Rock Springs: A Coal Town And An Identity Crisis

Описание: A driver on Interstate 80 sees little evidence of Rock Springs’ coal mining past, even though shuttered mine entrances from a century-long boom are just a few hundred yards away.

Today, some residents don’t know much about the town’s legacy industry, even though coal’s departure gutted the community nearly 70 years ago. 

Until recently, unstable underground mines caused sinkholes that damaged city infrastructure. Now that clean-up is coming to an end with a project to shore up old coal tunnels under I-80. 

As the threat of these old mines collapsing underneath parts of the city fades, Cowboy State Daily visited Wyoming’s fifth-largest town to see what’s left of these old tunnels and the work to shore them up.


Photographs / Diagrams Courtesy of:

Rock Springs Historical Museum, Rock Springs, Wyoming

Sweetwater County Historical Museum, Green River, Wyoming

wyomingtailsandtrails.com

Western Archaeological Services 

Hallman, David & Nuttall, Jeffrey & Zimmerman, Vicky & Locke, Bill. (2010). 
History of Coal Mine Subsidence in Rock Springs, Wyoming. 


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