The Castle Gate ~ Its a Sunday History Bite! The name of Castle Gate, Utah evokes the image of a large, formidable fortress with imposing walls. It was a name not chosen randomly. Located 3 miles north of Helper, Utah, the town of Castle Gate was surrounded by sheer rock cliffs and the town took its name from an unusual rock formation at the north end of town. The rock cliffs appeared to open and close as travelers passed through them, just like a gate at a castle. In the late 1950s, the west side of the gate was demolished to allow the road to be widened. The castle gate was never the same. The town of Castle Gate was founded in 1883 when a surveyor for the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad discovered the vast coal deposits in the area. Castle Gate had a hospital, school, amusement hall, two churches and its own baseball team, all built on the foundation of coal. The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad actively recruited its workforce from Europe to populate the town. So many Italian immigrants came to Castle Gate to work that the the town earned the nickname The Italian Mine. The coal deposits were also legendary. The Castle Gate No. 2 mine had an average thickness of 22 feet thick. In some places, the seam was over 30 feet thick. This was in contrast to the coal seams in other areas and back East which were scarcely 3 foot thick. These small seams were known as crawler coal while the towering deposits of Castle Gate were known as high coal. The town of Castle Gate met its end in 1974 when the homes were moved to nearby Helper and the remaining buildings were torn down. Today, the two unit coal-fired power plant, Carbon Power Plant is the only trace of industry left in the Castle Gate area. This power plant, opened in 1954 with the second unit coming online in 1957 will be closed in the spring of 2015, marking the end of energy production in the shadow of the Castle Gate. On Friday, October 17 our Haunted Tours take place in the heart of Castle Gate. Join us as we visit the remains of the town, its cemetery and explore the haunted past. Learn about the headless miner, the death site below the cemetery, an unmarked cemetery, a killer sheriff and other history of the former town. Tickets are available at our store at the top of the hill on Price Main Street or by calling (435) 630-3699.
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 22:36:38 +0000
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