Booms & Busts on Bitter Creek: A History of Rock Springs, Wyoming

by Robert Bartlett Rhode

Book by Bartlett, Robert

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1987

Reviews

[John E]

An above average study of a small city in Wyoming. Rock Springs was a Union Pacific company town that produced much of the coal that ran the railroad for 80 years. There is not much else near Rock Springs to support the city and when the railroad switched to diesel it was only the development of trona mining and oil/gas that kept the place alive. Like all towns there were a few wild times (like the riots in 1885 against the Chinese miners) and alot of 'just staying alive' times. The only reason I read the book was because I had lived there in the 1950s and was in one of the families that left when the coal mining industry collapsed.

[Mike Harmon]

What did I learn about Rock Springs, Wyoming: It's the site of one of the largest race riots in US History...think immigrant miners. It boomed as the Union Pacific Railroad was built and coal was mined. It busted along with the rest of the country during the Depression Era and then again as mining became automated and any time coal prices would drop. They produce coal, oil, natural gas, soda ash, and uranium. The former stomping ground of Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch. Now home to The Johnson Family and their wild bunch of kids. Well, I guess I’m ready to head West now.

[Deborah Gaspar]

History of Wyoming and the tough people who settled the area.