Black Diamond Trail Tour 10th Anniversary

On November 15 at the Tongue River Valley Community Center, Carrie Edinger of the Sheridan Community Land Trust presented the SCLT Virtual Explore History program on the Black Diamond Trail bus tour. Started in 2012, this year is the 10 year anniversary of the tour.

Weather permitting, there is an annual driving tour that goes through the remnants of the five once vibrant coal mining communities of Dietz, Acme, Carneyville (later called Kleenburn), Monarch and Kooi. Attendees learn about and observe evidence of the past coal mining booms of Sheridan County.

In 2022, due to cold windy weather, the driving tour was canceled. On Nov. 15, the program consisted of a video narrated by Dave Kinskey with recorded voices from people involved in the various communities.

Before the presentation, Edinger gave an introduction and talked about what new signage the SCLT members are planning to add to the tour.

She said that she hopes to add more social history to the signage, as many people have asked how people lived in those mining towns. She talked about medical care received in the town of Monarch in the 50s. Edinger talked about Lucile Kirkland Kuchera.

She added that the group did a clean up at the Protestant cemetery along Acme road, now on private land, last spring. She said one thing they found several unmarked graves, and she is researching to try to find out more about who is buried there.

The video presentation took the viewers along the ‘Black Diamond Trail’ starting at the Sheridan County Museum. Narrated by Dave Kinskey, and the virtual tour was enhanced by audio from old residents of the towns.

First stop was at the Sheridan county museum Sheridan is in the Powder River Basin, which holds the richest coal deposits in the world, and one largest source of energy in the US. At first the mines were small local concerns.

When the railroad came through, in 1892, it was easier to ship the coal to other markets from the Wyoming mines. Trains needed coal as well to make steam to drive the engines, and some train companies even owned coal mines.

For over 50 years the trains were a steady market for coal. But, while the mines were born with the railroad, they also followed it’s decline. Many mines closed after WWII, when the diesel engines came in to pull the trains. The last underground mines around Sheridan closed in 1953. Strip mining also came in as a safer, more efficient way to mine the coal.

The second stop on the tour was the Dietz town site, which is on the Decker road, Highway 338, north of Sheridan. Dietz at one had a population of 3000 people, with around 1000 men working in the mines around the town.

There is an informaion sign, as well as some stone foundation from the Dietz #1 mine. At one time there was a mine office, general store, saloons and a hotel, as well as other businesses. Main ethnic groups working the Dietz mines were Polish and Italian.

Most mines were ‘drift mines’ that is shallow tunnels into coal seems on the hillsides. Dietz #8 was a shaft mine, deep in the ground. The built up of gases made this a dangerous mine. It was only in operation for five years.

Dietz also became first mine in Wyoming in 1903 to form a chapter of United Mine Workers of America.

Stories from those who grew up in the mining towns remember that they were tight knit communities that knew how to have fun, and they said it was a good place to grow up. When the mines closed, many of the houses were moved into Sheridan, and are still being lived in today. There are many of these along Val Vista Ave.

Next on the tour is the Acme town site. At the Kleenburn Recreation area foundations can still be seen. The Acme mine was founded in 1909, and it closed operations in 1940.

Acme residents raised large gardens and canned food for the winter, and many had milk cows. They sold milk and cream and some even made moonshine as a way to supplement their incomes, especially in the summer when the mines slowed production. Acme had a theater, dance hall, hotel, ice cream parlors, meat market, heated sidewalks, and a baseball team.

Known for being one of the nicest places to live around Sheridan, the town closed down in 1977. One can still see the old power plant, water town and mule barn near what was once the town of Acme. There is an information sign as well giving some of the history.

Today, the SCLT Acme Power Plant Reclamation project is a community effort to address environmental and safety concerns at the former acme power plant, the purpose is to make the site suitable for public use, including insuring public access and capturing the historic importance of the site. For more information on the project go to www.acmeprojectwyoming.org.

Carneyville-Kleenburn was the next stop, and Kinskey, in the video, said this about the town.

The fifth stop on the tour was the old town of Monarch, which was the longest running of the underground mines. There is an old bridge, and at one time kids in Monarch charged a ‘toll’ for wedding parties crossing the bridge. There is still an old water tower on the hillside above the abandoned town site.

At one time there were over 1000 residents in Monarch, and two churches. When the mine closed in 1953, so did the town. One remaining building is St. Thomas Catholic Church, but it is now a private residence.

The Kooi mine town site is three miles west of Monarch. There is an information sign near the site along highway 345. The Kooi mine was unique in several ways, one being the miners that were hired.

The town of Kooi, although small, survived into the 1930s. Today, coal trains carrying coal from other mines still run near what used to be Kooi.

The Black Diamond Trail, a look back into the black diamond mining that helped to shape the Sheridan area and much of Wyoming.