The
recession of the 1990s, exacerbated by environmental concerns and growing
mechanization, has increased local unemployment despite fairly steady
production levels. The last coal company, Hiawatha, is falling to bulldozers.
Paradoxically, Utah coal's strengthening economic ties to the region
and nation have lessened industrial involvement in Utah's coal district,
ending the local reign of "King Coal."
See:
Allan Kent Powell, The Next Time We Strike: Labor in Utah's Coal Fields,
1900-1933 (1985); Floyd A. O'Neil, "Victims of Demand: The Vagaries
of the Carbon County Coal Industry," in Philip F. Notarianni, ed., Carbon
County: Eastern Utah's Industrialized Island (1981); Thomas G. Alexander,
"From Dearth to Deluge: Utah's Coal Industry," Utah Historical Quarterly
(Summer 1963); and Helen Z. Papanikolas, "Utah's Coal Lands: A Vital
Example of How America Became A Great Nation," Utah Historical Quarterly
(Spring 1975).
Nancy
J. Taniguchi