The Big Question for this minequest:

If the ghosts of coal miners and railroaders from the past visited today's world, what changes would they find the most disturbing, surprising, expected, or exciting at a modern day mine?

From Cassier’s Magazine in 1901 or 1902

In this minequest, you will take a trip into the history of coal mining and the people who labored to mine the coal, sometimes in very dangerous conditions.  You’ll come to understand what it was like in mining’s early days. Then you can travel time with some ghosts from the past.  Enjoy your journey.

Picture six horsemen riding across the sagebrush plain in Wyoming in 1843. They are a part of the Fremont Expedition. They stop for a short rest. Two of them dismount. The tallest, a thin, bearded man in a heavy cloth coat, pulls up his collar against the chilly wind. His companion, a stocky man in buckskins, loosens the straps of his saddle bag and retrieves a heavy canteen of water. The bearded man stares at the ground, then kicks a large black rock. It shatters on impact. He leans down and picks up a piece. "Coal," he announces smiling and hands it to his companion. Curious, they scan the area and find more coal amid the sagebrush. When they remount, the bearded man takes a notebook from his saddlebag and writes briefly. Then they resume their journey, riding toward the west and disappearing into the haze across the horizon. Later, those reading the journals of John C. Fremont, whom many called the Pathfinder of the West, would read of this episode, and some credit it as the first discovery of coal in Wyoming.

However, the history of coal goes much further back than that. Coal was one of man’s earliest sources for heat and light. Discoveries of coal used in ancient China date back 3000 years. As early as the fourth century A.D., coal was used in China as fuel to heat iron to rework the raw iron into finished products. The Chinese are reported to have developed the ability to use coal in the smelting of iron by the ninth century.

Long before the first settlers arrived in the New World, North American Indians used coal. The Hopi Indians of the Southwest used the abundance of coal to heat their homes, cook, and fire pottery. In 1679 coal was discovered along the Illinois River by French explorers but wasn’t heavily relied upon until around the 1800’s. People used coal to manufacture goods and to power steamships and railroad engines. By the American Civil War, people also used coal to make iron and steel. By the end of the 1800's, people even used coal to make electricity.

Moving on ...

You will continue your journey by selecting MINING. But first, to make the best use of your time look ahead to the other parts of this Minequest. Then move to MINING.

EXPLORATION

MINING

PROCESSING

PRODUCT

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