Gillette Wyoming News-Record, Sunday, December 19, 2004
Mine worker loads second historic ton of coal
Black Thunder mine was still under construction when the first trainload of coal was loaded on Dec. 14, 1977.
Doug Diedrich was at the controls that day. He was also at the controls on Friday, when the mine reached a milestone never before achieved by a coal mine anywhere in the world.
The Arch Coal mine loaded and shipped its one billionth ton of coal at about 3:30 p.m. Friday.
Mine officials had expected to celebrate the record-breaking ton sometime late Friday night or early Saturday morning, said Greg Schaefer, Arch’s vice president for external affairs in the Western region. Diedrich was scheduled to work the night shift and was expected to be at the controls for the historical event.
But train cars apparently were moving through a little faster than anticipated.
“Trains just showed up, one after the other. They called him at home to come in early,” Schaefer said. “He came out just to load that train.”
About half the train had been loaded when the time came.
The 74th car of a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad train was fitted with a placard touting the mine’s one-billionth ton.
That placard will remain on the train as it moves across the country this week on its way to First Energy’s W.H. Sammis power plant in Stratton, Ohio.
Atlantic Richfield opened the mine 45 miles southeast of Gillette 27 years ago.
When the first trainload of coal was shipped, work on the fourth tank of an 820-foot long slot storage facility was under way. It would be capable of holding 100,000 tons of coal, the equivalent of eight to 10 silos.
The slot was divided into four tanks of equal size. That modification was added halfway through construction after a Nebraska utility insisted on more stringent quality control over its coal, according to News-Record r