Bartender and speculator Dennis Hannifin, determined to find his fortune on the plains, ventured across the Missouri into Sioux Indian country in search of a rumored, vast vein of coal. Near present day Almont, Hannifin found what he was looking for, staked a claim and constructed Fort Hannifin. Although he boasted in Bismarck about the impressive fort bearing his name, it apparently was little more than a fortified cave.

At the time Hannifin was seeking to strike it rich off the land, or from what was just beneath it, there was a limited market for coal. However, Hannifin was among those who believed there would soon be a huge demand for coal on the frontier, for everything from heating homes and buildings to fueling steamboats and railroad engines. History would prove him right, but Hannifin never became the coal baron of which he dreamed.

Hannifin, labeled by many as “eccentric” Denny, was known as a gambler and story-teller, very good attributes for a barkeeper in a lawless frontier town. It also put him face to face with angry soldiers from nearby Fort Abraham Lincoln who were looking to settle a score with Hannifin’s bar buddy, Dave Mullin. When a shooting fracus erupted in Bismarck, Hannifin was struck in the head by a soldier’s bullet. The wound was not fatal but Hannifin left Bismarck shortly afterward, presumably abandoning his coal dreams in favor of survival.

In time, Hannifin recovered from his head wound and returned to Bismarck. His long abandoned and undeveloped coal mine was eventually purchased by the Northern Pacific Coal Company in 1882. It was during that era that coal began to play a much larger role in the economic development of North Dakota.

Submitted Photo Many of North Dakota’s early coal mines were small operations that tunneled underground, using small carts on rails to remove the coal.

Today coal plays a huge role in North Dakota with coal mines supplying fuel to power plants that generate electricity used over a broad region of the United States. North Dakota’s major coal-fired electrical generating plants are the Milton R. Young Station near Center, Great River Energy’s Coal Creek plant at Underwood, the Basin Electric Co-op Antelope Valley plant near Beulah and the Otter Tail Power Company Coyote plant near Beulah.

The development of the coal-fired generating plants followed nearly 30 years of a downturn in the demand for coal. In the 1950s coal had been almost completely replaced for home heating as customers turned to fuel oil and natural gas. The future for coal really heated up when it was discovered lignite was a near perfect fuel for electrical generation. The massive power plants we see on the North Dakota landscape today were erected in close proximity to mines situated on vast coal reserves.

Huge draglines are just some of the rapid improvements made in the process of mining coal to be delivered to the nearby power plants. Early shovels had a capacity to move about a half yard of earth. Today’s massive draglines have up to a 140-yard capacity. Giant trucks used to haul coal from mining locations can carry up to 300 tons.

“When the Panama Canal was completed those shovels were dismantled and shipped back to the United States,” said Dean Moos, director of reclamation for the North Dakota Public Service Commission. “That’s how the surface mining got started. Most of those old shovels have been sold for scrap metal now. I think there is still one sitting up by Columbus.”

One of the last new draglines was purchased for the Center mine several years ago. At the time it was believed to be the only new dragline built in 20 or more years. The mine began receiving the dragline in pieces to assemble in 2003-04. It took nearly four years to assemble the gargantuan machine. The price of steel increased so much during the time it took to build the dragline that the purchase price increased by a whopping $10 million.

Kim Fundingsland/MDN The monstrous bucket of dragline “Chief Ironsides” at the Falkirk Mine has a capacity of 125 square yards, nearly equivalent to the space occupied by a single car garage.

Today though, may be a buyer’s market for big draglines. Many small coal mines have closed in the past 25 years, leaving an abundance of equipment on the market.

“There’s a lot of used draglines for sale,” remarked Moos.

The large draglines used at the Falkirk Mine today cost about $40 million in the late 1970s. The cost of similar-sized new draglines today is estimated to be in the $150 million range.

Today’s coal mining operations have come a long, long ways from the mom and pop mines that once dotted western and central North Dakota. Large mines in the state today are the Total Freedom Mine north of Beulah, the Falkirk Mine on U.S. Highway 83 near Underwood, the BNI Center Mine at Center, Dakota Westmorland, formerly Knife River Coal, near Beulah and the Coyote Creek Mine southwest of Beulah.

“In addition to the five active larger mines, there’s two small mines. They are leonardite mines, a form of lignite,” explained Moos. “You couldn’t burn it if you tried. It’s used for drilling mud in the oil industry and a few other things. Those mines are located near Williston and Scranton, much smaller in size.”

