By
Kelsey BrunnerSeptember 23, 2018 | updated 8 years ago
Kassie Vesely, left, mother Kandee Dildine, and grandmother Sandi Mansfield pose for a portrait at their local craft store and bakery, KS Kreations, in downtown Craig on Thurday, Sept. 20, 2018. Vesely is the 6th generation of their family to be born and raised in Craig. She is now raising the 7th generation. Dildine's husband has worked at the Craig Station Power Plant for 32 years and is an electrician. Mansfield's husband and father were truck drivers for Western Coal Carriers. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)
Kassie Vesely, left, mother Kandee Dildine, and grandmother Sandi Mansfield pose for a portrait at their local craft store and bakery, KS Kreations, in downtown Craig on Thurday, Sept. 20, 2018. Vesely is the 6th generation of their family to be born and raised in Craig. She is now raising the 7th generation. Dildine’s husband has worked at the Craig Station Power Plant for 32 years and is an electrician. Mansfield’s husband and father were truck drivers for Western Coal Carriers. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)A pro-coal sign sits next to the road leading to the Craig Station Power Plant in a front yard in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Steam rises from the Craig Station Power Plant in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Craig Station manager Rich Thompson waits for the elevator on the 13th floor of the power plant in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Grated levels of the Craig Station Power Plant are lit up during a work day in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. The levels in the boiler building are oftentimes grated to help with safety and cleaning. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Tri-State Senior Manager of Communications and Public Affairs Lee Boughey poses for a portrait in front of the three units at Craig Station in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Safety hard hats, eye wear and ear plugs litter a metal shelf at Craig Station power plant in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Liane Davis poses for a portrait before opening Downtown Books in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. Liane is the owner of the small used bookstore and coffee shop and purchased the business on Jan. 1, 2015. Davis taught history at Moffat County High School in Craig for over 30 years. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)A hand signal sign hangs on a banister in front of the Boiler Feed Pump block valve inside Craig Station in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. According to Lee Bourghey, to improve efficiency the boiler feed water is routed through seven feed water heaters before entering the boiler. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Billy Ivy sits on a bike in Craig Station Power Plant in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. Ivy is a mine operator for the power plant. Bikes are used by employees to travel quickly and efficiently through the plant. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)A Craig Station employee walks through the power plant past the Primary Air fans on Unit 2 in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Bike tire tracks and footprints make an imprint in the fine coal dust on the floor in Craig Station Power Plant in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)A window reveals plumes of steam rising from the cooling tower at Craig Station from the 3rd floor of Craig Station in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Craig Station Power Plant begins another day in the early morning in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)A historical picture of Craig Station hangs near the main office of the power plant in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Terry Carwile poses for a portrait in front of the solar panels that sit in the shadow of Craig Station Power Plant in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. Carwile pushed for the solar panels to be located at this plot of land. He moved to Craig in 1976 and spent 30 years working at Trapper Mine. He also served 10 years on Craig’s city council, four of which he served as mayor. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Agricultural land and craig resident’s homes have a view of the three units from the Craig Station Power Plant in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Craig’s Mayor John Ponikvar poses for a portrait in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. Mayor Ponikvar was born and raised in Leadville and has experienced the loss of a mining business in a town built around the industry. “When I came in as a city councilman then mayor of Craig, I saw a city and a community that was apathetic,” said Ponikvar. “Their view was that coal will never go away, and that oil and gas will just keep growing. I saw this apathy in not looking at what the futurure could be.” (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Craig residents begin their morning in downtown Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Kristi Hankins poses for a portrait in front of a large mural in the Museum of Northwest Colorado in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. Hankins is a 4th generational Craig resident and has raised the 5th and 6th generations of her family in the town. She worked for Craig Station Power Plant for 13 years and a coal handler for nine of those years. Hankins was pregnant with her third daughter while working as a coal handler in 1996. Hankins says that she disliked working for the power plant, because it was difficult working shifts as a mother. At the time, she was getting a divorce and the power plant paid better than any other place in the area. At the time that Hankins was employed, she was one of four women working at the plant. “There are not a lot of women that work out there, but the ones that do, in my opinion, have that can-do attitude,” said Hankins. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)A drag line works in the Colowyo open pit mine outside of Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Unused mining equipment sits next to the reclamed land that once held a pit mine in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. “When we mine it’s a temporary use of the land,” says Boughey about Tri-State’s mining reclamation practices. “We take coal out of the ground…and we put it all back the way we found it.” (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)Tri-state Senior Manager of Communications and Public Affairs Lee Boughey, left, and Colowyo Mine Manager Chris McCourt look at the Colowyo open pit mine in Craig on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. (Photo by Kelsey Brunner/The Gazette) (Kelsey Brunner)
