My daddy said, don’t ever be a miner
For a miner’s grave is all you’ll ever own
‘Cause the hard times are everywhere
I can’t find a dime to spare
These are the worst times I’ve ever known
Written by Bruce Utah Phillips
Wyoming’s economy has been centered on mining for over a century. When people talk of mines, it’s most often coal, in places like Gillette and Sheridan, or perhaps Hanna, Reliance, or Superior, and there were many others.
Jeffrey City had a uranium boom from the 1950s to 1979. The ghost town of Gebo was a major player on the Chicago Quincy and Burlington railroad into World War II, and Hartville and Atlantic City once operated vibrant iron mines.
A gold rush at South Pass brought thousands to the mountains after the Civil War. Copper, iron, and gold led to now-abandoned mining above Lost Cabin and Lysite near Birdseye Pass with ghost towns like DePass, Deranch, and Glance.
In the Wind River and Big Horn Basin, coal was once king as well. A band of coal just below the surface, often called the Rock Springs Field, stretches intermittently from Sweetwater County to Billings, Montana. It’s bisected by the Wind River Mountain Range but remains one of the largest, mostly untapped coal fields in the United States.
Coal was first “officially” discovered in the Wind River Country around 1870, but diaries from earlier travelers on the Oregon Trail mention outcroppings along their route west through what would become central Wyoming.
Mining surface coal began soon after 1870 with many small operations, known as “wagon mines” operating from the future area between Riverton and Shoshoni and Ft. Washakie on the Wind River Reservation.
Coal was found everywhere in territorial Sweetwater County, Wyoming, which encompassed a vast area until Fremont County was carved out of it in 1884.
Fremont County’s coal mining industry centered on Hudson, a town founded by coal miners already hard at work in 1909. This is the story of Hudson coal.
Coal is an excellent fuel, but it’s heavy, awkward to handle in bulk form, and difficult to transport. In 19th-century America, coal was king. It was the power source that replaced water-powered mills as the Industrial Revolution took over the Western World. It also, more famously in the West, powered locomotives that brought eastern goods to settlers across the isolated plains and foothills of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains.
Hudson had well-known veins of coal, some almost 10 feet thick. They were near the surface and easy to mine with just a pick and shovel. Add a little dynamite or black powder, and the near-surface mining became even easier.
The Chicago North Western Railroad served a dual purpose in developing the coal mines of Hudson. First, it provided transportation to all points east, as far as Chicago, and second, it was the fuel that ran the locomotives.
The Chicago North Western rolled through what is now Hudson in the late summer of 1906 on its way to the westward terminus of the railroad in Lander.
The heart of modern-day Hudson was a homestead established by George Rogers in 1891. Rogers died five years later, but his widow and brother-in-law, Daniel Hudson, sold the homestead to the Hudson Coal Company.
The Chicago North Western was greatly interested in Hudson Coal and reached an agreement through J.C. Hickey for production at two mines. They called the mines Poposia 1 and Poposia 2 in reference to the Popo Agie River that flows through the western part of the little town.
Hudson Coal was a subsidiary of Hudson Oil, a company that drilled and found oil throughout the Wind River Valley.
Beginning in September 1906, the Popo Agie Valley Townsite Company began selling lots in the new town of Hudson.
In 1909, Hudson was incorporated, changing from a company town to an independent municipality. There were an estimated 1,500 residents already living there. All of them were miners or associated with businesses that supported the mine.
In June 1911, the Poposia Coal Company was incorporated. Headlines in the Hudson Miner of June 30, 1911, reflected the excitement generated by the new company.
H.O. Barber, former manager of the Hudson Coal Company, took charge of the new mining operation.
Wild exaggerations promising 16,000 tons a day of production, the creation of a new town named “Poposia” closer to the mine than Hudson, and the building of an immense company store full of furniture, groceries, dry goods, clothing, and other merchandise sold a lot of copies of the Miner over the next few weeks.
An underground mining force of 150 men was predicted, four miles of track were laid connecting the mine directly to the Chicago North Western Depot in Hudson, and equipment, including huge shaker screens, a box car loader, and an electric generator, were ordered. It was estimated that the Poposia Coal Company spent $250,000 just to get the operation into production, an outlay of $8,750,000 today.
An extensive study of the coal fields of Wyoming was conducted from 1908 to 1910 by the United States Geological Survey. The report encompassed 565 pages of detailed analysis, economic development data, and comparisons of coal from the various regions of Wyoming and nationally.
The board of directors of the Poposia Coal Company should have paid better attention to the details of this intensive study.
The quality of Hudson coal was nearly identical to that being mined 60 miles to the north at Gebo. It should have been, they are in the same coal-bearing strata.
