Mining memories

KENILWORTH, Carbon County — Growing up in this town, you got used to the sound of the trains, said Ronald Jewkes. "Just like you got used to the coal dust," added Evelyn Wilmonen.

Growing up in this town, you knew everyone, said Jewkes. "We didn't even go by house numbers." Or street names.

You picked up your mail at the post office, explained Wilmonen, who used to be the postmistress. For decades, mail arrived with only the simplest of addresses, just the name of the person and the name of the town — Kenilworth, Utah.

Kenilworth was a company town. But Kenilworth is different from most mine-owned towns, because Kenilworth is still here.

Heber Stowell might be said to be the founder of Kenilworth. He's the one who discovered the coal, in 1904, in the mountains about 10 miles east of Helper. By 1908, Independent Coal and Coke Co. owned the mine and had built a railroad and began building houses for the miners, who had been living in tents. By 1910, the town had a post office, restaurant, hotel, store, school and 500 people.

In those days nearly all the miners were immigrants. The Japanese miners were mostly single, living in a boarding house. Many of those who came from Greece or Italy were married, and their wives could be seen baking bread out of doors, in huge stone ovens.

By 1920 there were 800 residents. The company added a new section to the town. Some homes had two rooms, shotgun style, but most were four-room bungalows. Company managers lived high on the hill in what was called "Silk Stocking Row."

In the 1930s the company added a third tipple to sort the coal, and it was the largest tipple in the United States. The population of Kenilworth peaked in 1947 at more than 1,100. Today, there are about 100 families living in Kenilworth.

As for Ronald Jewkes, he was born here in 1927, delivered by the company doctor who would later deliver Jewkes' four children. His parents had met in Kenilworth, where his mother worked at the hospital and his father was a clerk at the Kenilworth Mercantile. Since he retired, Jewkes has become the unofficial town historian.

Evelyn Wilmonen came to Kenilworth in 1946, early in her marriage. Her husband and his cousin were both miners. She came reluctantly, intending to return as soon as possible to her hometown in Montana.

One of Wilmonen's early memories of the town is of a young Ron Jewkes delivering ice for her icebox. By that time, Jewkes' father, Cal, was running the Kenilworth store as well as several other company stores in nearby coal towns.