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The Coal Section

Historical Wyoming Coal Mine Information

Mining, Then and Now

Over the course of time the development of a western coal mine evolved from digging out and hauling coal by hand from an outcrop or tunnel to today's mechanical monsters of the plains.

Draglines and truck and shovel operations now remove up to several hundred feet of overburden in order to expose the coal. Conveyor belts and haul trucks transport hundreds of tons each minute to sophisticated automated silos that evenly distribute carefully measured loads onto unit trains. A man used to be paid by the number of tons he dug; today what took days of back breaking labor to dig can be moved in a matter of seconds by a single shovel operator.

The uses for coal have also changed, chunks of coal used to be burned in old stokers and forges for heating purposes. Today coal is crushed, pulverized and sprayed into furnaces to generate steam which is then used to generate electricity. Synthetic fuels or "synfuels" are also generated from Wyoming coal. Currently only a very small percentage of Wyoming's coal is used as form coke in steel manufacturing.

In the 1860's steam engines were starting to use coal instead of wood. The recognition of the western coal resource potential had only begun. Also, coal's high Btu ( British Thermal Units ) made it more favorable to burn than wood. The benefits of using coal were that it increased horsepower, increased the distance that steam engines of the time could travel and was readily available. Wyoming's abundance of coal and general topography in conjunction with the ongoing Civil War served as deciding factors on the choice of the northern route across southern Wyoming for the Transcontinental railroad.

T. A. Larson’s “History of Wyoming” brings out the character of development in Wyoming, put simply; Wyoming is a road to someplace else. Even during the construction of the Union Pacific railroad entire settlements picked up and followed the rails to the next end of rail town some 30 miles away. Some of these settlements remain today but others were not intended to be permanent. In southeastern Wyoming the towns of Sherman and Carbon were short lived, only the impressions of a few meant to last structures and their cemeteries remain. After the railroad was built, what remains along Wyoming’s southern boarder are the U.P. rail line, five cities and a thriving coal industry.

For more information regarding the history of the railroads and coal in Wyoming click on one of the following links.

Impacts of Coal in Wyoming

Carbon was the first company town in Wyoming and was founded in 1868 north of the Medicine Bow Mountains. Later that year The Wyoming Coal and Mining Company opened the Rock Spring's No. 1 Mine. Southern Wyoming was the first part of the state to see development because of the railroad. Soon other mines were established along the rail line in order to feed the progress of the railroad industry.

The earliest exploitation of Wyoming coal was a bit of a scandal. At the time the Union Pacific Railroad (U.P.) owned the land and mineral rights along the east to west route but didn't own a mining company. In the late 1860's the Wyoming Coal and Mining Company was the Union Pacifics coal supplier. The problem for U.P. was that the coal company's stocks were owned by Oliver Ames (president of the Wyoming Mining and Coal Company) and five of the Union Pacific's directors. The company was able to sell coal at highly inflated prices to U.P.. As a result the U.P. formed the Union Pacific Coal Department in 1874 which took charge of the railroad's coal supply. Later the U.P.'s Coal Department found ways of profiting from its coal. The Coal Department was able to prevent competition of other coal contracts by influencing the Union Pacific to charge outrageous shipping costs to other coal suppliers. According to a report to the Secretary of the Interior on December 2, 1874, the Union Pacific was selling its Wyoming coal in Omaha, Nebraska. for nine dollars per ton while charging other coal suppliers ten dollars per ton for freight to Omaha.(Larson, 1965)

During the late 1860's and into the 1870's coal production in the state was over one million tons per year, and by 1890 that amount had reached nearly two million tons per year. By the turn of the century almost three million tons of coal were being mined. By 1890 however, the Union Pacific's wholly owned subsidiary the Union Pacific Coal Department had been replaced by the Union Pacific Coal Company which was producing most of the states coal from mines located near Rock Springs, Hanna and Carbon.(Larson, 1965)

Other independent mines in Wyoming were also contributing to the state's production of three million tons at the turn of the century. These mines were located in Sheridan, Newcastle, Glenrock, Inez, Diamondville and Kemmerer. Today, over a century later, Wyoming's annual coal production is over 400 million tons. The bulk of the production, is produced from the Powder River Basin mines in Campbell and Converse Counties located in the northeastern part of the state.

For more information regarding Current and Historic Wyoming Coal Mining information click on one of the links below.

Coal Mine Disasters

Today mining practices emphasize safety above all else. Mines strive for the safest of working conditions for their miners, but sadly accidents do occur. Whether its a surface mine or an underground mine each has inherent hazards and risks associated with the task of mining coal. During the late the 1800's and after the turn of the century coal mining techniques hadn't fully developed to today's standards, but then like now every miner wanted to make it home for dinner.

On March 4, 1881 the first mine explosion west of the Mississippi claimed the lives of 38 miners at an Almy mine in Uinta County.

On January 13, 1886, at the U.P. Mine No. 4 mine a fire damp explosion killed 13 miners.

On March 20, 1894 a mine explosion at the Rocky Mt. Coal & Iron Mine No.5 Red Canyon seven miles from Evanston Killed 61 miners.

On 1895, another explosion at an Almy mine claimed the lives of 61 miners.

On December 26, 1898 a mine fire at the Diamondville No.5 killed 1 miner.

On February 12, 1899 a mine fire at the Diamondville No.1 killed 2 miners.

On February 25, 1901 a mine fire at the Diamondville No.1 took the lives of 28 miners.

On October 26, 1901 a mine explosion at the Diamondville Mine No. 1 took the lives of 22 miners.

On June 30, 1903 an explosion at the Union Pacific Coal Company's Mine Number One at Hanna killed 171 miners.

On December 1, 1905 at the Diamondville Mine No.1 18 miners died in a mine explosion.

On September 12,1907 a dust explosion killed 2 miners at the Rock Springs Mine No..

On March 28, 1908, again at the Union Pacific Coal Company's Mine number one, two explosions killed 58 miners.

On January 20, 1912 at the Kemmerer Mine No. 4 a mine explosion killed 6 miners.

On August 14, 1923 a mine explosion in Kemmerer at the Frontier No. 1 mine took the lives of 100 miners.

On September 16, 1924 39 miners died as a result of a mine explosion at the Sublet No. 5 mine.

On February 11, 1938 a mine explosion at the Vail Mine killed 5 miners.

This information about mine disasters in Wyoming was compiled by Cynthia S. Boyd.

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