Diamondville: Black Diamonds, No Gems RoadyGoat
1868The name Diamondville, tucked in southwest Wyoming, makes you picture prospectors panning for glittering gemstones. Not even close. There was never a diamond in the ground here. After Harrison Church found coal near the Hams Fork River in 1868, the operation became the Diamond Coal and Coke Company, and the town took its name from the firm. The coal itself earned the label too: miners called the high, hard, glossy seams black diamonds because of how they shone. So the diamonds were real in a way, just made of carbon and burned in a furnace. The mines ran until 1930. Today Diamondville is a quiet little town whose sparkly name is one hundred percent coal dust.
