Kemmerer

History

The explorer John C. Frémont noted coal in the area during his second expedition in 1843. After the Oregon Short Line Railroad was built through the region, the Union Pacific Coal Company opened the first underground mine nearby in 1881. Kemmerer was founded in 1897 by Patrick J. Quealy (1857–1930), an Irish-born coal operator, in partnership with the Pennsylvania coal financier Mahlon S. Kemmerer, for whom Quealy named the town. In May 1897 Quealy and the Kemmerers organized four companies to develop the Ham's Fork coal field—the Kemmerer Coal Company, the Frontier Supply Company, the Ham's Fork Cattle Company, and the Uinta Improvement Company—with the Kemmerers providing the capital and Quealy, as vice-president and general manager, directing operations in Wyoming. Quealy insisted that both the coal company and the town be named for Mahlon Kemmerer over the objection of the financier's son, the attorney John L. Kemmerer, who favored "Frontier," "Wasatch," or "National" and cautioned that naming the town after an individual might prove awkward if the property were ever sold. When the Oregon Short Line proposed that the town's railroad depot instead be named "Diamondville," Quealy threatened to cancel the townsite agreement until the railroad accepted the name Kemmerer. Quealy laid out the townsite about a mile south of the company mining camp of Frontier and developed Kemmerer deliberately as an "independent town." Unlike the neighboring company towns of Frontier and Diamondville, where the coal companies leased land and housing to employees, the Short Line Land and Improvement Company—incorporated in February 1898 with Quealy as secretary—sold town lots outright to anyone who would build, while Quealy and Kemmerer retained the coal and mineral rights. This policy…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.81 square miles (20.23 km2), of which 7.80 square miles (20.20 km2) is land and 0.01 square miles (0.03 km2) is water. Kemmerer sits at an elevation of about 6,949 feet (2,118 m) on the Ham's Fork River in southwestern Wyoming. Kemmerer lies within the Green River Formation's Fossil Lake beds, renowned for exceptionally preserved Eocene fish and other fossils; the town's motto, "An Aquarium in Stone," reflects this heritage, and both commercial and public fossil quarries operate in the area. Fossil Butte National Monument, about 15 miles (24 km) west on U.S. Highway 30, protects part of these fossil beds. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Kemmerer has a warm-summer humid continental climate, abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps. The hottest temperature recorded in Kemmerer was 99 °F (37 °C) on July 12, 1990, while the coldest was −39 °F (−39 °C) on December 22, 1990.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Canyon Elementary School
  Elementary · Kemmerer · 320 students · 12.8:1 ratio
• Kemmerer Junior Senior High School
  High · Kemmerer · 264 students · 14.7:1 ratio
• New Frontier High School
  High · Kemmerer · 14 students · 7:1 ratio