One of the largest coal mining operations in the state is the Falkirk Mine near Underwood. The facility is owned and operated by the North American Coal Corporation. It covers 30,000 acres and produces more than 7 million tons a coal a year which supplies the nearby Coal Creek generating station and the Spiritwood station near Jamestown.

“We have a mine plan that goes to 2030 for our contract,” said Doug Stoltz, Falkirk Mine manager. “We have a workforce of 476 people out here.”

Stoltz said that an increase in people and even larger equipment than what Falkirk currently uses, lignite mining at the site could continue until 2060 or 2070. That’s not to say North Dakota’s coal reserves would be depleted. Far from it. Estimates are that there is up to a 400 year supply of lignite coal yet to be mined in western North Dakota.

To reach veins of lignite the soil over the top of the vein first must be removed. Top soil and sub-soil is carefully stripped away and stored. When the lignite vein is removed the work of reclamation begins. At the Falkirk Mine the reclamation has been both extensive and successful.

“That’s the best part of my job, to see the reclamation done,” said Stoltz. “I like to see farmers cutting hay, raising cattle and growing crops. That’s the best part.”

One of the highest profile reclamation projects on Falkirk property was Coal Lake. The mine reclaimed the property following several years of coal mining. The land was contoured, productive soil replaced, cover crops planted and water returned to the newly named Coal Lake. The property was given to the state of North Dakota and stocked with fish by the Game and Fish Department. Ice fishing activity at Coal Lake was quite brisk this past winter. The lake and surrounding area is a shining gem of an example of proper reclamation.

In an operation where all earth moving equipment is much larger than what is used in general construction projects, enormous Kress trucks that have a capacity of 200-300 tons for example, Falkirk’s massive dragline easily dwarfs other equipment. “Chief Ironsides” is not used for picking up coal, but rather for removing huge scoops of dirt lying above coal veins.

“The bench the dragline is on has to be at a certain level,” explained Stoltz. “Instead of using dozers we use the dragline. It moves dirt cheaper.”

Indeed it does. The dragline uses a bucket that can pick up 125 square yards of dirt per scoop. It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is powered by electricity.

“Twenty-two thousand volts,” said Stoltz. “There’s six motors and 1,400 horsepower alone just to pull the drag to bring the bucket in. That’s 8,400 horsepower.”

The massive dragline became operational in 1980. At that time it was estimated to last until 2012. However, says Stoltz, a good maintenance program and various upgrades have increased the expected life span of “Chief Ironsides” until the year 2030.

The impressive dragline emphasizes the improvements made in lignite extraction in the past several decades. At one area of exposed lignite, approximately 50 feet below ground level, tunnels can be seen along the tall sidewalls adjacent to where 200 ton Kress trucks are being loaded with coal. The narrow tunnels were part of a much older coal mine.

“They are from an old mine probably in the 1940s or 50s. There was a hole at the top of the ground and they went down an elevator to an underground shaft,” said Stoltz. “They used mules and small horses to pull carts along a track and bring the coal back.”

Carts used to extract coal from the tunnels carried about three tons of coal. Today, the massive Kress trucks at Falkirk carry 200 tons of coal and are powered by a 1,700 horsepower engine.

Today’s equipment opens up the land to expose the coal, eliminating the risky business of using explosives and tunneling beneath the earth. It is also a much more efficient way of bringing all mineable coal to the surface.

At Falkirk, the Kress trucks that haul the coal from the pits, much of it in very large pieces, dump the lignite directly into a crusher pit that is the first stage of preparing lignite for the electrical generation process. A second crusher reduces the lignite to thumb-sized nuggets. A third machine pulverizes the lignite into dust which is then moved by conveyer belt to the Coal Creek generating station which produces affordable electricity.

“When you see the big draglines, over 400 people employed and all this work, you realize that the cost of electricity is not that bad,” concluded Stoltz.

COAL HARD FACTS:

Many early coal mines in North Dakota were family operations.

Some early North Dakota draglines used had previously been used to dig the Panama Canal.

Five major coal mines operate in North Dakota today.

Western North Dakota’s coal reserves are said to contain a nearly 400-year supply of easily mineable coal.

North Dakota’s lignite coal is used almost exclusively for power generation.

The huge dragline “Chief Ironside” at the Falkirk Mine operates on electricity.