In the fall of 1858, freighter William H. Smith, hauling freight between Salt Lake City and Fort Bridger, Wyoming, drove into the campground on Chalk Creek and noticed that spilled wheat had taken root, grown, and ripened, leading him to think it would be a good location for a farm center. The settlement was first called Chalk Creek, but after the discovery of coal, its name was changed to Coalville. About the same time, roving hunter and trapper Thomas Rhoades discovered outcroppings of coal after climbing a high knoll at what is now known as Skunk's Point to scan for game; he dug out samples with his knife, took them to Salt Lake City, and presented them to Brigham Young, who had offered a $1,000 award to anyone finding coal within 50 miles of Salt Lake City. In 1860, Brigham Young sent John Muir and Sam Fletcher to investigate. Camped in a large hawthorne patch at the forks in the canyon of Chalk Creek, they trailed a wounded deer into Grass Creek and found, beneath a ledge of rock, a vein of coal ten feet thick. This mine was opened on what is known as Lion's Hill by Daniel H. Wells, Bryant Stringham, and Stephen Taylor and was called Old Church Mine. Joel Lewis, H.B. Wilde, and Andrew Johnson were the first to open a mine near Coalville in what is now known as Allen Hollow, and Andrew Johnson also opened a mine at the head of Spring Hollow. The first mine operated in Spring Hollow was called the Black Diamond Mine, and another was called the Wasatch; Andrew Johnson sold that mine to W.H. Smith, who later sold it to the Weber Coal Company. The company ran the mine for many years and furnished work for many Coalville residents, who farmed in summer and worked in the Wasatch or Grass Creek mines in winter. In 1868, about the time the Allen Hollow mine was opened, three others were being opened: John Spriggs opened one that ran under the schoolhouse hill and under the town, though it was later abandoned, and John Booth opened a mine in Dexter's Hollow south of town. During the early days, hundreds of tons of coal were hauled mostly by ox teams to Salt Lake City. On January 16, 1867, the legislature approved an act incorporating the City of Coalville, and W.W. Cluff served as its first mayor from 1867 to 1871.