Wyoming "Big Coal"

Many people may not think of the beautiful mountainous state of Wyoming as coal country but this state is has a ton of it.
   This coal seam is approximately 100 ft thick and adjacent to highway 90 right in the middle of Gillette, WY.

The coal seam is so close that a conveyor belt runs underneath the freeway

directly to this power plant.

This is the huge coal strip mining area of the Powder River Basin, 

 the largest surface strip mine in the western hemisphere.

While this bad boy is of huge dimensions, you have to understand that the real machine is in the mine, a mile away from my camera. This P&H has a bucket capacity of 140 to 160 yards... the drag line monster in the pit is call "Big Muskie" (28 million pounds and 22 stories tall) and the worlds largest drag line bucket capable of holding two Greyhound buses at a time or 220 cubic yards.

The worlds largest drag line needs a very large coal elevator to feed the trains.

A  90 car train is filled every 58 minutes and the mine runs 24/7....you do the math.