Hanna / Elmo - Images from the Past
Page by Bob Leathers
Hanna Image from the Past
Hanna, Wyoming
A DRAWING OF THE HANNA COAL CAMP with Elk Mountain at the top of the picture. The No. 1 mine and No. 1 town on the left and the No. 2 mine on the right and No. 2 town in the center bottom . (SALLY HAFDELL AND DAVID ERIKSSON IN SWEDEN)
Hanna is located in the Hanna Basin in Carbon County, Wyoming. The Hanna Basin includes the Wyoming towns of Hanna and Elmo, which still exist, and the coal camps of Carbon, Sampo and Dana, which are now ghost towns - along with active cemeteries at Hanna and Carbon. The coal camp of Carbon came first in 1868. When the coal ran out at Carbon, the citizens moved, over time, to the new coal fields developed at Hanna in 1889. The town of Carbon is now referred to as Old Carbon by the local citizens.
The Hanna Basin coal mines produced over 220 million tons of coal. The coal however, came at a tremendous human cost. A staggering 372 coal miners were killed in the Hanna Basin mines while in the process of mining the coal.
The Hanna Basin mines produced coal for 144 years. Coal production started at Carbon in 1868 and ended in Carbon in 1902, which amounted to 35 years of continuous production. Hanna started coal production in 1890 and ended in 2012, for 122 continuous years of production. The two coal camps overlapped production for 13 years, from 1890 to 1902.
This website is dedicated to identifying and memorializing the men who worked and died in the Hanna Basin coal mines. In the later years a small number of women worked in and around the mines, but none perished in them.
The Hanna Basin coal mines produced over 220 million tons of coal. The coal however, came at a tremendous human cost. A staggering 372 coal miners were killed in the Hanna Basin mines while in the process of mining the coal.
The Hanna Basin mines produced coal for 144 years. Coal production started at Carbon in 1868 and ended in Carbon in 1902, which amounted to 35 years of continuous production. Hanna started coal production in 1890 and ended in 2012, for 122 continuous years of production. The two coal camps overlapped production for 13 years, from 1890 to 1902.
This website is dedicated to identifying and memorializing the men who worked and died in the Hanna Basin coal mines. In the later years a small number of women worked in and around the mines, but none perished in them.
Early Hanna (Sally Hafdell and David Eriksson in Sweden)
- More at: Hanna / Elmo
Hanna Image from the Past
Hanna's Black History
1925 Sunday December 14: A dedication service was held at the Colored Baptist Church honoring the purchase and erection of the new church. The Hanna Basin at one time in its history had a fairly large African American population.
New Colored Baptist Church at Hanna with the Congregation that attended the Dedication Services (Picture Courtesy of Mrs. Charles Brooks) (UPCCEM, February 1925)
2
Hanna Images from the Past
1912 Decoration Day: the United Mine Workers paraded from the Finn Hall (upper left) in No. 2 Town headed to the Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 Mine to honor the men who died in the 1903 and 1908 explosions. The No. 3 in the pictures label below refers to the picture order, not the town number.
Decoration Day, Hanna No. 3 Town, 1912 (While Family Collection from Bob Leathers)
Burial at the Hanna, Wyoming Cemetery. 1912 (McNulty Collection)
More at: Hanna Decoration / Memorial Day
5
Hanna Images from the Past
Hanna's Front Street and Other Town Buildings
Front Street and other Hanna Buildings (Gert Milliken Collection from Gary Milliken, Labeled by Bob Leathers)
6
Elmo Image from the Past
Elmo
Elmo's First Street. The Western Hotel in Elmo - #20 - was located on First Street next to the Elmo Candy Store - #11. The Elmo Candy store eventually became the second site for the Nugget Bar. Building - #10 - was Arthur Allen's Meat Market.
Western Hotel. Elmo. Not Dated. (Terri (Siltamaki) Schreihart)
8
Hanna Baseball Images from the Past
Rob Milliken's Baseball Jersey. (Gary Milliken)
1927-12-13 Hanna Baseball Park, 1927 (Gert Milliken Collection from Gary Milliken)
Baseball Game against Saratoga in Saratoga, 1909 (McNulty Collection)
11/24
- 1909: Hanna Baseball
Image from the Past
Como Bluffs Fossil Cabin
Como Bluffs Fossil Cabin. 1940's. (Library of Congress)
Hanna Image from the Past
Union Pacific Coal Company Employee Magazines
The Union Pacific Coal Company Employes' Magazines are full of information - including a Hanna monthly news section - along with information from other towns in the Union Pacific Coal Company network of towns and mines. Many of the coal miner deaths and injuries are reported in the magazines. The magazines are available online at the link below. They are a great source of information about what was going on with Hanna families at the time when the Union Pacific Coal Company was operating in Hanna, Wyoming.
