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In the late 1800s, a booming Wyoming coal business began among homesteaders, whose lands contained
outcroppings of coal. During that time, the landowners began selling coal through advertisements in
the local papers, offering people the ability to dig their own coal or have it delivered. In 1893,
the production of coal as an industry became a reality, when C.H. Grinnell(later Mayor of Sheridan),
J.R. Phelan, George T. Beck and Anson Higby formed the Sheridan Fuel Company on lands approximately
four miles north of Sheridan, Wyoming. Word spread quickly and people from the east, mostly of foreign
extraction, began pouring into the region. Company-owned mining camps subsequently formed and began housing
the various miners flooding the area. By 1901, Sheridan was considered "A Busy Little City," as described
in an issue of TheSheridan Post. Over the next several years, various veins were opened and furthered expanded
the town of Sheridan, as well as the mining camps themselves. The camps resembled small cities and contained
churches, schools, company stores, saloons, pool halls, union halls, a hotel, and more.
In the late 1940's, like the mining industry in general, the mines of Sheridan fell on
hard times. This produced a vast change in the industrial makeup of the area. The Big Horn Coal Company, with
its huge draglines, enormous trucks, and heavy equipment, began strip mining, rushing in a new era.
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