At the Sunnyside Jct. just off Highway 6 stands a monument erected by the Matt Warner Chapter 1900, E. Clampus Vitus, dedicated July 10, 1993. This monument tells about the Rock Asphalt plant. It says:
Rock asphalt was first mined at the top of Whitmore Canyon 15 miles NE of this location in the early 1890's. The mine closed in 1898 and reopened in 1903. It operated erratically until 1915 when it was forced to close due to the development of sheet asphalt. In 1927 another company tried to develop a rock asphalt industry. They spent over 1/2 million dollars on equipment including a 3 1/2 mile gravity powered aerial tramway. To promote the use of rock asphalt for paving, it was sold for $8.00 / ton even though production costs exceeded $16.00 / ton. This company went bankrupt in 1931 and the Rock Asphalt Company of Utah took over in 1932. The mine operated only about two months out of the year and eventually closed. Interest was rekindled in the 1970's but nothing ever developed.

The Sun - Feb 24, 1928

PUEBLO, Colo., Feb. 18 - Ownership of what is believed to be the largest deposit of rock asphalt in the world has been secured by a company being organized here and at the head of which are C.N. Power, president; John F. Cregan, vice; Ben Bergerman, its secretary; Dr. Herbert A. Black, treasurer, and Andrew McGovern, Jr., the other member of the board of directors. The company is to be known as the Utah Rock Asphalt corporation. There are two series of shares - common and the preferred. Ownership of what is believed to be the largest deposit of rock asphalt in the world has been secured. It is located thirty-three miles east of Price, and is the third deposit of its kind known to exist in this country. The enterprise, directors of the new company believe, promises soon to develop into one of the largest industries of the West, comparable perhaps to the property of the Utah Copper company at Bingham. When crushed and meshed, rock asphalt in the opinion of highway engineers, makes the finest road surfacing material in present use. It has been preferred for many decades in Europe, where small deposits have been discovered and opened, and is approved in the United States as a standard road surfacing material by the federal highway commission in some thirty states. Engineers estimate that the Utah deposit contains enough material to surface one hundred thousand miles of highways twenty feet in width. A.B. Christy and John P. Hutchinson, who acquired an option on this property two and a half years ago, will be associated with the company as sales managers. A complete statement just issued by Power says:

"The Utah Rock Asphalt corporation is a company organized under the laws of Colorado for the purpose of taking over and developing a deposit of rock asphalt located at Sunnyside, Carbon county, Utah. Rock asphalt is sandstone impregnated with bitumen just as some shales in Western Colorado are with petroleum. It is used as a road surfacing material. The quantity of rock asphalt is this deposit is practically unlimited. There is a whole mountain of it with no overburden. The estimate of the minimum quantity easily available is five hundred million tons. The engineers estimate that the amount is sufficient to keep the quarry in continuous opertion for a lifetime and to produce enough tonnage to provide surfacing for a hundred thousand miles of streets or roads. The Utah deposit is four hundred feet in depth and at least two miles in length. The next largest vein in this country, located in Kentucky, has a depth varing from five to twenty five feet. This latter deposit, according to officers of the company, is worked at a disadvantage through lack of transportaion facilities, though in spite of handicaps it markets five hundred thousand tons of rock asphalt a year. The Utah deposit, on the contrary, is located within five miles of a spur of the Denver and Rio Grande Western. Competent surveying engineers estimate that the Utah vein contains between two hundred and thirty five million and a billion tons of the material. It has a present market value of from five to six dollars a ton at the mine.

Mining equipment and machinery for the preparation of the rock will be installed as soon as possible and actual quarrying will begin in April. Contracts have been assured which will consume the production of the company for the first year of operation. The rock is prepared at the quarry by crushing and washing it through a quarter inch screen. No further preparation is necessary of its use as a road surfacing material. When laid two and a half inches thick it compresses to one and five eights inches and becomes solid sandstone, which is practically indestructible. Under pressure it has the peculiar property of returning to the hard rock state. Highways upon which the material is used can be opened to traffic a few hours after rolling. This type of paving has several important advantages over any other, experiments in this country and abroad have shown. Because the rock is prepared in nature's laboratories over centuries of time the asphalt content is not affected by temperature changes. "Running" "rutting" and "bleeding," so common to asphalt in present general use are impossible, and hot and cold temperatures do not cause it to crack as in the use of concrete. The wear of continued use is almost negligible, engineers state.

Further advantage results from the ease with which the material can be laid. Requiring no prepartion for use it makes possible a saving in initial road costs of from 20 to 40 per cent. Maintenance appropriations can be substantially reduced as the surface is less affected by traffic than that of any other type of material. A number of highway engineers have asserted that rock asphalt will replace other materials for such purposes, although concrete will continue in use as a base. It is now in general use in Europe, where the supply is limited. The largest deposit over there is in Switzerland. The rock in the natural state is black, similar in texture to a hard form of sandstone. when meshed and prepared for use it appears as a black substance not unlike the asphalt now commonly in use on city streets. After being rolled and caused to reknit it assumes certain of its rock properties, but is somewhat more resilient.

Sun Advocate - October 9, 1947

Every story of western mining carries with it a hint of romanticism and the spirit of adventure that cannot be found in any other industry in the world. The history of brave men with visions of the good that can be derived from the hidden treasures of nature has always been and probably will continue to be a source of inspiration to those whose walks of life have carried them into the other fields of endeavor. There is something of a mystery about mining, whether underground or above, and one can't help but wonder at the strength of those who planned the industry into what it is today.

