Hanna Miners’ Monuments, war memorials and a steam locomotive

There are three monuments in Hanna dedicated to those who lost their lives in the Carbon and Hanna coalmines.

The first is on the hill southeast of town. About 500 feet north of the intersection of U.S. 30 and Wyoming Highway 72, take the first right and follow the road northeast about half a mile to the monument on the hill overlooking Hanna and the tracks to the north. Hand made by fellow miners, this monument marks where the 27 bodies unrecovered from the 1908 Disaster are entombed. The inscription is on a piece of marble rescued from the Opera House, which burned in 1926, and the fence comes from the Sprowell plot in Carbon Cemetery.

The second monument is in the park by the Hanna Recreation Center, on Second Street north of the tracks in downtown Hanna.

The third is in the Hanna Cemetery, on North Tipperary about a mile west of town. These monuments contain names of individual miners. There are omissions. While the 1903 and the 1908 Disaster victims and most others are well documented, research continues and more names will be added.

Presently, there are two monuments honoring the many area men who served in the military. The names of World War I veterans appear on a bronze plaque affixed to a white pyramid which is in the Hanna Elementary School yard and in view at the north end of the Union Pacific overpass immediately north of the tracks.

Also in the park by the Hanna Recreation Center is the VFW Memorial that honors the many area men who have served in the military. Standing guard over the memorial is a M110 8in. howitzer, donation of the Wyoming Army National Guard.

Another attraction in the park is snowplow locomotive UP 900098, gift of the Union Pacific Railroad to the town of Hanna. Built in 1917 by AlCo (Cooke), the locomotive is a rare survivor of the steam era.