In January, 1924, the Employes' Magazine of The Union Pacific Coal Company and its subsidiary, the Washington Union Coal Company, was launched as a medium of good will and understanding, with the further hope that as the years passed, much of the life and color of the pioneer days might be put into print and thus saved. With this end in mind stories and sketches, together with many old photographs, were assembled and re-produced, and it is this material, together with certain widely scattered and fragmentary records, as well as many interviews with the men and women who lived and worked in and about the mines in the early days, that served as the foundation of this little history. (History of the Union Pacific Mines. 1868-1940)
The Employes' Magazine is a monthly publication devoted to the interests of the employees of the Union Pacific Coal Company and Washington Union Coal Company and their families. It will contain items of current news, personal notes about employees and their families, together with articles dealing with the coal mining industry, the personal safety of the men engaged in mining a first consideration. (Atlanta E. Hecker, Editor)
Hanna Image from the Past
1949 Blizzard
Images from James Clegg Collection, Hanna Basin Museum
Slideshow from Bob Leathers
Images from James Clegg Collection, Hanna Basin Museum
Slideshow from Bob Leathers
Click on the button to play the video.
- More at: The Great Blizzard of 1949
1, 2
Hanna Image from the Past
Japanese In Hanna
Daniel John Lyon in the 2023 edition of his book Japanese in Wyoming, Union Pacific's Forgotten Labor Force wrote the following about Hanna, Wyoming:
Hanna was a coal mining town founded in 1889. The Wakimoto-Nishimura Company of Cheyenne supplied the Union Pacific Coal Company with an estimated five hundred Japanese laborers. The agency charged $1.50 per month in commission fees and also received five-sixths of a percent on the product mined. Union Pacific owned everything in Hanna. The company charged miners $18 monthly for a six-room cottage, which was equivalent to one week's wage. The town did not have an adequate sewer system, so on many occasions, foul water seeped into the cellars of all the buildings on the main street. The stench was so vile that residents used carbolic acid and other disinfectants to kill the smell. In September 1908, freight traffic in the Wyoming Division decreased by 25 percent when Japanese miners joined the southern Wyoming coal miners' strike. During the strike, Japanese laborers found jobs in the beet fields of Colorado and Kansas and at the rolling mill in Laramie. In the aftermath of the strike, only 120 Japanese lived in Hanna when mining operations resumed. (Daniel John Lyon)
1930
In Hanna it was called Jap Town. It was located near the No. 2 mine and most of the Japanese workers that lived there mined coal in the No. 2 mine. The No. 2 slope ran directly under the community. The Japanese people maintained a large garden during the summer months. (State of Wyoming Archives)
2024
Hanna, Wyoming. Abandoned Japanese Community. 2024.. (Image by Bob Leathers)
- More at: Japanese In Hanna, Wyoming
6
Lincoln Highway Image from the Past
Old Carbon and Hanna on the Lincoln Highway
Sunset Auto Camp. Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Lincoln Highway. Not Dated. (Dodge Photo No. 4 from Daryl Billings)
6
Hanna Image from the Past
Unknown Miner Monument and Headstone Restoration at the Hanna Cemetery - 2023
A Hanna Cemetery project funded by
the Union Pacific Railroad Foundation, the Town of Hanna and the Leathers Family
the Union Pacific Railroad Foundation, the Town of Hanna and the Leathers Family
Hanna Cemetery. September 16, 2023. (Image by Gary Beaver)
Bob Leathers thanking Rick from Casper Monuments for cutting and delivering the Unknow Miner Headstones to the Hanna cemetery.. (Inage by Gary Beaver)
In Memorial Plaque. Hanna Cemetery. Unknown Miner List. Jan. 1. 2024. (Image from Sterling Conover via Pam Paulson. Jan. 2024)
- More at: 1940's and 2023: Unknown Miner Monument and Grave Headstones in the Hanna Cemetery
1, 3. 6, 9