An interesting tidbit.
The largest city in eastern Utah, Price (pop. 8,712) is located roughly midway between the I-15 and I-70 freeways,
65 miles northwest of Green River. Coal is so prevalent in the area that roadcuts reveal solid black seams, but the
town itself is lush and green, thanks to irrigation provided by the Price River, which flows south from town into
the Green and Colorado Rivers.
Coal mining, and to a lesser extent agriculture, still power Price, and you won't miss much by following the
bypass around the town center. That said, the small Prehistoric Museum at 155 E. Main Street (daily 9 am-6 pm
in summer; donations) is worth a look for its extensive displays on the Native American cultures of the region,
and for its range of full-sized dinosaur skeletons, including a stegosaurus and a mammoth. Many of these were
reassembled from fossils collected from the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, 30 miles south of town.
Price also has all the highway services travelers might need: numerous gas stations, places to eat, and six
motels, including a Days Inn.
Southwest from Price, bound for Green River and the I-70 freeway, US-6/191 runs alongside the busy Denver
and Rio Grande mainline railroad through a region of arid plateaus highlighted every few miles by brilliantly
colorful, weirdly sculpted sandstone mesas. Though barren and empty at first glance, the region is particularly
rich in two things: coal mines and, more unusually, dinosaur bones. (Why do you think they call them fossil
fuels?) |
