We will take you on a tour of a typical open pit mine in the Powder River Basin of NE Wyoming.

There are 17 mines in this area digging coal from the same coal bed, the Wyodak, which is 100 feet thick. It is one of the thickest, wide spread coal beds in the world.

We will start with a look at the Powder River Basin then proceed to one of the mines. All visitors to a mine must pass a safety course. However, for our virtual trip, we can skip it. In the real world, it is important as safety is a major concern of all mines and these are very safe! When you see the size of the machines you will wonder how that can be.

Before we get started lets look at where these coal mines are located in the United States.