Tag: Kemmerer
Kemmerer is both the largest city and the county seat of Lincoln County, Wyoming, USA. The population was 2,656 at the 2010 census. As the county seat of Lincoln County, Kemmerer is the location of the Lincoln County Courthouse.
Explorer John C. Frémont discovered coal in the area during his second expedition in 1843. The Union Pacific Coal Company opened the first underground mine in 1881 after construction of the Oregon Short Line Railroad from Granger to Oregon.
Patrick J. Quealy (1857–1930) founded Kemmerer as an “independent town” in 1897 when he was vice-president of the Kemmerer Coal Company, located 6 miles (9.7 km) south of the original townsite. He named the company and town after his financial backer, Pennsylvania coal magnate Mahlon S. Kemmerer (1843–1925). In 1950, the operation converted to strip mining and became the world’s largest open pit coal mine. In 1980 the Kemmerer Coal Co. was sold to the Pittsburg & Midway Coal Company, now a subsidiary of the Chevron…
