Coal: Montana's Prosaic Treasure Author(s): Robert A. Chadwick Source: Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Vol. 23, No. 4 (Autumn, 1973), pp. 18-31 Published by: Montana Historical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4517820 Accessed: 27/07/2009 17:53 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mhs. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Montana Historical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Montana: The Magazine of Western History. http://www.jstor.org P P 4V B t :A; COAL MONTANA'S PROSAIC TREASURE by ROBERT A. CHADWICK Amid the glamour of the gold rushes and the capers of the Copper Kings, a mundane mineral substance - coal - has plodded its way through the pages of Montana history. Dirty and prosaic, coal is largely ignored in discussions of Mon- tana's mining past. Yet it is a fuel, and fuels were vital to the survival of settlers and for development of industries and transportation networks. In truth, coal qualifies as Mon- tana's "black gold," not only for its contribution to her past, but for its potential as a major future source of energy. It qualifies as well as a source for an ecological confrontation, the results of which may not be fully assessed for decades to come. Until recently, the history of coal mining in Montana was thought to be just that - history. Used in small amounts for domestic heating and power production by the early white settlers, it became the favored fuel as railroads began to spread their networks westward in the 1680's. Coal fueled 18 MONTANA THE MAGAZINE OF WESTERN HISTORY the do no hav tegaorfgld FAL 197319n * ti locomotive boilers, and, largely in the form of coke, began to supply the metal smelters beaing established at such towns as Butte, East Helena, Anaconda, Wickes, and Great Falls. Metal smelting came into its own once the railroads linked metal mines, smelters, and eastern markets. Thus the rail- roads were the key to the entire development. Such towns as Roundup and Red Lodge owe their major growth to coal mining. Smaller communities, such as Coke- dale, Storrs, Chestnut, Chimney Rock, Timberline, Belt, Stock- ett, Sand Caulee, Bearcreek, Washoe, Klein, Aldridge, Elec- tric, and Colstrip developed as coal mining camps. Although some survive, others are all but deserted now. Their fallen timbers and abandoned trestles and tracks and "glory holes" Growth, Decline, Rejuvenation By 1960, about 180 million tons of coal had been In a particular district, mining activity may have produced in Montana, but annual output had de- declined because of depletion of easily mined coal clined to around 300,000 tons. Coal mining could and discovery of better quality or more easily ex- have been labeled as a once-robust but dying indus- tractable coal elsewhere. For example, the Bozeman try. The chart published on the next page shows field faded in importance as the Red Lodge deposits graphically the sharp decline in production following were developed in the 1900's and 1910's; activities the peak of World War II as traditional markets were in the Red Lodge field, in turn, gave way to strip increasingly served by petroleum and natural gas. mining in the Colstrip area in the 1920's. However, a second glance shows a startling rejuve- nation of coal mining in the last few years. In 1971, Overall, Montana coal production declined in the periods 1920-1940 and 1945-1960 because of one mine alone - at Colstrip - produced 5.1 million tons of coal, exceeding the entire statewide produc- (1) increased substitution of oil for coal as railroad tion for the previous peak year of 1944! Statewide locomotive fuel, first in oil-burning steam locomo- tives and later in diesel-electric engines; (2) increased output for 1972 runs off the graph. By 1975, over 20 million tons may be produced annually. substitution of natural gas and oil for coal in domes- tic heating and as industrial fuel, especially stimu- Thus, one might characterize Montana coal min- lated by the development of oil production and re- ing as a history of growth, maturity, stagnation, fining in Montana, and (3) changes which reduced decline, vigorous rejuvenation, and now, ecological coke requirements in metal smelting, and conversion struggle. of some smelters to gas fuel. Offsetting these factors has been the increased use of coal as fuel for steam- A closer look at the graph on the opposite page electric generating plants, but until recent years shows that various individual mining communities the extensive development of hydroelectric power or coal fields went through their own cycles. Pro- in Montana kept the need for coal-fired plants to a duction rose, peaked, and declined, in general, con- minimum. secutively later in time in the Bozeman, Great Falls, Red Lodge, and Roundup fields. The coal towns in Employment in coal mining decreased even more these districts likewise boomed, stagnated, and de- sharply than tonnage output because of improved clined or were abandoned. Recent rejuvenation is methods of production. Montana's underground due entirely to activities in the Eastern Montana mines produced in the range of 5 to 10 tons per man- region. shift; conversion to strip mining has raised this SiockettZsQ 9itundnu s FIELD in s Lgnt 20 7 - TOTAL FOR MONTANA x X x x GREAT FALLS -. .. RED LODGE EASTERN MONTANA - 6 * .ROUNDUP -------- BOZEMAN 5- U, z 0 0 z 0 34 0 D - 2 ['-4A v V/ 0 4' 8I0,90 1890 900 930' 920 94K0t 950 1960 )1970 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 19,30 1940 1950 1960 19I70 figure to 100 tons or better. For example, in 1972 Over a long time, the plant matter became buried so the Western Energy Company mine at Coistrip em- deeply that heat and pressure began driving off the ployed 150 men to produce 5.5 million tons. Com- more volatile constituents, compressed the remain- pare this to a peak year in the Red Lodge district, ing matter, and converted it gradually to increas- 1917, when 1800 miners produced about one-third ingly higher ranks of coal through the stages of of this tonnage. It is an understatement to say that peat and lignite. coal mining towns have had rough times meeting changing conditions. These processes were not uniform across Mon- tana, because a vast crustal disturbance buckled up Historically, coal mining has shifted from West- strata of rock and interlayered coal beds to form the ern to Eastern Montana, from underground to sur- Rocky Mountains. This deformation was minor in face mining, from bituminous coal utilization to Eastern Montana but increased in intensity west- sub-bituminous and lignite, from locomotive and ward. The rank of coal was increasingly raised by smelter fuel markets to thermal generation of elec- the crustal heating, folding, fracturing, and squeez- tric power. ing, from lignite in the east and northeast through sub-bituminous to bituminous rank in Central to West- Geology of Montana Coal ern Montana. Higher ranks of coal mean higher heating value, or "BTU content," since deformation The interrelationships between these factors gradually drives off volatile matter and increases can be better understood if one considers the geo- the carbon content. logic origin of coal. During geologic times, particu- larly about 60 million years ago, the climate in Mon- The coal in Central to Western Montana thus tana was just right for the growth of luxuriant vege- would seem most desirable because of high heat- tation in vast swampy areas, largely coastal, perhaps ing value. However, the same crustal deformation comparable to Florida's Everglades of today. As the folded and fractured this coal so that in many places vegetation died, it was preserved from decay in the seams dip steeply into the ground; from the out- waters, and thick masses of partly decomposed plant croppings, overburden rapidly increases and be- matter accumulated. Periodic floods of water from comes too thick for surface mining. Thus most Mon- encroaching seas or from rivers emptying into the tana bituminous coal requires underground mining. swamps covered the peaty layers with mud and sand. The sub-bituminous and lignite further east, though 21 of lower heating value per pound, could be extracted The Bozeman Field by the much cheaper and safer surface mining tech- nique because the strata lie horizontally and, in many It was near Bozeman that Colonel James D. Ches- places, near the surface. nut developed Montana's first major coal operation. A confirmed optimist, Chesnut visualized a glowing In earlier days, labor costs were less crucial and future for Montana coal.