From UTAH TREASURE ASSOCIATION Newsletter
Volume 4 Number 11
May 13, 2004
Cumberland, originally called "Little Muddy, was 17 miles south of Kemmerer on the Uinta County line. It consisted of four camps, Cumberland No. I, Cumberland No.2, South Cumberland, and Cumberland Gap. Coal camps in the Rocky Mountain West consisted of Company owned towns ("closed towns") in which everything, the store, the schools, the public hall, belonged to the Coal Company. Other towns, ("open towns"), such as Kemmerer or Diamondville, permitted private ownership of property and were open to outside businesses. Cumberland No. 1 and Cumberland No.2 were closed, and Cumberland Gap between the two and South Cumberland about a mile south in Uinta County were open.
There were as many as 25 mines in the Cumberland area. Today, all that is left are the remains of the Ziller Ranch, a saloon in Cumberland Gap, and the Cumberland Cemetery to the north of where Cumberland No.2 was located. Many of the miners in Cumberland - Diamondvill - Kemmerer area were from Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Indeed, at one time, Cumberland had one of the largest Slovene communities in Wyoming. Many came to Wyoming and Utah from southern Colorado following the Ludlow Massacre.
In addition to schools, a public hall, and the company store, Cumberland had two churches consisting of a Mormon Meeting House and a Catholic Church. Note these marked on the plat maps.
Editor's note: Cumberland has been hunted and dug a lot over the years, and some great items have been turned up, including trade tokens, coins, historical artifacts, hutch & straight side sodas and whiskey bottles & flasks from nearby Diamondville. Some of these items are still turning up now and then!
For more information on Wyoming Ghost Towns visit: http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com
