Coal country through French eyes

The town of Hanna, once a major coal boomtown as recent as the 1980s, has watched jobs disappear to the point, the town itself is the largest employer versus any other industry.

The transition has not been an easy one for the miners and their families that have lived in the area for generations.

In the Hanna Basin area, coal has been the lifeblood for development to the town of Hanna. Now there is little evidence coal was king other than a few sites, like the Hanna Basin Museum, which has archived photographs, documents and historical artifacts of this past time, for future generations to come.

Another testament to how important coal was to creating a good living place for coal miners in the area, is the Hanna Recreation Center, built in 1982 by Carbon County Coal Company. This enlightened company realized they needed a facility for workers to get recreation.

The facility has a near olympic size pool, racquetball courts, basketball courts, baseball fields and two weight rooms.

When the mines started shutting down, Carbon County Coal gave the recreation center to the town.

The building is an example of how much money was spent on keeping coal miners and their families happy.

Alexis Buisson, a journalist from France, stationed in New York, came to northern Carbon County for a story he was doing on coal country in the United States and the transition it is going through. The magazine he was doing the story for, is the international magazine La Croix. The magazine, according to Buisson, is the premier, independent Catholic daily in the world.

Initially, he came to Wyoming for another story.

"I came here to the Wyoming congressional race because there is a lot of interest in what is happening here in France," Buisson said. "Then as I was coming here, the second story came about. I realized there was interest in the transition of regions not mining for coal any longer and what these places are having to contend with in a new world."

Buisson said, like Carbon County, there are regions in France that were dependent on coal which are looking at wind power for energy.

"People in France are wondering how this transition will end up," Buisson said.

He said coal was once essential to France.

"Coal was once very important to the economy of France at one time," Buisson said. "Like this area in Carbon County, the area in France that used to produce much of our coal has been closed."

Buisson is referring to the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin in northern France which stretches across the Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments. The region is famous for its fairly long history of coal mining and its testimony to a significant period in the history of industrialisation in Europe. The area was put on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage list in 2012.This part of France has been influenced by three centuries of coal mining from the late 1600s through the late 1900s. The area was put on the UNESCO list because the evolution of coal mining techniques and worker conditions during that time can still be witnessed.

The Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin is the western part of a coal rich basin that continues across the Belgian border. In France, the basin covers about 750 square miles. Because of its history with coal mining as the dominant industry, the region's architecture and landscape make it stand out in the world.

Although coal was first discovered in the basin in 1660 there was little coal mining in the north of France until the mid 1700s. The increasing scarcity of timber in the early 1800s, had coal pits near Valenciennes expand and mining companies began to form in the region. In the 1840s, the western part of the basin was discovered.

In the 1850s, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais mining basin became the most important mining basin in France. By 1880, the output was nearly 8 million tonnes, and in the early 1900s accounted for a third of all coal mining in France. Like Hanna, which had mining disasters in 1903 and 1908 that killed over 230 men, this area had a horrific mine disaster. The Courrières mine disaster occurred in the region in 1906, leading to the deaths of 1,099 people.

In 1930, the basin had a peak output of 35 million tonnes, employing about 75,000 workers and accounting for sixty percent of France's national coal production. After World War II, production began to decline, and mines started to run out and conditions became more difficult to work in. Strikes in 1968 and 1971 helped bring on the decline of the industry, and all of the mines in the area were basically closed by the late 1980s.

A student of Hanna's coal history can see the similarities Buisson did when researching northern Carbon County. The journalist made his decision to come to the area for a visit on July 8 and see the town of Hanna which had once been a major coal producer. He arrived at 10 a.m. and did a tour of the Hanna Basin Museum, the Miners Memorial and the Hanna Recreation Center.

Buisson reiterated coal history is taken very seriously in France.

The World Heritage Site has preserved sites of mining operation which include 17 mining pits, 21 headgears (used to support the lift systems over the mine), 51 slag heaps, coal transport infrastructure (including mining cars and railway stations), workers' estates, and mining villages.

The Hanna Basin Museum is not quite so vast, but Buisson was delighted with what he saw. The leather caps with the small kerosine lighters had Buisson take in how dangerous it could be working in the mines.

Although Buisson writes for French periodicals, he has lived in the United States for 17 years. He started out as an exchange student in Boston in 2005. He met a woman and they moved to France for a year. They came back to New York City, but she didn't like it. Buisson wanted to be a journalist so he stayed.

"It was the end of my love story with her, but it was the beginning of my love story for journalism," Buisson said. "I really liked the U.S. and in 2006, I went to New Orleans after Katrina and I found myself writing stories about incredible people who survived. Like I said, I found my love for journalism."

Buisson found French periodicals liked what he wrote.

He became the managing editor for a French periodical published in the United States for several years.

"But I wanted to go back into freelancing and cover stuff that would interest the people of France overseas," Buisson said. "I wanted to cover news in the United States for the French. There is a big fascination in France for anything American."

In 2019 Buisson became purely freelance because he wanted to cover the presidential election.

He said 2020 became an incredibly busy year because of the election and Covid hitting the country.

Buisson said he has written for La Croix before and he told them he thought a story on coal country would be interesting.

"I pitched them the idea because I knew in France there was a lot of interest in places like Wyoming, which I knew was dependent on coal and oil, and how there is a transition taking place and how wind is involved in this change," Buisson said. "This is a challenge that other countries are facing all over."

Buisson knew the history of coal in France and how the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin is honored by UNESCO, but he wanted to come to Wyomng and Carbon County to see the American version of a place where coal was king, but now relies on wind to create energy for the country.

Buisson said he was surprised at the Hanna Recreation Center on how large it was. He enjoyed seeing the huge coal furnaces that once heated the pool and building when coal was unlimited.

"This place is amazing and so interesting that it was built by a coal company for its workers," Buisson said. "It is really a piece of living history from the days of coal's peak in the United States that is unique."

Buisson said he has traveled all over the United States, but he was very impressed with Wyoming when he came a few days earlier.

"I am blown away," Buisson said. "I was looking forward to coming to Wyoming but I am not sure anyone is prepared for the beautiful landscapes all around. Quite frankly it is sometimes hard to keep my eyes on the road. I saw a lightning storm out here in Carbon County yesterday when I was driving and I don't believe I have seen such raw beauty. I was reminded how insignificant you can be out here in nature. It makes you respect the people who came out here and carved out towns and civilization all those years before."

Buisson left Hanna and said he hoped he could convey to his readers all that he saw of this part of Carbon County.

"The history of coal country out here is a treasure to see and walk around. I believe many people in France are going to want to read about it," Buisson said. "I hope they will be as impressed as I am."