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DRAGON, WATSON, RAINBOW, BONAZA AND IGNATIO |
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Most of the town of Dragon, or Dragon Junction, can be seen above. The Uintah Railway depot is to the left and the freight warehouse toward the right, with stables and freight wagons behind it, back near Evacuation Creek. in the right foreground building materials for the railway's hotel are stacked, and the narrow-gauge Pullman nearby is apparently serving as an interim hotel while the permanent one is under construction just out of the picture to the left of the freshly graded area. |
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(Both: F. A. Kennedy photos; left: Charles J. Neal Collection; right: V. L. McCoy Collection) |
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RAINBOW: Rainbow was more important, located four miles to the southwest of Watson and situated right over the Rainbow mine. The railroad spur to Rainbow, also laid in 1911, crossed over the Gilsonite vein in a sweeping curve to facilitate loading of the mineral; a wye then allowed the engine to change positions for the trip back down the tight canyon. Strictly a mine town, Rainbow consisted of two rows of houses, mostly of lag construction, built along the ridge near the mine. The mines produced most of the railroad tonnage after 1911.
WATSON: Watson was named after Uintah Railway civil engineer, Wallace G. Watson, who laid out the railway extension from Dragon to Watson in 1911 along Evacuation Creek. The town was never very big mainly being a railroad terminus. It did contain a depot, post office and freight house, other railroad facilities and the railroad-owned Watson Hotel. There were also several houses, dugouts, and a couple of general stores. One of the more humorous episodes in Uintah County history involved the Uintah Railway and Watson. In 1914 the U.S. government increased the weight limit of a parcel post package to 50 pounds which made it cheaper for shipments to go by mail rather than by overland stage freight, railroad freight charges or Railway Express. As a result great numbers of odd items went through the Dragon and Watson post offices on the railroad mail trains, then by truck or stage to Vernal by the same route or even longer as regular freight. Everything from groceries to auto parts including a whole carload of cement went through. The final straw was the shipment of 13,100 bricks totaling 35 tons for building the Bank of Vernal. Each brick was individually wrapped, rubber stamped with the address, stamped and mailed. This is the only known instance of a bank being sent through the mails.
DRAGON: Gilsonite is a black, solid hydrocarbon, occurring in vertical veins and is found in commercial quantities only in one place in the world - the Uintah Basin of Utah and partly in western Colorado. It is found in the Uintah Formation which runs for miles in a northwest to southeast direction across the Basin. Veins run from a fraction of an inch to 22 feet wide; most of the veins are 4-8 feet wide, and 100-2000 feet deep. It was first discovered in the 1860's - 70's but not mined commercially until the 1880's by Samuel H. Gilson of Salt Lake City. Prof. William P. Blake in 1885 described the mineral originally as Uintahite. but it was soon called Gilsonite to honor Samuel Gilson who helped bring it into prominence for commercial purposes. The main uses for the mineral are in asphalt tile, storage battery cases, paints, inks, building paper, insulation material for steam and, water pipes, gasoline, metallurgical coke and caulking for beer barrels. The town of Dragon grew up on the flats 1.5 miles down from the Black Dragon mine, named for the Gilsonite deposit on the surface of the ground in the shape of a black dragon. In 1903-04 the General Asphalt Company, through its subsidiary Barber Asphalt Paving Company, constructed a narrow gauge railroad from Mack, Colorado, toward Dragon and the mine. This railroad, known as the Uintah Railway, was to become famous for its steep grades and extremely sharp curves. Because of the extreme sharpness of several curves over Baxter Pass some of the locomotives were too long so they were pulled over the curves on special wheels, then reassembled on the Utah side to spend the rest of their lives only in the Uintah Basin. The town was first called Dragon Junction, as passengers and freight were put off for the stage or wagon trip to Vernal, while the railroad continued up to the mine. The mine was located in 1888 and included a tiny village called Dragon Camp. When the railroad was finished to Dragon, the town had a depot, warehouse, locomotive shops, Uintah Railway Hotel, a store, boarding house, several homes, two saloons, a barber shop and became much bigger than the mining camp itself. In 1910 the Uintah Railway warehouse burned down, hundreds of tons of freight were destroyed; it became the greatest fire loss ever seen in northeastern Utah until that time. Gilsonite stored caught fire from a locomotive, producing a very hot fire with continuous fuel supply. A bucket brigade saved the baggage, express and telegraph buildings nearby but the warehouse, freight store rooms, platforms and ramps were destroyed. An engine pulled several cars of Gilsonite away from the inferno, saving most of it awaiting shipment. A public library was built in Dragon in 191O and for anyone along the railroad who borrowed a book the Uintah Railway delivered and returned it free. Many stockmen and miners in the region took great advantage of the opportunity. Also in 1910 the Uintah Railway started using automobiles to transport passengers from Dragon to Vernal, thus phasing out stage coaches. In 1908 a fire started on one section of the Gilsonite vein at the Dragon mine and was still burning in 1910 but by then most of the mining was in areas north of Dragon. Then in 1911 the town went into a moderate decline as immediate mines closed down and the railroad terminus was moved to Watson 9.5 miles north. Enough people remained, however, to support a new school house in 1917. |
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By 1938 mining operations were switched to Bonanza 15 miles north of Watson where the company offices are presently located, and the Rainbow mines stopped production. The towns died rapidly and the railroad was abandoned in 1939 when mining operations ceased in Rainbow and Dragon and there was no other source of traffic for the line. Gilsonite from Bonanza was trucked to Vernal or Craig, Colorado. By 1939, just before abandonment, Watson had a population of 10, Dragon still had 72, mostly railroad workers, and Rainbow was gone - the lag houses had been moved to Bonanza. Mast well-built homes were sold or moved, others left to the elements. The entire Gilsonite area is very desolate. Only those sincerely interested in Gilsonite history or old home sites would find this long, dusty trip worthwhile. Even mare desolate is the road, the old narrow gauge railroad bed, from Dragon to Mack, Colorado, 45 miles south. The vistas are superb over Baxter Pass with not much chance of a traffic jam. Paved State Highway 45 exits 24 miles east of Vernal and runs southward 23 miles to Bonanza. Although this town is not a ghost, it is worthwhile to observe the lag buildings as mast of them were once the town of Rainbow. Highway 45 beyond Bonanza is unpaved although graded and passable. Several cabins remain at Ignatio 3.3 miles further south. The old bridge is still intact but unused next to a new concrete one. Only a few dugouts, loading pens and bottle fragments are left at Watson. The road to Rainbow fords the creek in Watson and may be bad when a flash flood goes through. At 12.4 miles south from the Watson junction start noticing shacks and other remains of Dragon. More dugouts are seen in the hillside to the west. The hotel cellar is at the 12.6 miles mark. The entire town site is so overgrown with six to eight foot tall sage brush and other bushes, that photographing the remaining buildings is difficult. It is hard to imagine so much heavy growth in just 30 years. Rainbow is the place to see the actual mines. Several good views of the vertical vein are noted within a short distance northwesterly from the empty Gilsonite wagon straddling the vein. The vein is 10-12 feet wide at Rainbow and one can see it extending far miles through the hills. Many good chunks of Gilsonite are still present for examination. |
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