Utah's position as one of the leading states in the production of minerals is well know. Within its borders are found nearly every mineral of commercial importance. They hydrocarbon deposits of eastern Utah are enormous. Gilsonite and elaterite mines have been developed to a large extent and the products have been shipped to many parts of the world. Some of these hydrocarbons are perculiar, in that Utah is the only place in the world known where they are found.

Among the many natural resources Utah has within its borders is the deposit of rock asphalt found east of Sunnyside. This deposit is the largest and richest of natural rock asphalt in the United States and, perhaps, in the world. There are many deposits of rock asphalt within the United States and several plants are now processing large tonnage from those deposits for use in street and road constuction.

The Utah deposit which is owned by the Rock Asphalt company of Utah is estimated to contain some 800 million tons. It is estimated that the deposit contains enough rock asphalt to build three 64 foot roads completely encircling the globe.

The Sunnyside quarry is probably one of the most interesting in the country. Located 9,040 feet above sea level, the mineral is scooped out of the side of the mountain by huge shovels and is transported to the crushers in the valley eight miles away by means of huge buckets suspended on cables. The mountain in which the deposit is located is 10,000 feet high thus placing the diggings almost to the top. A private road leads to the mine winding up the mountain side and from there continues to top where, incidentally, is a deer hunter's paradise.

To have transported all of the heavy machinery to the quarry on the narrow road is an engineering fete within itself and is a source of wonder to the visitor.

Approximately 200 tons of rock asphalt are produced each nine hour working day from the present opening which ranges in thickness from 40 to 70 feet. Work is now going on to open a new face which is located several feet higher than the present working and which will open a vein ranging in thickness for 70 to 200 feet. The new section will also provide a much richer product. Initial tests have shown it to run at a minimum of 13 per cent bitumen. State specifications call for from 10 to 13 per cent bitumen with less than five per cent moisture content.

To obtain the asphalt, holes are drilled in the face and powder is used to blast the mineral loose. It is then loaded into trucks for transportation to the dump where it is picked up by the buckets which carry it down the canyon. The cable carrying the buckets is approximately 14 miles in length, seven miles of carrying cable and seven miles of track cable. Sixty three buckets are in use with the loaded buckets pulling the empties back to the mine. Each bucket carries 1200 pounds of asphalt and the round trip for each bucket takes 1 1/2 hours.

The mineral goes through a primary crusher before entering the buckets and is dumped into a storage bin at the bottom of the canyon. From here it is transported by trucks to the crusher at Sunnyside there it goes through two different sets of rolling mills before going through the final crushing process in a hammer mill. When the process has been completed the asphalt comes out of the mill in the form of powder as fine as flour. At this point it is loaded into railroad cars and trucks for distribution throughout the country. Each shipment is tested prior to distribution.

According to Eugene Pressett, superintendent of the Sunnyside operations, experiments are now being carried on by adding an oil emulsion to the crushed asphalt to develop a product that will withstand the lowest temperatures.

Rock asphalt, or bituminous sandstone as it is commercially known, is a mixture of asphalt and sand compressed by nature into hard rock which was formed by liquid oil, with an asphalt base, accumulating underground in some kind of geological trap. The sand which was originally laid down as a marine sand of fine and uniform texture was then covered in this manner by a pool of asphaltic base oil, which, due to extreme underground heat and pressure, allowed the bolatile matter to escape leaving a residue of pure asphaltum permeating this stratum of marine sand. This was followed by additional natural formative pressure which caused the sand to be completely permeated by and coated with asphalt to an average of about 10 per cent asphaltum and 90 percent pure silics sand. These sand particles are not merely suspended in the asphalt but every void and pore of the sand is permeated with asphaltum so that a complete breakdown of one grain of sand would give an assay comparable to a larger or average piece of rock asphalt.

Rock asphalt roads have been in use for many years. In fact, the first paved roads built in the world were of rock asphalt. History reports Paris built its first paved road of this material in 1854. The first paved street in the United States was built in 1872 in Union Square, New York City, of rock asphalt brought from Switzerland. The first street paved in Utah was old Commercial street in Salt Lake City and this was built in 1891 with rock asphalt brought from Santa Cruz, California. This started the development of the Utah deposits and in 1892 Richard street in Salt Lake City was paved with Utah rock asphalt and has been in continuous use for 17 years. The history of rock asphalt shows that it is the oldest known paving material and has been in continuous use since 1854.

At the present time, work is being completed on the laying of asphalt on every street in Dragerton including the driveways into every yard. Approximately 8000 tons of the material has been used on this project.

Production at the Sunnyside quarry is expected to close for this year on November 1 and during the winter months work is continued on stripping the earth and rock from off the top of the asphalt deposits to make ready for the next summer's production schedule. During the peak of the summer season 120 men are employed. At the present time only 35 are on the job. During the peak of the season, the payroll is some $25,000. per month. The workers are affiliated with the CIO Local No. 401, and Albert Leote, Price, is president.

Some of the men employed at the workings travel back and forth each day from Price while the others live in quarters clinging to the mountain side amidst mountain scenery that is a spectacle to view.

Photos donated by Don Butler.