Abstract

At the request of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Bureau of Mines studied coal deposits on the Wind River Indian Reservation in the early 1980's. About half of the reservation is underlain by the Wind River Coal Basin. Coal beds have been reported in numerous formations, however, the thicker, more important coal beds occur in the Upper Cretaceous Mesaverde and Meeteetse Formations. Surface minable coals in the basin are primarily subbituminous C with lesser amounts of high volatile C bituminous and subbituminous A. Although reservation coal resources approach 222.3 million metric tons (245 million short tons), surface minable resources are estimated to be much less than 35 percent of that figure. There has been no production from operating coal mines in the Wind River Coal Basin since 1966. There was reportedly coal production on the reservation until 1963 but no production was recorded after 1946. The last attempt to mine coal on the reservation was in 1973; however, only 77 metric tons (85 short tons) of coal were removed from the strip mine.