  Lund  and  Cedar  City, 
near  the  west  end  of  the  coal  deposits.     (See  PI.  XXV.) 
Very  little  has  been  published  concerning  the  coal  in  southern  Utah. 
Several  analyses  of  samples  from  the  vicinity  of  Cedar  City  and  Kan- 
arraville  were  printed  in  1883,°  and  a  number  of  references  b  to  the 
occurrence  of  the  coal  have  appeared,  but  the  first  systematic  study 
was  not  undertaken  until  1906,  when  Lee c  made  a  preliminary  exam- 
ination of  the  deposits  in  Iron  County.  In  the  summer  of  1907  the 
writer,  assisted  by  Leon  J.  Pepperberg,  Herbert  Graff,  and  C.  D. 
Perrin,  surveyed  the  Harmony,  Colob,  and  Kanab  fields  in  the  western 
part  of  the  southern  Utah  coal  region;  and  the  present  paper  is  an 
abstract  of  a  more  complete  report  of  this  investigation  which  will  be 
published  later. 
LOCATION  AND   TOPOGRAPHY. 
That  part  of  the  southern  Utah  coal  region  which  is  the  subject  of 
the  present  report  is  situated  in  eastern  Iron  and  Washington  counties 
a  Daggett,  E.,  Analyses  and  calorific  values  of  some  Utah  coals:  Mineral  Resources  U.  S.,  U.  S.  Geol. 
Survey,  1883,  pp.  76-79. 
b  Dutton,  C  E.,  Geology  of  the  High  Plateaus  of  Utah,  1880,  p.  155.  Forrester,  It.,  Coal  Golds  of  I  tali : 
Mineral  Resources  U.  S.  for  1892,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  1893,  p.  519.  Stanton,  T.  W.,  The  Colorado  forma- 
tion: Bull.  U.  S.Geol.  Survey  No.  106,1893,  pp.  34-37.  Storrs,  L.  s..  Twenty-second  Ann.  Rept.  CJ.  S. 
Geol.  Survey,  pt.  3,  1902,  pp.  455-456. 
cLee,  W.  T.,  The  Iron  County  coal  field,  Utah:  Bull.  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey  No.  316,  1907,  pp.  359  37:,. 
379 
