Colstrip,
Montana, is located in the southeast corner of Montana. The landscape surrounding is comprised of rimrock
sandstone formations, elevated flats, and grassy bottoms. Most importantly, this is coal country. For better and for worse, coal provided most
of the energy during the early stages of the industrial revolution and is only
now being fully supplanted by other sources of energy.
Colstrip grew out
of the need for coal.
Colstrip was
originally a “company town,” established in the early 1920’s by the Northern
Pacific Railway. The company created the
town to provide a place for processing coal needed for their steam locomotives. The bituminous coal came from just south of
town, where huge draglines stripped away the soil on the surface to access rich
beds of coal below.
“In 1959,”
according to Wikipedia, “Montana Power Company purchased the rights to the mine
and the town, and resumed mining operations in the 1970s with plans to build
coal-fired electrical plants.” In the
time since, power plants have been towering over the small town and operating on
coal from mines in the area. The 2010 census
listed a population of 2,214. Colstrip
is the largest city in Rosebud County with 24% of the total population.
In early January
of this year, Colstrip’s power Unit 1 shut down. Unit 2 followed only a short time later. Units 3 and 4 are still running and expected
to operate until at least 2027.
I woke this
morning inside a sleeping room in Colstrip.
I am here teaching two days of
classes for the plant electricians.
I must say,
Colstrip is a clean and pleasant place.
—Mitchell Hegman
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