Kemmerer, Wyoming

Coal and the railroad

The explorer John C. Frémont noted coal in the area during his second expedition in 1843. After the Oregon Short Line Railroad was built through the region, the Union Pacific Coal Company opened the first underground mine nearby in 1881.^[2]

Founding

Kemmerer was founded in 1897 by Patrick J. Quealy (1857–1930), an Irish-born coal operator, in partnership with the Pennsylvania coal financier Mahlon S. Kemmerer, for whom Quealy named the town. In May 1897 Quealy and the Kemmerers organized four companies to develop the Ham's Fork coal field—the Kemmerer Coal Company, the Frontier Supply Company, the Ham's Fork Cattle Company, and the Uinta Improvement Company—with the Kemmerers providing the capital and Quealy, as vice-president and general manager, directing operations in Wyoming.^{[3]: 10–11, 27}

Quealy insisted that both the coal company and the town be named for Mahlon Kemmerer over the objection of the financier's son, the attorney John L. Kemmerer, who favored "Frontier," "Wasatch," or "National" and cautioned that naming the town after an individual might prove awkward if the property were ever sold. When the Oregon Short Line proposed that the town's railroad depot instead be named "Diamondville," Quealy threatened to cancel the townsite agreement until the railroad accepted the name Kemmerer.^{[3]: 12–13, 20}

Quealy laid out the townsite about a mile south of the company mining camp of Frontier and developed Kemmerer deliberately as an "independent town." Unlike the neighboring company towns of Frontier and Diamondville, where the coal companies leased land and housing to employees, the Short Line Land and Improvement Company—incorporated in February 1898 with Quealy as secretary—sold town lots outright to anyone who would build, while Quealy and Kemmerer retained the coal and mineral rights. This policy allowed independent businesses to establish themselves.^{[3]: 16–19 [4]} The town was organized in 1897 and incorporated in January 1899; electricity and water were supplied by the company-owned Frontier Supply Company, which used a secondhand generator purchased in Utah.^{[3]: 16, 25} Quealy was the founding president of the town's First National Bank, established in 1900.

Mining disasters

Kemmerer suffered two of the deadliest mine disasters in Wyoming history within thirteen months. On August 14, 1923, an explosion tore through the Kemmerer Coal Company's Frontier No. 1 mine, killing 99 miners—the second-worst coal-mining disaster in the state's history. Only about 135 of the usual 250 men were underground that day because of a holiday; investigators concluded that a fire boss had ignited accumulated gas while relighting his safety lamp, and rescuers saved several dozen men, some of whom had barricaded themselves against the flames. The dead were buried in mass graves in the Kemmerer cemetery.^[5][6] On September 16, 1924, a second explosion, at a Kemmerer Coal Company mine at nearby Sublet, killed 39 more miners; together the two disasters left about 97 widows and 133 fatherless children.^[7]

Later coal history

In 1950 the Kemmerer operation converted to strip mining and became, for a time, the largest open-pit coal mine in the United States. The Kemmerer Coal Company was later acquired by the Pittsburg & Midway Coal Mining Company, the mine subsequently passed to the Westmoreland Coal Company, and in 2024 the operation was reported sold to a California-based buyer.^[8] The pit remained in operation with an annual output of about 5 million tons.

Geology and fossils

Kemmerer lies within the Green River Formation's Fossil Lake beds, renowned for exceptionally preserved Eocene fish and other fossils; the town's motto, "An Aquarium in Stone," reflects this heritage, and both commercial and public fossil quarries operate in the area. Fossil Butte National Monument, about 15 miles (24 km) west on U.S. Highway 30, protects part of these fossil beds.^[10]

Climate

According to the Köppen climate classification system, Kemmerer has a warm-summer humid continental climate, abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps. The hottest temperature recorded in Kemmerer was 99 °F (37 °C) on July 12, 1990, while the coldest was −39 °F (−39 °C) on December 22, 1990.^[11]