C--Coal

Stacks of the Gatsby Power Plant, from the 3rd floor window of FHL (Dec 2011)
2011:
As I sit on the 3rd floor working at the Family History Library,  
I glance at the smoke stacks of the Gatsby Power Plant out the windows. The Gatsby Power Plant, located in Salt Lake City, Utah, the area my husband worked at Pacific Power before he died.

How interwoven my life has been with my ancestors—intentional or unintentional!


View from the tracks on 1000 West  (Dec 2011)
1970:
The Gatsby Power Plant, just a block, more or less, from my maternal grandparents home on the west side of Salt Lake City. As a child, I would walk up and down the sidewalk from North Temple to the train tracks.  If you stand at the tracks (the train tracks that transported coal to the power plant) and look west you see the coal-fired Gatsby Power Plant.  (In the mid 1990's the Gatsby Power Plant was redesigned and now is fueled by natural gas).(1)


Hunter Power Plant, Castle Dale, Utah  (2010)
1983:
My husband and I moved to Emery County as he was hired to work at the coal-fired Hunter Power Plant. He was hired as a general helper and then moved up to a C-operator. He would come home smelling of coal and he would be covered in a light layer of coal dust. 


picture from here
1984:
In December 1984, the Wilberg mine accident killed 27 miners. The small Emery County communities were in a sad buzz of commotion. I clearly remember that cold December day renting a small home in Castle Dale, Utah.
picture from here


1994:
As I began doing family history work,I learned my ancestors were coal miners in Wales, England, Wyoming & Pennsylvania.
Still living in Emery County, coal miners were our neighbors and friends.

1999:
My husband transferred to the Naughton Power Plant, located just outside of Kemmerer. At Naughton, he was a heavy equipment operator, moving coal around the coal yard.  We lived in Evanston,just a mile or two from the Almy Coal mines; where the Roberts sons worked when they first came out west from Pennsylvania.  
During these next two years, researching took me to the coal mining communities of Rock Springs, Green River, Frontier, and Kemmerer.

Frontier Mine No. 1, Kemmerer, Wyoming 1923
2000:
I became acquainted with the Frontier Mine Disaster of 1923 where 99 men were killed. It brought to my mind the Wilberg Mine accident of 1984. 

FHL, Salt Lake City, Utah, May 2010 Church Service Mission
 2010:
In May, I begin serving a Church Service Mission at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I search and re-search again, looking for my ancestors--coal miners.  I browse films, books and spend hours at the computer searching for my family.


Gatsby Stacks, (Dec 2011)
2010: I see those smoke stacks and I ponder: intentional or unintentional, coincidental or not. Funny how interwoven, coal, coal dust, coal mines, power plants, 
coal…
Coal…
COAL…
Sustaining my family and my ancestors...
An integral part of my life and the history of my ancestors.

Source:
(1) www.pacificorp.com/content/dam/pacificorp/doc/Energy_Sources/EnergyGeneration_FactSheets/RMP_GFS_Gadsby.pdf

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