Miners honored and remembered

On November 22, the Town Council of Hanna approved the name enhancement of the building known as the Hanna Parks and Recreation Center to the Hanna Miner Memorial Parks and Recreation Center. 

"This town was built on the backs of miners from its inception as a company town for the  Union Pacific Coal Company (UPCC)," Hanna Parks and Recreation Director William Armstrong said. "The Recreation Center itself was built for miners and their families in 1982 by the Carbon County Coal Company."

The first UPCC mines were opened in the early 1870s with the town of Carbon being the largest with close to 2,000 inhabitants in its peak. Often small communities are established close to mine openings for ease of getting workers to the mines.

The town of Hanna was different. Hanna was first known as Chimney Springs. In 1889, the Union Pacific Railway Coal Department, later called the UPCC, opened the first mine at Hanna.

The UPCC decided Carbon was a bit wild and uncontrollable, so a new company town was born. Hanna was the first planned town built by the UPCC with orderly rows of company houses that were the same. Two houses shared an outhouse.

Company towns at the turn of the 20th century offered many goods and services, including housing all provided for and owned by the company. The UPCC could control much of what the residents could do and not do.

The town of Elmo is said to have been established to allow saloons since Hanna did not have any at the time. Elmo is now a part of the town of Hanna. "It is important to understand how crucial coal was to the railroads and how important the railroads were to opening up the West and the United States in general. Hanna and Carbon play important roles to coal culture, that is starting to be forgotten," Armstrong said. "I personally was lucky when Carbon County Historian Nancy Anderson explained to me how essential coal culture was to this region and state. I never forgot her words." Armstrong said he came up with the idea of renaming the building that had been built by a coal company when he realized there was a monument listing names of miners who had perished in two terrible mining accidents. "I knew of the one which is off of WY 72 when you first came into town," Armstrong said. "I didn't realize the one at the Rec Center even existed, which I am not proud to admit. Anyway, it just sort of hit me, the name of the building should be in memory of the miners who perished, but also all the miners that have made their home here and because they did, this amazing Rec Center with its pool, gym, racquetball courts and weight rooms exists."

The first mining disaster Armstrong is referring to happened on June 30, 1903. It was in the late morning when coal gas in the Hanna No. 1 mine caught fire. There was an explosion that imprisoned about 200 men underground.

Miners who not working, family members and people from nearby came to the rescue. 46 men escaped because they were near an air shaft when the tragedy occurred. Those closer to the blast probably died instantly while other miners suffocated before they could be rescued. All said, 169 miners died in the Hanna No. 1 mine tragically by the time it was over. It is Wyoming's deadliest mine disaster.

Many of the miners were immigrants. The widows and fatherless children were left in a country without any relatives to help support them. Some children were left without any living relatives in the United States or relatives at all. "I was told about 600 children were left fatherless," Armstrong said. "I know there were widows who found themselves going back to Europe because they had nobody to help them here."  It was not only men who were trapped underground when the explosion occurred.  There were 45 mules and horses kept in the mine stable. They had no chance of getting out. It has been determined the stables caught fire when a vein of coal started to burn and made the rescue operations much more difficult. The underground burned for days.

"This one disaster would be enough tragedy for a town to have in their history," Armstrong said. "But a few years later another mining accident killed more miners."

On March 28, 1908 the Hanna Mine No. 1 exploded again. This time 18 miners were trapped. As the state mine inspector and 40 rescuers entered the mine, a second explosion occurred and killed all 59 inside.

Eventually 27 bodies were taken out of the mine, but another 32 were left in the ground. All totaled, with the 1903 blast leaving 169 men dead in the mine, 201 men are still buried there today.

"The name Hanna Miner Memorial Parks and Recreation Center certainly evokes a feeling of remembrance for the men who perished, but the enhanced name is also for those who came to the town and raised families over the years," Armstrong said. "The town has boomed and busted throughout its 100 years, it was known for being a coal town. The Rec Center's name reinforces this."

Tours of the Rec Center this past summer were given to Wyoming Office Tourism representatives, a French journalist who was doing a story on coal country and the Carbon County Visitors Council recently had a monthly meeting on the premises. "People are blown away when they see what the coal company built for their employees back in the 1980s, especially when I take them to see the coal furnaces that were built to heat the entire building and pool," Armstrong said. "They are huge and they give a sense of how powerful coal was as an energy source."

Armstrong hopes to have a small exhibit featuring coal history at the Rec Center soon. "The idea actually comes from the Hanna Elementary School's entrance," Armstrong said. "I have always admired how when you enter the building, there is this great little exhibit showing what coal did for the community. I would like to do something like that with the hope visitors will be inspired to visit our museum which has some excellent coal mining artifacts, pictures and periodicals."

The recreation center is also a place for the community to get together for different events besides exercise and swimming. It hosts bingo games every other week and a sip-n-paint once a month.

The schools of Carbon County School District No. 2 bring students to swim and there is a swimming aerobic class in the morning that has been going on for almost 30 years.

In December there is an annual craft bazaar and on Halloween a haunted house.

"The Rec Center is important to the community in so many ways, even if people are not using it for its exercise facilities," Armstrong said. "This past Halloween we had 270 people come through for our haunted house and this December 3 we have over 30 vendors coming to our crafts bazaar. For a small town of 700 people these are great numbers." Armstrong believes the enhanced name will make visitors curious and want to find out more about the Rec Center–especially people who are interested in coal culture, who might not have paid attention before the name change.

"The more we draw attention and get people to visit, the better it is for all. We also have great facilities outside the center," Armstrong said. "There is a Veterans Park next to the Miners Memorial. We have baseball fields, horseshoe pits, picnic tables with coverings and RV parking. What the Carbon Coal Company started is really amazing as you look over the grounds and go inside the center." Armstrong said he was happy when he heard the council approve the enhanced name. "I love that we are telling the world this is a coal mining town of the past and we have not forgotten what miners did to help this country."