CRAIG • In a quiet valley tucked away from Colorado’s bustling ski resorts, far from his hometown in northern Mexico, Trinidad Loya found a way to support his family’s American dream: Coal.

He, his son and grandson — all named Trinidad Loya —worked for the coal plant in Craig with the eldest Loya starting more than 30 years ago. The plant currently employs 180 people, paying higher salaries and bringing far more job security than most other jobs in the area.

But that’s all about to change.

The coal plant is closing, along with the mine that feeds it and has nearly 115 more employees, and all the workers will lose their jobs over the next decade, according to Tri-state Generation and Transmission Association Inc. which partially owns and operates the Craig Station.

That will mean a tough transition for the Loyas and other workers who’ve made a life in Craig, a rural town with a population 9,000 that draws elk hunters from around the world to its scenic surroundings.

“A power plant job, especially in a rural community like Craig — those are what I call cradle to grave jobs,” said Richard Meisinger, business manager of the 111 chapter of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union which represents the bargaining unit at the Craig plant and nearly 4,200 members across Colorado and Wyoming. “People hire on there when they’re young anticipating that they are going to work at that power plant there their entire workable lifespan.”

The same scenario is playing out in other small towns across the U.S. After decades of relying on coal for their workforce, tax base and way of life, the towns face uncertain futures as new state and national legislation forces the retirement of fossil fuels because of the worsening effects of human-caused climate change. Only a few towns have a viable plan to transition to cleaner energy, like one in Wyoming chosen for a Bill Gates-backed nuclear power plant.

The impact spreads beyond the plants workers and is felt by the rest of the community, too. In Craig, much of the infrastructure of the county is supported by the coal plant workers, who make an average of $100,000 a year, compared with a $40,000 average salary across the county.

Now, some workers will retire, while others, like the younger Loyas, must find a new way to support their families, and possibly leave Craig behind.

On Monday, the youngest Loya, started an apprenticeship position at another Tristate owned facility across the state in Pueblo — some 300 miles away from Craig where he lives with his wife and two children, ages 7 and 3. When he’s not working as a sub-station technician there, he plans on making the fivehour drive to come home and see his family. He took a pay cut for the position.

He’s holding out hope a job opens at the Craig plant due to job movement within the plant. In the meantime, he’ll stay with a sister in Pueblo and hope for the best.

“It felt right to our family at the time,” Loya said.

Craig sits in the heart of Colorado’s western front, only 40 miles from the popular Steamboat Springs ski area.

Cows and lambs graze on farmlands. Creeks stream out of the nearby rivers. Deer traverse downtown Craig at night, munching on grass and curiously peeking around closed storefronts and offices. The rural escape is why many of those who grow up in Craig choose to stay.

Moffat County is made up of millions of acres of public lands, and its mineral deposits of high-volatility and low-sulfur coal brought the industry to town and sustained families for decades.

The town has reinvented itself before.

What was once a last stop on the Denver and Salt Lake Railway which allowed for nationwide agricultural exports like wool, soon the area became a money-maker for the oil industry and then a source of uranium. The oil fields and uranium mills left Craig by the 1960s as demands changed, but by the 1970s, coal was king in Colorado with companies buying up mines and others like Colorado-ute Electric Association purchasing lands to build a power plant. This would eventually become the Craig Station.

Now, the town is changing again.

The owners of the Craig Station decided to close the 1,285-megawatt, three-unit plant over a 10-year period. Unit 1 and 2, owned by Pacificorp, Platte River Power Authority, Salt River Project, Tri-state Generation and Transmission Association and Xcel Energy, are set to close in 2025 and 2028. Unit 3, solely owned by Tri-state, will retire by 2030.

As the coal industry goes, so will nearly half of Moffat County’s gross domestic product, Peterson said. It could affect services like healthcare, fire departments, infrastructure and upkeep for neighborhoods and roadways.

According to Ray Beck, former Moffat County commissioner and mayor of Craig, the county’s biggest source of revenue is property tax. Moffat County’s 2020 assessed value was nearly $430 million with 62% coming from the top 10 taxpayers, all energy-related businesses.

“We can’t recover from that,” Beck said.

A scenario put together by the Moffat County assessor found that the economic situation would only get worse as the plant’s three units shut down over time. According to the forecast, in 10 years when the entire powerplant shuts down, it would take 65 Super Walmarts and 93 Hampton Inns to replace the assessed value, Beck said.

The loss of coal jobs in a community like Craig also will hurt small businesses whose customers are primarily coal workers and have disposable income, said Jennifer Holloway, executive director of the Craig Chamber of Commerce.

That’s bad news for Gino’s Pizzeria, the West Twin Cinema and Thunder Rolls Bowling Center.

When discussions about the end of coal began, many in the town were in denial and some thought the decision would waver with the political winds.

But that hasn’t happened, and people now face the reality of the loss of their way of life.

“We’re taking people who generationally have been taught that they are the heroes in this story and suddenly they don’t differentiate between coal is bad and they are bad,” said Sasha Nelson, executive director of workforce education and economic development at Colorado Northwestern Community College in Craig. “That is the message that we’re sending to some extent and that’s a hard one for proud people, for hard-working people, people who struggled, to be receiving. And there’s a lot of resistance and pushback.”