US Geological Survey Report 1910
“The most extensive bed in the region is in the Hudson field, where coal is mined from it by the Hudson Coal Co., the Wyoming Central Coal Co., and others. The thickest bed without partings is in the Alkali Butte field, and the greatest number of beds at Powder River. “
In a classic case of quantity over quality, the mine owners ignored another important aspect of the report.
US Geological Survey Report 1910
“Coal from the Wind River region is best adapted for a domestic fuel, but it has been employed satisfactorily under stationary boilers, in lime kilns and similar places where forced draft is not required. Previous to the fall of 1910, it had not been accepted for locomotive use, though it is known that very similar coal is used successfully for locomotives in which specially designed grates and screens have been introduced. In fire boxes where the draft is not strong the coal ignites readily and burns freely without forming large clinkers or producing excessive smoke, but it does not hold a bed of fire so long as coal which does not burn so freely. Under forced draft, however, it breaks up before burning and part of the coal is blown from the grates and exhausted through the stack before it is consumed. This condition results in a loss of unburned coal, requires the handling of fuel from which no heat is obtained, and is the cause of many fires, especially in railroad use. A considerable domestic trade along the Chicago & Northwestern Railway in Wyoming, Nebraska, and South Dakota receives its supply from the Hudson field. It is reported that this railroad has attempted to use the coal from the Hudson field in the engines running between Lander and Casper, Wyo., but the first experiments proved unsatisfactory to the railroad officials because too large a percentage of unconsumed coal was blown from the stacks.”
Compared to eastern coal mined in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, Wyoming coal was much lower in BTU and much lighter, crumbling easily after it was exposed to sunlight and air. It was much lower in sulfur content as well, a factor that eventually led to the coal boom in Sheridan and Gillette beginning in the 1970s.
Hudson coal couldn’t be transported in open cars. It crumbled to dust, and the top layer blew away as the cars headed east. The Poposia Coal Company began loading coal into covered cars, or boxcars, to prevent loss, but this method proved to be much more time-consuming and expensive.
Despite the shortcomings in comparison to eastern coal, the mine was a success and quickly became the largest employer in Fremont County, with a peak workforce of 300 miners.
Mining paid well, better than farming and ranching, and on par with the railroad, but it was the most dangerous work imaginable.
Not only were cave-ins, floods, entanglement in machinery, and explosive accidents common, so were epidemics that spread through the miners in crowded, damp working conditions and quickly infected their families as well.
Want ads looking to hire miners were in nearly every edition of the Hudson Miner, the Copper Mountain Miner, the Lander Clipper, and the Riverton Republican.
The tragedies that befell these miners and their families also made front page news.
Hudson Miner June 11, 1915
Killed by Rock Fall
“Mike Enich, a native of Austria employed at the Poposia coal mine was accidentally killed this afternoon in No. 5 North main entry by a rock falling on him and crushing his head and body. He was working within three feet of Adam Rogers at the time of the accident. Coroner Middlekauff will hold inquest this evening.”
Many of the miners were recent immigrants from eastern Europe, with Serbians, Croatians, Cheches, Poles, Austrians and Germans all working the mines.
Not all the miners were upright citizens. Crime, especially drunken brawling in town after work, was commonplace.
Hudson Miner February 6, 1914
Gets a Jail Sentence
“Nick Pedro, a miner at Poposia was hauled before the bar of Judge Bussard’s court on Tuesday afternoon charged with the purloining of a pocketbook the property of Alex Oceanas, another miner, and the contents of the purse was in the neighborhood of twenty dollars.
The justice found that the evidence was all against Mr. Pedro so he administered a fine of $50 and a sentence of thirty days in the county jail to boot. The prisoner was taken to Lander on Wednesday by Deputy Hull.”
The Hudson Miner October 20, 1916
Strange Shooting at Poposia
“Gaber Masters, a Hungarian was found lying on a mattress in Na. 23 at Poposia on last Sunday morning, by neighbors, with a bullet hole in his temple.
He was rushed by automobile to the Randall Hospital but he never recovered consciousness and died that evening.
The coroner’s jury meditated for two days on the case and returned the verdict of death from a gunshot wound at the hands of parties unknown.
All the bedclothes and furniture were burned in a pile in the yard but as no one ever heard any trouble during the night the mystery is still unsolved.”
Some of the crimes bordered on comedy.
THE MINER HUDSON, FREMONT COUNTY, WYOMING FRIDAY, DEC. 13, 1913
TRIED TO SET FIRE To BUNKHOUSE
Disgruntled, Drunk, Dominick Moniette, Ex-employee, Sets Building on Fire and Assaults Geo. Race
“Tuesday morning one Dominick Moniette, a coal miner who hails from Roundup, Mont., but whose home is in Collinsville, Ill., took aboard a cargo of red liquor and proceeded to climb the hill to the Poposia coal mine from the ranks of whose employed he had been discharged for some cause.
He was accompanied by a lone companion, Jacob Koch, who had also been imbibing too strongly of that stuff known as “Dutch courage.”
