 Here are some G-Wiz facts for you. Over 40% of the nation's coal reserves and the seven largest coal mines in the country are here in the Powder River Basin of northeast Wyoming. The coal industry contributes over $2 billion a year annually to the state of Wyoming. 14,000 jobs produce $700 million in personal income and taxes on coal are over $150 million each year. The coal beds themselves are amazing. In most other places, coal seams are commonly only 5 to 10 feet thick and are separated by shale or sandstone layers. By comparison, Powder River coal seams are nearly 100 feet thick in some places and are essentially free of sediments. Moreover, the Powder River coal beds are hundreds of miles long and over 50 miles wide. Geologists agree that Wyoming's coal formed in wetlands 50 to 60 million years ago. The climate was subtropical and much of the area was covered by a dense forest with trees similar to today's cypress, redwoods and ginkgoes. The dead plant material formed peat, which was later covered with thousands of feet of sediment, and pressure from the sediments and internal heat from the earth cooked the peat into coal. As the Rocky Mountains were uplifted, erosion carried most of the sediments away, leaving the coal exposed or near the surface. However it came to be, Wyoming's mines produce 400 million tons of coal each year. The coal seams of the Powder River basin are truly a wonder of Wyoming. I'm Gene Gayde of the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service.