July 1 through 3 were marked by the Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute's 100th Anniversary conference and annual meeting held in Vail, Colorado. (For the record and in spite of what my sons say, I was not around for the first meeting. Further, the PRB was not just a peat bog when I was a kid.)The conference theme, "Back to the Future, The Next Hundred Years", provided a great opportunity to look at the progress the western coal industry has made over the last 100 years and to look forward to the next 100. I am not going to try to provide a detailed report, or transcript, of all of the presentations given but will try to hit the high lights and trends as I remember them and my ability to read my own notes allows. I'll leave the details to the professional reporters. I would like to thank Brad Lewis, President, RMCMI for forwarding his list of favorite comments heard at the conference.
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