Peabody Powder River Mining LLC history

The first record of a coal deposit in Wyoming was in 1843 by the second Frémont Expedition.

In 1863, John Bozeman established the Bozeman Trail up the east side of the Bighorns as a route for settlers and prospectors from the North Platte River emigrant trails to newly discovered gold fields in Montana.

Commercial mining for coal in Wyoming began with the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1867.

Finally, the 1868 Fort Laramie treaty granted the whole northeast corner of what is now Wyoming to the Indians, who burned the hated forts the army had built along the Bozeman Trail to the ground as the troops marched away.

In 1875, company executives cut the work rate paid to miners by one-fifth, but kept charging the same coal prices to its buyers.

As the summer of 1876 approached, three armies moved toward the northern Bighorns seeking Indians who hadn’t moved to the agencies: Gen.

Meanwhile, in 1878, Cantonment Reno, an army supply base at the Bozeman Trail crossing of the Powder River, had been renamed Fort McKinney and moved to a site on Clear Creek officially opening the Powder River country to white settlers.

Nearby is a restored Union Pacific Coal Company house dating from 1890.

Dietz, the oldest Sheridan coal camp, opened in 1893.

The Aladdin Coal Tipple, dating back to 1898, allows visitors a look at the coal mining history of Crook County.

In 1899 the railroad was relocated to Hanna, just northwest of Carbon, to avoid climbing a steep grade.

In 1904 the Eaton brothers set up Wyoming’s first dude ranch east of Sheridan.

A 1907 report by the Wyoming State Geological Survey (WSGS) noted, “coal was the principal mineral product of Wyoming, constantly increasing in volume” as the railroad’s demand for the product grew.

The bridge was built in 1913.

The last mine closed in 1963, when Rock Springs had turned to other extractive industries such as oil and natural gas.

In 2010, Campbell County, where most of the Powder River Basin coal mines are located, produced nearly $4.5 billion worth of taxable minerals, more than any other Wyoming county.