University of Wyoming · Research Cluster
Western Mining Humanities
Excavating the human stories beneath the American West — coal, labor, migration, art, and memory — from the Powder River Basin to the ghost towns of the Union Pacific line.
Now Boring · Site Under Construction
Surfacing
September 2026
A digital platform for research, storymapping, and public programming on Wyoming's mining pasts and futures is under construction. The full site — an atlas of mines, monuments, boomtowns, and the people who built them — reaches daylight this fall.
Core Sample · What We're Digging Into
Labor & Migration
The workers who cut the coal — immigrant and minority labor histories, unions, strikes, and struggle across the coalfields of the West.
Boomtowns & Ghost Towns
Carbon. Hanna. Dana. Superior. Rock Springs. The long boom-and-bust of communities built on the seam.
Art & Extraction
Charcoal, drawing, monument, and installation — artistic production at the edge of the pit.
Mapping the Coalfield
A digital atlas of mines, historical sites, disasters, and memorials across the Wyoming landscape.
Energy Futures
What Wyoming digs next — energy identities, community perspectives, and the transitions already underway.