Wyo4News staff, [email protected] [PRESS RELEASE]
February 7, 2024 — As part of its ongoing celebration of Black History Month, on Tuesday, the Sweetwater County Historical Museum commemorated the life of a lifelong Rock Springs coal miner.
Armstead Ulysses Booker was born in 1878 in Chesterfield County, Virginia, and came west as a young man. From 1899, Union Pacific Coal employed him as a miner; according to his 1918 draft card, he was living and working that year in Superior.
By the 1920s, Booker and his wife Alice had moved to Rock Springs, where he continued his career with U.P. Coal.
A photograph of Booker appears in Images of America – Sweetwater County, captioned as follows:
“Armstead U. Booker began working for the Union Pacific Coal Company in 1899 and was a 40-year veteran when he retired. He was also a veteran of the Spanish-American War and a mentor to African American children in Rock Springs. This photograph was taken at the 17th annual reunion of the Pacific Coal Company’s Old Timers’ Association in Rock Springs on June 21, 1941.”
Armstead Ulysses Booker died in 1951 at the age of 72 and is buried in Rock Springs.
