Oct. 12--Being designated a National Scenic Byway, the Huntington-Eccles Canyons road naturally has plenty of pretty scenery.

What makes it distinctive is an emphasis on industry amid that beauty.

"The Energy Loop" is the nickname of the three-pronged byway, a moniker that reflects the pride felt by residents of the counties at the base of each prong -- Emery, Carbon and Sanpete -- for their contributions to keeping lights on in people's homes across the West.

"We're so proud of the energy produced along that byway, the gas that's extracted, the coal," said Kathy Hanna-Smith, Castle Country Travel Region executive director. "The road gives the visitor an idea of the energy industry and how important it is to our economy and our lifestyle. So much is produced in Carbon and Emery counties -- and we like to tout it."

It shows through clearly on the 86 miles of byway.

A central stretch of the route runs side by side for two miles with a covered conveyor belt delivering coal cut in the Skyline mine -- 2.4 million tons annually -- to a massive loadout silo. The 15,000 tons of coal the silo can store produces enough energy to power 4,784 American homes for a year, said Kim Link, spokesman for the mine owner, Arch Coal Inc.

Near the mouth of Huntington Canyon is Rocky Mountain Power's coal-fired Huntington power plant, source of much of the Wasatch Front's electricity.

And on two ends of the byway there is testimony to the dangers of mining: a cemetery in Scofield, where more than half of the 200 victims of the 1900 Winter Quarters explosion are buried, and a new monument in Huntington, where the faces of nine miners killed last year in the Crandall Canyon mine are memorialized in bronze.

"We're the only byway like that in the country," said Mike McCandless, who doubles as Emery County's Travel Bureau chairman and its economic development director. "In my research, I've not found a byway so industry focused. Everything else is really cool roads or really pretty scenery, and we have both of those."

Not to mention recreation. Fishing in rippling Huntington Creek or in the calmer depths of Scofield Reservoir or -- here comes that energy reference again -- Electric Lake. Hunting in the high plateau's woods and gullies. Snowmobiling and snowkiting on wide-open meadows near the byway's plateau-top intersection with Skyline Drive.

The direct economic impact of a byway such as this is hard to quantify, said McCandless.

It's not as much as he would like, figuring most Wasatch Front visitors just take the loop between Colton and Fairview and skip the longer leg to Huntington.