Wyoming Mining Association Records, 1956-1999

On January 10, 1956 twenty-one people gathered at the offices of Moran and Murphy in Riverton, Wyoming to discuss issues concerning the mining industry. Moran served as acting chairman along with Roy Peck and Ed Herschler. On April 20-21, 1956 the Wyoming State Mining Association called an organizational meeting and convention, again in Riverton. At this meeting, the Articles of Association were drafted, the first Board of Directors and officers were elected, a budget was prepared, and a set of by-laws written. The Board of Directors elected were R.L. Moran, President, Glenn E. Sorensen, Vice President, Richard K. Lisco, Secretary-Treasurer, N.E. McDougal, Paul R. Peterson, Myron L. Sisson, and Roy Coulson. Later Russell M. Beamer, a retired engineering professor at the University of Pennsylvania was elected as the Executive Officer. By October, Beamer had set up offices in the Tonkin Building and introduced a newsletter aimed at keeping members informed about the concerns and actions of their organization. The Wyoming Mining Association turned 10 years old in 1966. One of the insights of the officers and members was their voluntary adoption of reclamation standards for the industry. When the legislature convened in 1969, the WMA had drafted the Wyoming Open Cut Mining Reclamation Act. In September 1970, the offices of the WMA were moved to a more central location in Casper, Wyoming. Russ Beamer retired in 1972, and in August of that year the association hired Bill Budd, a young legislator from WMA's hometown of Riverton. Wyoming's public, legislature, and the regulators were still not educated as to what mining really meant to the state. One of the first actions of the WMA board and their new executive was on-the-ground education about mining for legislators, students, teachers, and environmental leaders. The association began production of a full length movie about the industry with its members again devoting time and dollars to the educational process. In 1975, Ed Herschler, one of the founders of the WMA, was sworn in as Governor. This is the year that the newsletter, THE MINING CLAIM, was redesigned into newspaper format (which had grown into a full, four-color magazine by 1978). Editor Prudy Bosone dug out stories about the industry, reclamation, and highlighted people working in the mines and mills. At the close of 1975, the association found itself shorthanded. The Casper office was unstaffed when Budd went to the legislature in Cheyenne. In January the officers hired Marion Loomis as Assistant Executive Secretary. Loomis is a Wyoming native, like Budd, and ranch-raised near Sheridan. When Loomis came on board in 1976, with Bob Larson's assistance, the educational process became one of his chief responsibilities. They organized a series of industry workshops for local secondary school teachers. The University of Wyoming and the WMA developed a program of classroom instruction, mine tours, and hands on experience in all different types of mine operations active in the state. Thirty-three teachers finished the four week course in 1978 and thirty-five completed the program in 1979. The convention of the WMA at Jackson Lake Lodge in 1976 was the largest in the history of the association, with nearly fifteen-hundred people attending. In September 1977, the Wyoming Mining Association moved to the Hitching Post Inn in Cheyenne which was being managed by Pam Child. By the 1980s, the WMA had grown to encompass several committees, the Tax Committee, Reclamation and Environment Committee, Regulatory Agencies Committee, Legal Affairs Committee, In Situ Committee, Exploration Committee, and the Public Affairs Committee. The Mining Associates of Wyoming (MAW) now embody over two-hundred independent member firms who contribute millions of dollars to the states economy.