The Black Diamonds of Wyoming

In 1909 the state's coal mine inspector reported that Sheridan County held more tons of coal than any field in the country west of the Mississippi. It was sub-bituminous coal that burned in small particles, and the Burlington rebuilt the furnace grates on its locomotives to take it, becoming the mines' customer as well as their carrier. By 1920 the state's northern coal district, Sheridan's, was producing nearly three million tons a year. Researchers count some 10,000 people in the camps by 1908, more than twice as many as lived in Sheridan.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Connor Battlefield State Historic Site — 5.1 mi
  In 1865 General Connor's troops attacked Black Bear's Arapaho village here while many of its men were away; women and children died with the warriors.
• Trail End State Historic Site — 8.8 mi
  A Texas trail hand's Flemish Revival mansion, five years in the building, that he barely lived in once Wyoming sent him to the governor's office and the Senate.
• Sheridan Inn — 8.8 mi
  A hunting-lodge hotel with sixty-nine gables, where Buffalo Bill is said to have auditioned Wild West acts from the porch.
• Rosebud Battlefield State Park — 22 mi
  The ridges where Crook's column was stopped eight days before the Little Bighorn, remembered by the Cheyenne for one woman's ride.

More markers nearby

• Mine Communities Supply Miner Needs — 2.9 mi
• Mines Shape a Community — 4.8 mi
• Connor Battlefield State Park — 5.1 mi
• The Battle of Tongue River — 5.1 mi