Cambria, Wyoming: A Black Hills Coal Town That Ran for Exactly 39 Years

01A Town Built for a Railroad

In 1889, the Kilpatrick Brothers and Collins Construction Company opened coal mines at the site and built the town to house workers. The settlement was named Cambria, after the coal-mining region in Wales. The Cambria Fuel Company supplied coal to the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad (later the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy), which needed fuel for its locomotives on the northern plains.

At its peak, Cambria had 329 residents — enough for a school, a company store, churches, and the infrastructure that a functioning community required. The town was well-organized: company housing was built in rows, streets were laid out on a grid, and the mine operations ran on a predictable schedule.

0239 Years of Coal

For nearly four decades, Cambria operated with industrial regularity. Coal was extracted from the Black Hills seams, loaded onto railroad cars, and shipped to fuel the Burlington's operations across Wyoming, Nebraska, and the northern plains. The miners and their families lived in the company town, shopped at the company store, and sent their children to the company school.

The operation was profitable as long as the railroad burned coal. When the Burlington began converting to diesel locomotives in the 1920s, demand for Cambria's coal dropped. The transition was gradual but irreversible.

03A Deliberate Dismantling

Unlike most ghost towns, which empty slowly as residents drift away, Cambria was deliberately shut down. In 1928, the Cambria Fuel Company ceased mining operations, and the company secured permission from the Interstate Commerce Commission to remove the railroad tracks connecting the mine to the mainline. Without tracks, there was no way to ship coal — and without coal, there was no reason for the town.

The company removed what it could. Workers left. The 39-year experiment in purpose-built industrial living was over.

04What Remains of Cambria Today

Cambria is classified as having ruins visible. Stone foundations, partial walls, and mine infrastructure survive in the Black Hills landscape near Newcastle, Wyoming. The site is accessible but remote, and the surrounding ponderosa pine forest is slowly absorbing the ruins.