The Powder River Basin runs 120 miles by 200 miles in Montana and Wyoming. It provides 40 percent of the coal mined in the United States. The mines are open pits. It looked to me like about 50 feet of overburden had to be removed to get to a horizontal strip of coal maybe 5 to 10 feet high. The pit went down further, so I assume there is one or more additional coal deposits lower down, but I couldn't see it from the county road that I was driving on. I emphasize that I was on a paved county road at all times because during part of my drive a car suddenly appeared behind me, followed me for several miles (staying behind even when I reduced speed) and just as suddenly was gone. I have been reading John Grisham's novel on the coal industry, so my paranoia monitor was on high. The Powder River Basin is barren, rolling hills at an elevation about 4000 feet. It appears the primary surface use is raising cattle. There are also some oil or gas wells in the area.
The railroad circuit to support the mining operation is incredible. The track system heading south has four tracks. Some areas had three tracks and some had two. I never saw less than two. The coal trains are each over a mile long, with four motor units, two pulling and two pushing. From what I read they are DC power--low speed, high pulling power.
The Powder River Basin coal fields were developed after pollution controls became important. It has a low level of sulfur dioxide compared to Appalachian coal, though its energy output is only two-thirds that of Appalachian coal. There are currently 15 active mines and they primarily provide coal to at least 50 power plants around the country.
Devils Tower was the FIRST national monument established by President Theodore Roosevelt after the passage of the Antiquities Act in 1906. It is a 50-million year old oblisk that rises 1,267 feet above the surrounding plain. The tower is believed to be an igneous intrusion into the surrounding sedimentary rock, but no one is sure exactly how it was formed. As the magna cooled, it formed into mostly hexagonal columns. All this occurred underground, and the tower was not exposed until five to ten million years ago as the surrounding sedimentary rock eroded. Several thousand people climb the oblisk every year.
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| Devils Tower National Monument |
Day 11 mileage: 320
Cumulative mileage: 3,485
