Colorado Carbon Company was organized November 18, 1915 with an authorized capital of $50 000. The officers were T. E. Stevens, president; C.W. Holdrege, vice-president; and E. Leach, secretary. The corporation owned 31 claims (12 patented) on Kimball Creek, 27 miles from De Beque, Colorado. Small quantities of shale were shipped to Kansas City, Kansas and treated in a German retort in 1916. Five years later, shale from an open-cut mine was processed in a Thompson retort in Denver, Colorado.