By Phil Roberts, June 8, 2026
I once described Wyoming’s economic status of being one of constant boom and bust. In recent weeks I’ve reconsidered that description, changing the terms to one of scarcity and abundance. Boom and bust implies a certain passivity–that we are victims with almost no role in determining the economic, environmental, social outcomes of these events I’ve been describing for 30 years as creations by outside forces, demanding that we follow a certain path, either because we always have done that way or that outside forces know better–that wealth and privilege tied to wealth and power, demand we accept there demands–knuckle under to them, become their servants. (A story from the days of open-range cattle companies…An absentee owner came out for the first time to survey his holdings. On the way, he noticed a cowhand working cattle and announced, “I’m your new lord!” The cowboy replied, “That man ain’t been born yet,” and continued his work. .
Wyoming history shows how our ability to exist and thrive here is measured by the natural resources and how we chose to use them. Over the centuries we remain almost entirely dependent economically on our natural resources. How we have used them in the past doesn’t necessarily require us to continue down uncertain paths. Take the examples of two of the most important resources in the state’s history: much land and little water–miles of seemingly waste land, viewed by our pioneers as challenges to exploit.
A goal of any free country ought to be the conservation ethic: the greatest good for the most people for the longest period of time. Included in this ethic is a recognition of nature’s limits and the rule of law–how a society gains its happiness and balance with how the place is treated. There is no place for unfettered individual human greed. With a recognition that perfect equality is a goal but ultimately unattainable, extremes of great wealth gained from a common resource has to be controlled in protecting the assumptions that are inherent in any free society.
The potential above ground is balanced with what lies underground. While ranchers and farmers mine the surface, mineral development has been the driver for what lies beneath. In either case, a powerful outside force, the world markets have largely dictated how successful these endeavors have been. Mining and agriculture together have fashioned our past–sometimes, in harmony, other times in conflict.
Take the case of the mineral most responsible for Wyoming’s creation: coal. Would Wyoming have been organized without it being a transportation corridor across the country? National interests dictated a route–trails, followed by the railroad and the latter made possible by technology–engines powered by coal. Why did the railroad build where it did? Fuel for the technology of the day–steam power and first was dependent on coal, in abundance in what became southern Wyoming.
The first use of coal was by native people. The first reference to coal in Wyoming’s written record comes from John C. Fremont’s reports from the 1840s. Later explorers like Capt. Howard Stansbury mapped out a route across what became southern Wyoming that included references to coal outcroppings. A decade later, railroad surveyors noted the presence of coal–a necessity for fueling the developing technology of powerful locomotives. Indeed, the presence of coal was in important factor in selecting the route–not along the Oregon Trail, but farther south through coal lands. And, of course, the range of technology–the distance a locomotive could travel before having to be repaired was about 100 miles. Thus, towns across Wyoming was strung “like beads from a chain in 100-mile intervals”–except for Cheyenne to Laramie, half that distance apart (50 miles) because of the stresses caused by the vertical climb on the brittle locomotives that were powerful but breakable.
Construction required large work crews, but in those times, operations required nearly as many as there were with the original track-laying. Water stops had to be positioned every 15 miles, coal-loading depots every other water stop, and the huge workforce was hired to dig and transport the coal to the loading chutes. The railroad needed workers; the mines needed skilled underground expertise; the new territory needed people. The result was the recruiting of a diverse work force. In the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th, the state, either by its own initiative from citizens, or in collaboration with private businesses, set up Boards of Immigration Recruitment. Wyoming agents, competing with every other state, scoured the world for dependable workers.
Given that the goal was to build a sound economy, we had to take people AND increase efficiency with machines. Machines can’t supplant the human worker, but expecting old machines to rival the new competition was doomed to failure. That’s why the railroads abandoned coal for the increased efficiencies, environmental advantages of no flying ash or coals setting off range fires or blowing ash accumulating on streets or in the eyes of townspeople. and added a more dependable locomotive force, new diesel locomotives. No longer limited to a 100-mile range and requiring fewer crew and even smaller support staff, they never looked back. What society can survive through stubborn adherence to less efficient and environmentally sound old ways. The free market has a way of influencing these decisions along with an enlightened leadership. Add up the advantages of changing technologies in rail transportation, is it any wonder that the railroads killed Wyoming coal? The transition came quickly. By 1962, the only existing coal mine in all of Wyoming closed at Rock Springs.
But thanks to the federal government’s environmental policies–the Clean Air Act in the 1960s principally, coal came back. Coal with less sulfur and other contaminants as well as advances in technology, gave Wyoming the competitive advantage over Eastern states. Even with the severance taxes lessoning the strains on the Wyoming people and the increasing needs to retain a clean environment, low-sulphur Wyoming coal was still competitive nationwide. That changed with government de-regulation in the Reagan years. Eastern coal benefitted by being “dirty” but legalized once again. Energy sources multiplied, providing ever more cost efficiencies. Soon, oil and gas overtook the coal advantages. Wyoming mines closed; companies went bankrupt; employment dwindled. Like the railroad had done decades earlier, power companies and consumers switched away from the more expensive coal and to more efficient and less costly alternatives.
With government, in the private interest of out-of-state billionaires, putting its thumb on the scale to protect the failing industry, we could be stuck–forced to pay more, forced to compromise with a dying industry–but we shouldn’t to lulled into complacency. Some railroad officials and investors finally resisted calls for “coal salvation” as a false alternative to new technology in transport. Like from those same threats a century ago, we need to honor the past but accept the future in what former Gov. Ed Herschler always referred to as “development and growth on OUR terms.”
But also lying beneath the surface is the cautionary tale. When Wyoming has carved out its common-sense journey for the greater good, it can meet our people’s needs better and less expensively. We shouldn’t be made to pay as a homage to a past legacy. We owe them nothing. We don’t have to listen to the naysayers–the smug owners demanding that our subsidies and tax breaks go to “legacy industries” rather than innovative alternatives and cheaper “fuels” for transport and electricity generation. We can move forward to better lives for us and every human and animal on the planet. It is a “winning hand” all around and only a loser to billionaires and opportunists trying to corral fuel monopolies and political dominance.