In their arrival at the camp they went to the bunkhouse and Koch laid down to rest. Moniette, however, wished to indulge in some property destroying act that would show his erstwhile employers that he knew how to get even. To begin with he smashed some of the furniture and armed with table leg for a weapon he broke all the windows in the building and then set fire to it in three places. As he did this, Koch, whose tendencies evidently did not run that way, endeavored to stop the arson fiend and received a smash on the dome for his pains.
Moniette, who is one of those who is one of those that have a mistaken idea that the product turned out by the Standard Oil company and sold as kerosene, will aid in spreading properly constructed fire, took a can of that oil and threw it on the flames with the unlooked for result of extinguishing the blaze.
About this time someone had told George Race, the storekeeper, that things were doing and he proceeded to the bunkhouse to stop the actions of the drink-crazed maniac, but was forced to retreat before the flourishing table leg.
He sent in a hurried call over the telephone to the company offices in Hudson and immediately reinforcements in the shape of Manager H.O. Barber, T. C Tonkin and Deputy Sheriff Hull proceeded at top speed in Mr. Barber’s Lozier to the scene of the disturbance. The fire bug resisted the efforts of the officer to arrest him but was finally handcuffed and brought to the Hudson jail.
Wednesday he was given a preliminary hearing on the charge of committing arson and also for attempting to commit murder on the person of George Race. To the first he plead guilty but to the second not guilty. Justice Bussard bound him over to the next district court in the sum of $750 for each charge. Jacob Koch was bound over as a witness in the sum of $500 and in default of the same the two were taken to Lander and turned over to Sheriff Johnson.”
Some of the tragedies of early 20th century life awaited the hardworking miners at home. One especially tragic case shocked Fremont County and the entire Rocky Mountain region.
The Shoshoni Enterprise VOL. XVL, NUMBER 52
Shoshoni, Wyoming, Friday, May 3, 1929
MRS. RUDOLPH VESCO. ONE SON AND TWO DAUGHTERS VICTIMS
Investigation Shows Botulism Developed From Home Canned Beans Served at Sunday Evening Meal
FUNERAL THURSDAY AFTERNOON BURY FOUR IN ONE GRAVE
“Death to four persons in one family was the toll taken by ptomaine poisoning this week when Mrs. Rudolph Vesco, wife of a Hudson coal miner, and three of eight children in the family died after they had eaten home-canned string beans with their Sunday evening meal. Mrs. Vesco was aged 43 years and her death occurred in Bishop Randall hospital here where she had been taken Monday.
The children figuring in the tragedy were Rudolph, Jr., aged 8, Fanny, aged 7; and Violet, aged 6. The Vesco s are Austrians. The boy was the first of the four to succumb to botulism after becoming violently ill during Sunday night. The Replogle-Holtz clinic here was advised of the case and Hr. Holtz hurried to Hudson immediately upon receipt of the call, but the lad had expired before the doctor arrived. Turning his attention to Mrs. Vesco. who had become ill. Dr. Holtz had her brought to the Lander hospital where her death occurred a few hours later.
Fanny and Violet did not develop symptoms of poisoning until Monday afternoon. They were reported to have been at school where they were taken and were given treatment by Doctors Holtz and Replogle. The children were brought to the Lander hospital and both cases developed.”
It was a hard life for miners. Conditions in the mines were dangerous on the best day. Just before the Poposia was reaching full production, two separate mining disasters killed 228 miners in Hanna, working in a similar coal mine. A methane explosion in 1903 took the lives of 169 miners, and five years later, a cave-in trapped 18 men. As a rescue party of 41 men dug into the mine, it exploded, killing all 59 men.
The Hudson coal was regarded as substandard by many locals, especially those living in Riverton and farming in the Pavillion and Shoshoni areas. Ironically, these customers preferred the coal mined at Gebo even though it was chemically identical to the Poposia product.
Developing higher-speed trains and improved highways spelled the end of Hudson coal mining. The Pennsylvania and West Virginia coal, with its higher BTU, was preferred by the railroads and brought to all 48 states, ending demand for Poposia coal in locomotives.
Home heating and huge coal-fired electric facilities were two generations away, and the mines slowly lowered production.
Diesel locomotives, and diesel-powered ships, greatly lowered the demand for coal nationwide.
The town suffered as well. In its heyday, Hudson sported movie theaters, hotels, restaurants, a dozen churches, a K-12 school (proud home of the Hudson Outlaws), a telephone exchange, and an electric powerplant.
By 1941, all coal production came to an end. A few locals still offered “wagon coal,” but that, too, was gone by the 1950s.
The coal remains in the Popo Agie Valley, but the railroad was abandoned in 1981, ending low-cost transport, and the demand for coal nationwide is fading as cleaner natural gas has replaced it in power plants.