The end of an era

My father was a coal miner.

After learning about Bridger Coal Company’s plans to close its underground mine, I found myself thinking about him and his work. He was a miner throughout much of his life, spending a lot of his years working underground. He was one of the first people to work at Bridger’s underground mine and was one of the last to leave the Stansbury Mine when it was operated by Arch Minerals.

He took me into the Stansbury Mine when I was 11 as part of an open house at the mine. We lied about my age to get me on a tour of the coal mine and I distinctly remember the sense of awe and excitement I felt walking through the portal and into the mine itself. My father didn’t want his son to work in one of those “pits” and his exact words to me are absolutely unprintable. But, I wonder what it was he enjoyed about work underground.

I don’t remember if life for our family was rough following the Stansbury Mine’s closure, but I think they were because my father sold his prized Harley to make ends meet while he was unemployed. He ended up getting a job at the Bridger Coal Company afterward, running heavy equipment at the surface mine. A few years later, when plans for the underground mine were solidifying, he was asked to be one of the first to work the new mine, which was established in 2004. He jumped at the opportunity, but eventually ended up bidding back to the surface.

He clearly loved working underground and I’ve always wondered why. I’ll never have the opportunity to ask him, but it was always clear whenever I heard him talk to friends and former coworkers about working underground. I have to admit, I still feel the excitement I did when I walked around the Stansbury Mine whenever I have a chance to tour one of the trona mines. Those opportunities are few and far between and have occurred only a small handful of instances in my 11 years working here.

Perhaps it was the camaraderie as well. Underground mining is an inherently dangerous occupation, regardless of the many safety systems and equipment in place to keep miners safe. Like law enforcement or firefighters, there’s a unique sense of family amongst miners that develops due to the nature of the job.

The work and the dangers associated with it are unique and only known to those that have been there themselves.

Coal remains an important resource in Sweetwater County, but anyone can see its days are coming to an end.

Underground coal mines built Rock Springs and the county, with places like Reliance and Superior remaining testament to the importance it had in fueling the Union Pacific’s locomotives and later powering the west coast.

Remnants of that history can be seen everywhere with the right kind of eyes. While underground mining still exists through the trona industry, coal mining itself is looking to soon be a thing of the past.

As local leaders hope the county is selected as a pilot location for Rocky Mountain Power’s proposed Natrium nuclear plant and with Bridger’s underground mine closing, it really is the end of an era for Sweetwater County and Wyoming.