Place:Wales, Sanpete, Utah, United States

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Wales is a town in Sanpete County, Utah, United States. The population was 219 at the 2000 census. The town is governed by a mayor and several council members. As of December 2008, Wales had no stores, gas stations nor stop lights. It does have a park, fire station, library and cemetery.

The small mining town of Wales was named for the country of the immigrants that were sent there by Brigham Young in 1854 to mine the "rock that burns". A Native American named Tabison, a prominent Ute, had shown Young, then president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a small sample. Young recognized it as coal and asked if any of his group knew how to mine the coal. Some Welsh immigrants including John Evans Rees and his cousin John Price, having experience with coal mining in the U.K., volunteered and were sent to the west side hills to set up mines.

The community's original name was Coal Bed, but was changed to Wales in 1857. There once was a railroad depot and it was an important and busy mining center. The mines and train were abandoned when more productive mines were discovered in Scofield, Utah. Many of the present residents are descendants of the original miners.

Wales lies on the west side of the Sanpete Valley, at the foot of the Sanpitch Mountains.

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