JEFF GEARINO Southwest Wyoming bureau | Posted: Tuesday, February 4, 2003 12:00 am
GREEN RIVER - Federal officials are looking for ways to help preserve public access and protect public safety in an area rich in Bighorn Basin coal mining history.
Bureau of Land Management officials said they are seeking the public's help in determining how to protect visitors on BLM-administered lands within the historic ghost town of Gebo, located near Kirby in north-central Hot Springs County.
Gebo was a thriving coal town of more than a thousand residents during the early 1900s, but little remains of the community except a few structures and the town's cemetery.
BLM Worland Field Office spokeswoman Janine Terry said the BLM is in the early stages of developing an Environmental Assessment to address public safety hazards on BLM public lands at the Gebo coal mining area.
The abatement of hazards on public lands caused by the historic mining in the Gebo area includes a joint effort between the BLM and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's Abandoned Mine Land Division (AML), Terry said in a statement.
She said the actions to be taken by the two agencies are intended to address threats to human health and safety while maintaining important cultural and historic values on public lands.
Jayne Doyle, the abandoned mine land reclamation coordinator at BLM's Worland office, said the agency's goal in the EA is to find ways to make the area safer for the public to visit.
"But it is also extremely important to preserve the story that is told by this old mining district," Doyle said. "Because the Gebo area is very special to folks in the Bighorn Basin, we are looking forward to getting a lot of good ideas about how to best protect visitors while helping people enjoy this historic area."
The town was named for Samuel W. Gebo, who was a developer of the coal mines in Washakie and Hot Springs counties during the 1880s, according to county historical records. Gebo was the company town of the Owl Creek Coal Company.
Gebo was an active town for more than three decades, primarily from 1906 to 1938. In 1929, there were about 1,200 employees and families living in the area, with over 600 employed in the coal mines of Gebo.
The town was particularly well known for its large number of immigrants of Central and Eastern European origin. That background contributed to Gebo's Serbo-Croatian heritage. Many current residents of Thermopolis grew up in Gebo.
The abandoned Gebo coal mining district was examined in February 2000 as part of an AML statewide site inventory. BLM officials said AML field crews found numerous safety and environmental hazards in the area, many of which were located upon BLM-administered lands.
Problems at the Gebo site include the collapse of underground mine workings, causing surface openings that have captured flow from a stream channel; headcutting, which has washed out a public road, making an emergency detour necessary; and coal slack piles in drainage bottoms.
Other problems include unstable structures, open shafts and adets, failed closures, trash and stained soils, and areas where the surface soil has dropped or subsided.
Terry said some of the agency's proposed actions that will be examined in the agency's EA will include correcting erosional problems, filling areas of subsidence and closing some mine entrances.
In addition, the agency will begin, along with the State Historic Preservation Office and other interested parties, a multi-year program to enhance the public's understanding and interpretation of the mining district.
She said the work would describe the history of how the mines operated and produced coal, and address their importance in the context of other local and regional history. Interpretive materials such as brochures and signs could be developed, Terry said, as well as possible interpretive routes.
In September 2000, the DEQ/AML entered into an agreement with Wyoming BLM to correct watershed-related problems on BLM-administered surface lands at the Gebo site.
Terry said anyone wishing to participate in the development of the EA may contact Doyle at (307) 347-5100.
Upon request, interested parties will be placed on the agency's mailing list to receive updates on the project.