“[In 1979]Kemmerer was starting to die, per se. Some of these businesses were starting to close, a lot of the mines had started to shut down. We’re right in that area where it really has nothing, at that point, except the one mine. It had one mine left. The oil and gas, which is boom and bust, no matter how you look at it, that’s what it is. [But] I think the coal will continue….” LW
“Actually, I started out working for Morrison-Knudsen Company, which was a contractor that Kemmerer Coal had used to move the dirt and haul coal to the tipples. Kemmerer Coal, once the coal hit the tipple, then it was all Kemmerer Coals. Then, 1982 or ‘83, I can’t really remember. I think it was 82, the Pittsburgh and Midway Company bought out Kemmerer Coal and they quit employing MK. Because of a Severability Clause in the Union Contract, they had to keep all the classified employees.We worked for P&M for a few years. P&M was owned by Gulf. It was a subsidiary of Gulf Oil, and then Chevron— Somehow Texaco was involved in there, but I can’t remember— Texaco bought out Gulf, and then Chevron merged with Texaco and we wound up working for Chevron Mining, which, again, because of the Severability Clause. I retired under Chevron. Then, later, Westmoreland bought it and ran it into the ground and declared bankruptcy.”
“My grandpa came over from Yugoslavia when he was very young. He started in Milwaukee. He was a minor, although he did other work before. He raised enough money to bring my grandmother over from Yugoslavia. When she got here, they married and then they moved west to Diamondville. He started work in the Frontier area mines. He was a very, very strong, talented man. There was a mine explosion in Frontier, thankfully he wasn't in it, but he helped with the rescue. He lost part of his ear, a finger, and was burned in that rescue. They would go in, take the mine men out of the mine, put them on railroad cars and bring them to Frontier, and then put them in a hall so that the families could go identify fathers, brothers, uncles, whatever.” -SH
“I think that coal was always the stable part of the economy. The oil and gas is what really drove the boom-bust. When you’ve got the drill rigs coming in, you’ve got the refineries going up, that’s what drove the boom and bust. Coal’s always been steady. That part’s what’s changing now is coal starting to get to be more of a commodity instead of the base load, so to speak. ”
