Stansbury: The Last Coal Camp Set Up and the Last Shut Down

SWEETWATER COUNTY — The Sweetwater County Historical Museum recently focused its attention on the last coal camp shut down in the county.

The completion of the Union Pacific’s transcontinental railroad in 1869 created a voracious demand for coal, and the immense Rock Springs Coal Field, which passed beneath and encircled the little town, would address that demand.

A sting of coal camps was established along the coal field’s arc running north from Rock Springs, beginning with Reliance in 1911, followed over the years by Winton (Megeath), Dines, East Plane, and Lionkol. The coal camps were compact little communities, largely self-sufficient and populated by miners and their families.

The last of the coal camps was Stansbury, named for Major Howard Stansbury of the Army Corps of Topograph