1889 - 1909: Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 Town and Mine at Hanna, Wyoming

Page by Bob Leathers 
The Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 Underground Mine in Hanna was the first mine opened for coal production in Hanna. The mine and town were developed in 1889 and 1890. The mine started outside coal production in 1891 when the Union Pacific Railroad's Carbon Cut Off was completed in 1891. The No. 1 Mine produced 133,283 tons of coal the year it opened. The coal company itself used all the coal produced prior to 1891. The No. 1 mine was finally abandoned in 1909 after the March 28, 1908 explosion. The No. 1 Mine Dump - what was left of it - was dismantled and used to build the Hanna N. 4 Mine. Over the 17 years of coal production, the mine produced 4,291,860 tons of coal, with a yearly average of three hundred workers. The Union Pacific Coal Company’s No. 1 Mine in Hanna was the only mine in Hanna to experience an explosion. The No. 1 mine exploded four different times in its history. At the time of the explosions there were only two Union Pacific Coal Company Mines in existence, the No. 1 and No. 2 Mines. The first explosion occurred on April 28, 1890, killing one miner, Henry Ward. The second explosion occurred June 30, 1903, killing 169 men. The third and fourth explosions came on the same day, March 28, 1908, killing an additional fifty-nine miners. The No. 1 Mine was responsible for 229 miner deaths in the four explosions. Other types of accidents claimed the lives of an additional twenty-one miners for a staggering total of 250 men killed in the No. 1 Mine. 
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1889-03-06 Hanna No. 1 dump/tipple before 1885 (1884 Mine Inspector Report)
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Union Pacific Coal Company's Hanna No 1 Mine (Wyoming State Archives)

Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 Mine Hanna

Hanna Coal
​Hanna coal is woody in structure, without cleavage planes, and of comparatively weak compressive strength, which makes the mining of the coal at depth very troublesome, due to bumps and spontaneous combustion, which conditions have been aggravated by the badly faulted condition of the strata, which in many cases were subjected to severe folding and horizontal strains. While the middle portion of each seam is comparatively free from sulphur, the upper bench in all cases contains free sulphur, which causes spontaneous combustion whenever this bench is broken. When the Hanna mines were opened prior to 1912, the recognized good practice for mines operated by hand mining methods were employed and it is reasonable to assume from the thumb-nail description of mining operations at Hanna here presented that the change-over from hand mining methods to mechanical methods of mining was a simple transition, but this assumption is far from the truth. Mechanical mining in this field had to be learned from scratch by the management as well as by the miners, and with the general antipathy inherent in old-time coal miners against any radical change in the established system, the transition period was a painful, long-drawn-out procedure, but mechanical methods by 1940 are more or less taken for granted by the rising generation of miners. (UPCCEM, November 1940)
Hanna No. 1 Mine
​This mine was opened during the spring of 1889 but did not begin regular production until the completion of the railroad spur track from Allen Junction in 1890. The mine was opened by driving slopes to the dip for a manway, main haulage, and air course from the west outcrop down to the floor of the basin, a distance of one mile, on rather light pitch, becoming almost level across the bottom of the basin, then rising abruptly up the east flank of the basin until a pitch of over 30 degrees was attained before reaching the surface. These slopes, as shown above, extended all the way across the basin from the west to east in a workable seam of coal. Haulage entries or levels were driven both north and south from the main slope, and were driven approximately on the strike line, which followed the general contour of the basin structure, unless interrupted by faults of considerable displacement through which it was necessary to drive rock tunnels to intersect the coal on the opposite side. Sometimes the coal seam was displaced upward and sometimes downward in the direction the mine was being developed. This mine consisted of two separate slope haulage systems, manways, and air-course installations. The east side hoist dropped the coal developed on the east flank of the basin to a landing at the low point in the structure where it was picked up by the main hoisting system located at the west entrance and was hoisted to the preparation plant to be loaded into railroad cars for shipment. The working seam of coal varied from 15 to 30 feet of coal interlaced with small streaks of impurities which for the most part could be burned. No. 1 Mine was a gaseous mine, and it was worked out by hand loading methods, with most of the coal shot off the solid. Open lights were used, with Safety lamps for fire bosses. In February, 1895, No. 1 Mine was closed temporarily on account of a mine fire. In April, 1895, during the shutdown period, the preparation plant at No. 1 Mine was burned down, making it necessary to build a temporary tipple to be able to operate the mine until a permanent preparation plant could be erected. Regular operation of the mine was resumed the latter part of April, 1895, and continued steadily until the morning of June 30, 1903, when it was overtaken by a major catastrophe in the form of a mine explosion which snuffed out the lives of 169 men. It was not until the following November that the 168th and last body was removed from the wreckage. The body of Joseph Cox, Pillar Foreman, in spite of herculean efforts, was never recovered. The mine became ready to resume operations early in 1904. A second disastrous explosion occurred on March 28, 1908, as suddenly and unexpectedly as the first, with the loss of 18 men. The mine workings were badly wrecked and gas was exuding from the mine workings, placing in grave danger the lives of the rescue party. A second explosion occurred that evening, snuffing out the lives of forty-one additional members of the rescue crew. This explosion was the immediate cause for closing this mine permanently. (UPCCEM, November 1940)

Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 Town and Mine in Hanna

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Union Pacific Coal Company's Hanna No. 1 Town (While Family Collection from Bob Leathers)
Hanna No. 1 Town was notorious for flooding. The town would eventually be moved to higher ground.
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Hanna No. 1 Town Flooded. (Gert Milliken from Gary Milliken)
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Miners and mules at the Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 Mine at Hanna (While Family Collection from Bob Leathers)
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Union Pacific Coal Company No 1 Mine in Hanna. (The Butvier Collection from Sally Hafdell and David Eriksson in Sweden)
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Hanna No. 1 Town (Sharrer Family Collection)
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Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 Mine in Hanna (University of Wyoming - Heritage Center)
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Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 Mine in Hanna (University of Wyoming - Heritage Center)
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Miners and mules at the Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 Mine at Hanna (While Family Collection from Bob Leathers)
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Hanna No. 1 Slope. 1900 (University of Wyoming - American Heritage Center)
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Joseph Iredale, a past president of the Old Timers' Association operating Hoist No. 1 in Hanna in 1900 (UPCCEM, July 1929)
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Union Pacific Coal Company's Hanna Mine Office and Mule Barn (Wyoming State Archives)
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UNION PACIFIC COAL COMPANY'S NO. 1 MINE IN HANNA EXPLODED JUNE 30, 1903 KILLING 169 MEN (WHILE FAMILY COLLECTION FROM BOB LEATHERS)
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Union Pacifc Coal Company No. 1 Mine After 1908 Explosion (The Butvier Collection from Sally Hafdell and David Eriksson in Sweden)

Union Pacific Coal Company's Hanna No. 1 Mine Maps

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Mine Map of Union Pacific Coal Company's Hanna No. 1 and No. 2 Mines (Map Collection at the Hanna Basin Museum Website)
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The Hanna No. 1 underground mine (Mine Map Collection at the Hanna Basin Museum Website)
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The Hanna No. 1 underground mine (Mine Map Collection at the Hanna Basin Museum Website)

2018 July 19: A visit to the Union Pacific Coal Company's ​No. 1 Mine and Town Site
​ at Hanna, Wyoming

West Entrance or Town Entrance to the No. 1 Mine

No. 1 mine west tipple/dump foundation located at: 41˚.51'.56.42"N and 106˚.33".27.34"W
​Elevation: 6803 feet
No. 1 mine west entrance located at: 41˚.51'.55.34"N and 106˚.33'.24.42"W
Elevation: 6805 feet
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Hanna No. 1 Mine location of the tipple and entrance, Google Maps, (Labeled by Bob Leathers)
The entrance to the slope of the Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 mine in Hanna is pictured below. The two steel posts, which are actually track rails, mark the location where the slope entered the ground. The slope ran to the South, directly under the monument at the top of the page.
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Hanna entrance, also called the West entrance, to the Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 mine in Hanna. ( Bob Leathers Collection)
The images below picture the ground level view of the entrance to the No. 1 slope. This was the end located at No. 1 town. This end of the slope was also called the west entrance.
Click on an image for a larger view.

East Entrance or South of the Town Entrance

East entrance located at: 41˚. 51'. 07.88" N and 106˚.31'.49.81"W
Elevation: 6867 feet
East tipple/hoist located at: 41˚.51'.107.41"N and 106˚.31'.48.46"W
Elevation: 6865 feet
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Hanna No. 1 Mine location of the East end tipple and entrance, Google Maps, (Labeled by Bob Leathers)
Ground level images of the East Entrance to Mine No. 1.
Click on an image for a larger view.

Scattered Remains of the No. 1 Mine

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2018: Hardware and siding over 115 years old found from the Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 Mine 's West Entrance at Hanna (Bob Leathers Collection)
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2018: Remains over 115 years old found in 2018 at the West entrance tipple / dump (Bob Leathers Collection)
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2018: Remains over 115 years old found in 2018 at the West entrance tipple / dump (Bob Leathers Collection)