The Discovery, Development and Demise of Wyoming's Atlantic City Iron Mine

1/16 (Tuesday),  The Discovery, Development, & Demise of Wyoming’s Atlantic City Iron Mine. Presented by Chuck Dahl, Geologists of Jackson Hole.

There is a large hole in the ground high atop South Pass, Wyoming – a hole which has an important and most interesting story; and Jackson is fortunate to have someone intimately involved with that “hole”, who is able to tell the story behind it. The story of Wyoming’s Atlantic City iron ore mine, atop South Pass, is one that grew out of the consequences of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  As a result of an immediate need for steel, the U.S. government built a fully integrated steel plant at Provo, Utah where all the needed raw materials were located within the state or nearby.   The steel plant was operated as a government facility until June, 1946 when it was sold to U.S. Steel Corporation.  By the early 1950’s the quality and quantity of the iron ore deposits in Utah were diminishing and there was a need to discover and develop a new iron ore source to supply the plant.   In June, 1953, U.S. Steel hired Dr. Paul Procter (head of the geology department, Missouri School of Mines) and Chuck Dahl, who was his field assistant, to search for a deposit of taconite iron formation in southern Wyoming.  By August of that year they had worked westward to the south end of the Wind River Mountains.  Long time Jackson resident, Chuck Dahl, will tell the story of the discovery that he was intimately involved with, and the subsequent development and demise of the Atlantic City iron ore mine at South Pass, Wyoming. Video