The Zion Cable Works of Cable Mountain

  The Cable Works along Zion National Park's "Cable Mountain Trail" were built as a means of shipping timer down from the high mountain forests to town below, such as Springdale, Utah. Prior to the cable works, it was not uncommon for one to have to bring in lumber, by horse-drawn wagon, from such distant places as  Mount Trumbull, Arizona, about 110 miles away. The original Cable Works at Zion were begun in the year 1900, overseen by a man named David Flanigan.

   The original cable works' 8 and a half foot square by 12 foot high wooden structure supported a large, double-tracked pulley which also had a brake set up 30 feet away from the  main structure. The cable works were in use by the year 1901. Over the course of the next five years, David Flanigan's cable works system had been used to send approximately 200,000 feet of finished lumber down Zion's canyon by means of a large basket attached to the cable. This ride down Zion Canyon was a 3,000 foot elevation change over a distance of about five miles. Naturally, the cable works would also be used to haul various types of produce and, one time, David Flanigan's dog, who was so afraid the entire ride that he never again dared to even come near the cable works. 

   Since the cable works structures were so prominently situated atop the mountain peak, they would commonly be struck by lightning and have to be rebuilt. On July 28, in 1908, one such lightning strike upon the structure even killed two boys, Thornton Hepworth Jr., and Lionel Stout. A third person, a young lady by the name of Clarinda Langston, was also present on the cable works when lightning struck it; but survived. The cable works were then used to transport the boys' bodies down the canyon.
   The cable works were used under Flanigan's direction until he sold out in 1907 to O.D Gifford and William R. Crawford, who continued to transport vast quantities of lumber until the final load of lumber was sent down Zion in 1926. The wires remained in place until 1929.